Education for a Digital World Advice, Guidelines and Effective Practice from Around Globe, 2008a

1 – Emerging Technologies in E-learning
the final product really knows what pieces were required
to make it work. Even people who make APIs to enable
others to use their tools do not know how they will be
used. The makers of Google Maps probably did not predict
WeatherBonk (http://weatherbonk.com), a popular
mashup that lets people view real-time weather on top
of a detailed satellite map. Similarly, wikis require contributions
from several parties to be successful. The
strength of Wikipedia is in the number of people who
contribute ideas and who police the site. For evidence of
the power of collaboration, note the number of Wikipedia
references in this collaboratively written book!
The future of collaboration involves repurposing the
emerging technologies to meet educational goals. Instead
of weather map mashups with live webcams, we
will see underground railroad map mashups with links
to writings from former slaves and re-enactments. Students
in certain cities can see if their neighbourhood had
any homes that participated in aiding slaves get to the
Northern states.
Collaboration poses its own challenges. If not facilitated
well, it can devolve into anarchy or, at the very
least, into the specter of unmet potential. While constructivist
theory has become more popular, completely
unguided group learning can lead to large groups of
people who collaboratively teach each other with misinformation
and groupthink. Facilitating educational
collaboration requires both structure and flexibility. You
can provide structure by defining expectations, writing
clear instructions, setting deadlines for each assignment
or project component, and being consistent in how you
facilitate online collaboration. You can provide flexibility
by allowing students to take turns moderating online
discussions, giving students choices about which project
they pick or which group they join and being willing to
move in new directions that emerge during the collaborative
exchanges.
Teaching and learning still relies on people—expert
learners and beginning learners—more than technology.
Other notable emerging
technology sites
• The publisher O’Reilly holds an annual Emerging
Technology Conference:
http://conferences.oreillynet.com/etech.
• EDUCAUSE: Emerging Technologies and Practices:
http://www.educause.edu/EmergingPracticesandLearn
ingTechnologies/5673
• EDUCAUSE: The 7 Things You Should Know About
series provides concise information about using
emerging technologies in education:
http://www.educause.edu/7ThingsYouShouldKnowA
boutSeries/7495
• NMC Horizon Report and Project Wiki:
http://www.nmc.org/horizon/index.shtml
• Gartner’s 2006 Emerging Technologies Hype Cycle
Highlights Key Technology Themes:
http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=495475
Glossary
API. Application programming interface. A small
software program that enables one computer program or
application to exchange data with another.
Asynchronous. Literally, asynchronous is the opposite
of synchronous, and means “at different times”. In a
learning context, this refers to communication that happens
when people are not together at the same time as
they are in a traditional classroom. Examples include
self-directed learning modules, email, and discussion
groups. Asynchronicity has the advantage of offering
communication at the convenience at the learner, the
opportunity to consider responses carefully before sending
and the ability to track and revisit discussions.
Augmented reality. A combination of a real environment
experienced by the user with virtual elements
added by computer input that augment the scene with
additional information.
Blog. An abbreviation of web log, a blog is an online
journal/commentary with simple automated contentcreating
facilities, links, and response mechanisms.
Blogs often use RSS feeds (see RSS) so that readers can
subscribe and receive new content as it is published.
CoIP. Communication over Internet protocol that
enables enhanced streaming capability for voice (VoIP)
and video.
Communities of practice. Groups of people (within
organizations or around the world) with similar interests
and goals who get together (physically or electronically)
to share information about their common interest.
Context-aware environments and devices. Environments
and devices that are tuned into the needs and
environments of those using them and automatically
adjust to the situation are considered to be contextaware.
Creative Commons. A licensing system developed by
Lawrence Lessig and others at Stanford University.
Creative Commons (CC) licences allow a content crea-
18 Education for a Digital World