emerging technologies session1

Emerging technologies

Learning in an interconnected world

University of Manchester, 2010

http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/htmls/expl1116.htm

What are ‘emerging technologies’ (in education)?

• New (or emerging in educational use)

• Lots of ‘how it works’ literature, less in-depth analysis (though depends on how new)

• Examples: wikis, blogs, social networking sites, personal broadcasting…

• No strict definition (Veletsianos, in press)

Web 2.0

Tim O’Reilly (2005)

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Web_2.0_Map.svg

Web 2.0

Citizen journalismSocial mediaUser-generatedPeer-to-peerCrowdsourcing

Features of emerging technologies

• Participatory• Networked (and distributed)• Two-way; interactive• Flexible; in-development• Experiential (immersive?)• Mobile?• ?

Stephen Fry on early days of the web (i.e. ‘web 1.0’):

“It seemed like a great* new world ... It seemed like a new democracy. It seemed like a new way of people coming together and spreading news, of educating, of giving yourself information and access to people and cultures and history. It seemed the most fantastic, radical and extraordinary development since Gutenberg produced his Bible”

* In televised documentary, he actually said “brave new world”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/jan/24/internet-revolution-changing-world

Believe the hype?Mason & Rennie (2008: 2): “Educational hype has a long and resilient history of

jumping on the latest technology as the means of making education better, cheaper, more available or more responsive.”

Veletsianos (in press):“Technologies and ideas go through cycles of

euphoria, adoption, activity and use, maturity, impact, enthusiasm, and even infatuation. In the end, some of today’s emerging technologies (and ideas) will become staples, while others will fade in the background.”

Challenges & opportunities…There is a huge range

of technologies out there

No single person can be a master of them all (including me!)

We need to teach and learn from each other

http://www.flickr.com/photos/72388119@N00/3163614015/

Similarly, an abundance of information & other content

(However, can we say this about all contexts, languages…?)

Ability / need to translate, repurpose, ‘remix’

Challenges & opportunities (2)

And similarly people: the web is as diverse as its participants. (Is it as diverse as the world?)

Challenges & opportunities (3)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/multiget/4267993339/

What does it mean for learning?For one, your learning in this course is not

confined to this classroom/wiki

Nor does it have to take place solely with me (Cormac), or other course participants

You have control over your own learning…

During this course…• Explore, network, participate

• Reflect (possibly in your blogs)– Your experience as a learner / participant– Implications for your practice as an

educator

Personal blogs / spaces

• I’d like you to set up a blog (or use one you already have!)

• This is not mandatory - but I strongly recommend some space you can use to document & reflect

– (other ideas: personal page on the wiki, delicious.com + personal journal)

• We’ll be dealing with blogs in week 2 - you can wait until then, or take the plunge now.

Bringing it togetherCourse wiki:

http://emtech2010.pbworks.com/ Need to register (2 mins)Please edit the wiki! (Add readings,

resources, comments…)Please list your blog and/or other spaces on

the participants pageI recommend you turn on notifications (via

email or RSS) for changes to the wiki

And of course…

Please experiment with plenty of technologies

(Let me/us know if you find any that can better facilitate our work on this course)

Continue discussion around what emerging technologies are, and how they can be used in education

Enjoy! Seriously :-)