2012 NMC Horizon Report - Tech Trends

The annual NMC Horizon Report will be released in February 13-15 at the EduCause Conference in Austin, Tx and online. A shortlist of applications, trends and issues is posted on its wiki.  This is a good time to review and think about what higher education thinkers are thinking, and to share with K-12 educators so they can better prepare students and themselves.  NOTE:  The issue of digital literacy is identified as a "key skill in every discipline and profession", yet training is rare in teacher education and faculty preparation. 

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less

 Cloud Computing

 Mobile Apps

 Social Reading

 Tablet Computing

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years

 Adaptive Learning Environments

 Augmented Reality

 Game-Based Learning

 Learning Analytics

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Four to Five Years

 Digital Identity

 Gesture-Based Computing

 Haptic Interfaces

 Internet of Things

Top trends and issues:

• The abundance of resources and relationships made easily accessible via the Internet is increasingly challenging us to revisit our roles as educators.
• Computers as we know them are in the process of a massive reinvention because we increasingly expect media to be touchable and interactive. 
• Education paradigms are shifting to include online learning, hybrid learning and collaborative models. [about time!]
• Increasingly, students want to use their own technology for learning. 
• Institutions are increasingly exploring technologies that allow teachers and students to better collaborate. 

• Lecture capture, podcasting, and cheap personal video recorders increasingly make it much easier to prepare lecture-style content for students to see/hear before coming to class. 
• People expect to be able to work, learn, and study whenever and wherever they want to. 
• The technologies we use are increasingly cloud-based, and our notions of IT support are decentralized. 
• There is a new emphasis in the classroom on more challenge-based and active learning.
• The world of work is increasingly collaborative, driving changes in the way student projects are structured.

   

• Appropriate metrics of evaluation lag the emergence of new scholarly forms of authoring, publishing, and researching. 
• The demand for personalized learning is not adequately supported by current technology or practices. 
• Digital media literacy continues its rise in importance as a key skill in every discipline and profession. This challenge, driven by a related trend, appears here because despite the widespread agreement on the importance of digital media literacy, training in the supporting skills and techniques is rare in teacher education and non-existent in the preparation of faculty. As lecturers and professors begin to realize that they are limiting their students by not helping them to develop and use digital media literacy skills across the curriculum, the lack of formal training is being offset through professional development or informal learning, but we are far from seeing digital media literacy as a norm. This challenge is exacerbated by the fact that digital literacy is less about tools and more about thinking, and thus skills and standards based on tools and platforms have proven to be somewhat ephemeral.
• Dividing learning into fixed units such as credit hours limits innovation across the board. 
• Economic pressures and new models of education are bringing unprecedented competition to the traditional models of tertiary education.

• Institutional barriers present formidable challenges to moving forward in a constructive way with emerging technologies. 
• The global drive to increase the number of students participating in undergraduate education is placing pressure across the system. 
• Most academics are not using new and compelling technologies for learning and teaching, nor for organizing their own research. 
• New modes of scholarship are presenting significant challenges for libraries and university collections, how scholarship is documented, and the business models to support these activities.
• Simply staying organized and current presents a challenge in a world where information, software tools, and devices proliferate at the rate they do today. 

Internet Librarian 2011

Love the annual Internet Librarian conference in beautiful Monterey, California. Wish it was held in August, not October at the beginning of the academic year. Once again, I can only attend one day -- the day I'm presenting on behalf of the California Campaign for Strong School Libraries.  The session is a part of the Schools@Internet Librarian conference-within-a-conference.  Here is the promo:

E101 – Changing the Story: The California Campaign for Strong School Libraries
10:15 AM – 11:00 AM
Jackie Siminitus, VP, Communication, California School Library Association
Connie Williams, Chair, California Campaign for Strong School Libraries, California School Library Association

The California Campaign for Strong School Libraries is a public awareness campaign that seeks to inform the public and policymakers on the importance of a strong school library in increasing student academic achievement. The campaign promotes the new Model School Library Standards and works to “change the story” of what a school is. California School Library Association’s Siminitus and Williams showcase a number of major outreach efforts including an audio journal; bus ads; Illustrators Galore @ LIBRARY STORE; leveraging library vendors as advocates; plus how to design and offer their free, online tutorial for teens, “Tools2Create: Summer 2.0 Fun.”

Scribbitt - Kids Create Books

Here's a cool tool for teens who want to draw or make their own book.: Scribblitt.  The site's subtitle is "Sparking Creativity".  This is a good site to send kids after they complete a California School Library Association's tutorial, "Tools2Create" or "TeenLearning 2.0".

Credibility: Truth & Trust on the Web

Google Education Evangelist and Search Researcher Daniel Russell invited California educators to an evening class on "Credibility: Truth & Trust on the Web".  Daniel walked a mix of teachers and librarians through the presentation below.  Curriculum Fellows Natasha Bergson-Michelson and Trent Maverick acted as TAs - teaching assistants for the evening.  [Loved seeing the TAs because in high school and middle school they can play an important role in engaging students in online learning exercises while classroom teachers and teacher librarians manage other pressing activities.  CSLA encourages use of TAs with the Teen Learning 2.0 tutorial.]

DigiDesiderata - video and posters

Petaluma HS teacher librarian Connie Williams alerted CSLA members to this video that was created by Nancy Willard, Director of the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use.



Nancy Willard says that DigiDesiderata is a version of Max Erhmann's Desiderata that encouraged digital civility. Posters are available at http://www.zazzle.com/digidesiderata*.   The original Desiderata was published by Max Ehrmann in 1927.

Instructional materials are available at the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use - http://csriu.org.

Connie's suitcase @ airport

Petaluma (CA) High School Librarian Connie Williams now writes a monthly article for Follett Software's Library Connections blog.  Connie tells a story or two about using a technology, and then connects them to the school library.  "The Suitcase Strategy and the Power of Search" is a good example: two technology stories on the power of "search".

Connie's is the kind of column that should appear in the general news media, such as local newspapers.  How does a column get syndicated?  Educators and librarians spend too much time preaching to the choir and not enough time reaching out to the public, public policymakers, and TV/movie producers.

2010 HORIZON REPORT for K-12

The annual HORIZON Report for higher education is now available for K-12 eduction, thanks to a grant by HP. The 2010 HORIZON Report: The K-12 Edition is arranged in the same format, with executive summary, trends, challenges, short-term horizon (1-2 yrs), mid-term (3-5 yrs), and longer-term (5 yrs).

Here are the top five trends identified for the 2010-2015 time period:

1. Technology is increasingly a means for empowering students, a method for communication and socializing, and a ubiquitous, transparent part of their lives.
2. Technology continues to profoundly affect the way we work, collaborate, communicate, and succeed. Information technologies impact how people work, play, learn, socialize, and collaborate.
   
3. The perceived value of innovation and creativity is increasing. Innovation is valued at the highest levels of business and must be embraced in schools if students are to succeed beyond their formal education.
   
4. There is increasing interest in just-in-time, alternate, or non-formal avenues of education, such as online learning, mentoring, and independent study.
   
5. The way we think of learning environments is changing.
   

Critical Challenges to K-12 use of new technology:
To this list, I would add California's K-12 financial meltdown.

1. Digital media literacy continues its rise in importance as a key skill in every discipline and profession.
2. Students are different, but educational practice and the materials that support it are changing only slowly.
3. Many policy makers and educators believe that deep reform is needed, but at the same time, there is little agreement as to what a new model of education might look like.
4. A key challenge is the fundamental structure of the K-12 education establishment.

FCC Survey: 93M Americans Disconnected From Broadband Opportunities

See FCC survey below. The survey of adults does not address K-12 digital literacy instruction of students or teachers. The issue is not just about access to broadband networks, it is also about digital literacy. Teacher librarians and computer teachers teach digital literacy, yet many school districts do not insist on digital literacy for its teachers and many schools are eliminating teacher librarians. Something is wrong with this picture.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NEWS MEDIA CONTACT:

February 23, 2010 Jen Howard, (202) 418-0506, Jen.Howard@FCC.gov

93 MILLION AMERICANS DISCONNECTED FROM BROADBAND OPPORTUNITIES

FCC Survey Finds Cost and Digital Literacy Main Barriers to Broadband Adoption

Washington, D.C. -- At the Brookings Institution today, the Federal Communications Commission released its National Broadband Plan Consumer Survey, Broadband Adoption and Use in America, which found that affordability and lack of digital skills are the main reasons why 93 million Americans -- one-third of the country -- are not connected to high-speed Internet at home.

“We need to tackle the challenge of connecting 93 million Americans to our broadband future,” said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. “In the 21st century, a digital divide is an opportunity divide. To bolster American competitiveness abroad and create the jobs of the future here at home, we need to make sure that all Americans have the skills and means to fully participate in the digital economy.”

On March 17, 2010, the Federal Communications Commission will deliver a National Broadband Plan to Congress that details a strategy for connecting the country to affordable, world-class broadband. This will be a strategy for U.S. global leadership in high-speed Internet to create jobs and spur economic growth; to unleash new waves of innovation and investment; and to improve education, health care, energy efficiency, public safety, and the vibrancy of our democracy.

As part of the plan, the FCC conducted a national random digit-dial survey of adults in October and November 2009 to assess America’s attitudes toward broadband. The Consumer Survey found that 35 percent of adult Americans do not have high-speed Internet connections at home -- or approximately 80 million adults and 13 million children over the age of five.

The survey identifies three main barriers to adoption:

· Affordability: 36 percent of non-adopters, or 28 million adults, said they do not have home broadband because the monthly fee is too expensive (15 percent), they cannot afford a computer, the installation fee is too high (10 percent), or they do not want to enter into a long-term service contract (9 percent). According to survey respondents, their average monthly broadband bill is $41.

· Digital Literacy: 22 percent of non-adopters, or 17 million adults, indicated that they do not have home broadband because they lack the digital skills (12 percent) or they are concerned about potential hazards of online life, such as exposure to inappropriate content or security of personal information (10 percent).

· Relevance: 19 percent of non-adopters, or 15 million adults, said they do not have broadband because they say that the Internet is a waste of time, there is no online content of interest to them or, for dial-up users, they are content with their current service.

The survey also found that non-adopters usually have more than one barrier that keeps them from having broadband service at home. Over half of non-adopters, when selecting from a menu of possible barriers to adoption, chose three or more. For example, more than half of non-adopters who cited cost also listed reasons relating to digital literacy or relevance.

“The gap in broadband adoption is a problem with many different dimensions that will require many different solutions,” said John Horrigan, Director of Consumer Research for the Omnibus Broadband Initiative. “Lowering costs of service or hardware, helping people develop online skills, and informing them about applications relevant to their lives are all key to sustainable adoption.”

The interaction of attitudes and use of communications goods and services creates four categories of non-adopters:

· Near Converts, who make up 30 percent of non-adopters, have the strongest tendencies toward getting broadband. They have high rates of computer ownership, positive attitudes about the Internet. Many are dial-up or “not-at-home” users, and affordability is the leading reason for non-adoption among this group. They are relatively youthful compared with other non-adopters, with a median age of 45.

· Digital Hopefuls, who make up 22 percent of non-adopters, like the idea of being online but lack the resources for access. Few have a computer and, among those who use one, few feel comfortable with the technology. Some 44 percent cite affordability as a barrier to adoption and they are also more likely than average to say digital literacy are a barrier. This group is heavily Hispanic and has a high share of African-Americans.

· Digitally Uncomfortable, who make up 20 percent of non-adopters, are the mirror image of the Digital Hopefuls; they have the resources for access but not a bright outlook on what it means to be online. Nearly all of the Digitally Uncomfortable have computers, but they lack the skills to use them and have tepid attitudes toward the Internet. This group reports all three barriers: affordability, digital literacy, and relevance.

· Digitally Distant, who make up 28 percent of non-adopters, do not see the point of being online. Few in this group see the Internet as a tool for learning and most see it as a dangerous place for children. This is an older group (the median age is 63), nearly half are retired and half say that either relevance or digital literacy are barriers to adoption.

The Consumer Survey interviewed 5,005 adult Americans between October 19 and November 23, 2009. The margin of error based on results based on the entire sample is plus or minus 1.6 percentage points. The survey included an over-sample of non-adopters, resulting in interviews of 2,334 adults who are not broadband users at home. The margin of error for results based on non-adopters is plus or minus 2.2 percentage points. Interviewers conducting the survey provide a Spanish-language option for respondents wishing to take the survey in Spanish.

See full 52-page report at Broadband Adoption and Use in America.