XplanaZine

Out with the old and in with the… well… uh…old?As we roll into a new year, it’s not hard to point to some dominant technology trends that should exercise some control over the learning landscape in 2006. Interestingly enough, most of these trends are the same ones (with slight variations) that populated last year’s landscape.

I know it looks boring, but here are the four technology trends I’m picking to drive education over the next 12-18 months. These have all been around for some time but this is the year we will see them integrated more completely into learning technologies and content.

Handheld Convergence — And I’m not just talking about cell phones here. Sure, this year we’ll see even more functionality on our cell phones. But it’s also a year that will see the boundaries pushed even further on the iPod and other media handhelds. Here is some of what is to come.

• Audio and video on cell phones. By the end of 2006 stereo audio and video will be standard on high-end “basic” phones (meaning the ones you can get for little or no cost with activation). We’ll see more iTunes integration with cell phones as well as plays by Yahoo and Microsoft.
• Theimportance of Flash. Macromedia released Flash Lite 1.0 last year and is set to release version 2.0 in the coming months (which will support Action Script 2.0). This is significant as Flash will likely be the technology that allows a fairly seamless distribution of Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) to handheld devices (think learning simulations, quizzes, etc.)
• iPods and more. The reality is that you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. The video iPod and Sony’s PSP were just the merry beginning of handheld media devices that an play audio, video, games, etc. This year we’ll begin seeing e-books, Web surfing, and e-mail.

Education still hasn’t come to grips with what handheld devices really mean in terms of learning but 2006 is the year when educators and content providers will start to get serious about the possibilities. Pushing learning content to handhelds will be a big priority for the year as will using these devices as extensions of larger learning frameworks like LMS platforms.

Gaming – Recently, it seems like every year is the year of video gaming. Video game sales already outpace the U.S. domestic box office take in the United States and this year we’ll witness the release of Halo 3 and Sony’s much-awaited PlayStation 3. But new games and platforms account, only in part, for the impact that gaming will have on education over the next 18 months. The most important trend is the rapid growth of online gaming and the popularity of role playing games. These will rake in more than $3 billion next year and provide an affinity between gaming and education that will help merge the two camps. In particular, look for these development sin gaming and education in 2006:

• Simulation or gaming extensions for major LMS platforms such as BlackBoard and Sakai;
• Education simulations making a fairly ubiquitous appearance on cell phones;
• One or more major content publishers (traditional educational publishers) announcing a gaming initiative for Higher Education.

Blogging, podcasting, vodcasting – Blogs were the hit of 2004 and podcasting took the top-phenomenon honors of 2005. In 2006, it will be more of the same. The idea that everyone can have a voice on the Web without too much technology know-how remains a popular notion. We’ll see video blogs (v-logs or vodcasts) explode this year although they may look a bit different than many might think. Video blogs in 2006 will be low-end productions driven in by camera phones and other digital cameras that allow limited video capture. These devices are simple to use and require no new learning curve for the end user. With a good device and memory card, users can post 45 second to 1.5 minute spots with little or no hassle. Sure, we’ll see a lot more sites like Rocketboom (http://www.rocketboom.com/vlog/) this year and a proliferation of ad-based v-logging or vodcasting, but the explosion of this new mediacasting will happen via a lowest-common-denominator technology. With these audio and video blogs we will also see growing tendencies to incorporate the tools into learning platforms. This year, look for integrated blogs in LMS platforms and for the roll out of new commercial communication platforms for educational customers that provide podcasting and Vodcasting services.

Social Networking — Social networking is the ultimate community technology and is an important part of the future of community-based online learning. With millions members using such popular sites as LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/home), Facebook (http://facebook.com/), Friendster (http://www.friendster.com/), and MySpace (http://myspace.com/), social networking sites are already having a dramatic impact in business, schools, and social communities. In 2006, social networks will start having a much greater presence in the learning space as they become incorporated into online simulations and LMS platforms, and as they are extended to cell phones. Click here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networking#Internet_social_networks) to learn more about Internet social networks.

Of course, there were a number of important trends that didn’t make my list. Other important technologies and trends in educational technology for the year include interoperability, e-books, open source software, open source courseware, wikis, and $100 laptops.