Click on the images below for a direct link to blogs and pages on emerging technologies:
What are Emerging Technologies?
During the first synchronous Blackboard Collaborate session for OLTD 509, instructor Avi Luxenburg presented a definition of emerging technologies, based on his experience, other definitions, and as he put it, "way too much coffee". Yet, despite the caffeine overload, I feel the definition does a super job of summarizing the meaning of 'emerging technologies', and it is therefore worth reiterating as it will contribute to the understanding of future blogs and discussions on this topic; it provides a common starting point.
During the first synchronous Blackboard Collaborate session for OLTD 509, instructor Avi Luxenburg presented a definition of emerging technologies, based on his experience, other definitions, and as he put it, "way too much coffee". Yet, despite the caffeine overload, I feel the definition does a super job of summarizing the meaning of 'emerging technologies', and it is therefore worth reiterating as it will contribute to the understanding of future blogs and discussions on this topic; it provides a common starting point.
Avi Luxenburg's Definition of Emerging Technologies:
Tools, innovations, concepts, and practices that are being introduced to an area of endeavor, are gaining early adopter interest, but are not yet in mainstream use.
*Mainstream use?
Defined by the New Media Consortium as about a 20% adoption.(20% is based on Geoffrey A. Moore's research regarding the critical mass of adoptions needed for a chance of entering broad use.)
How Can Emerging Technologies Enrich Learning Environments?
In the following RSA Animate, Sir Ken Robinson talks about the need to change education paradigms, stating he believes we have to go in the opposite direction to standardization (standardized testing and standardized curricular).
Sir Ken Robinson talks about divergent thinking, saying it isn’t the same thing as creativity (creativity is the process of having original ideas that have value). Divergent thinking is an essential capacity for creativity. It’s the ability to see lots of possible answers to a question and lots of possible ways to interpreting a question (to not just think in linear or convergent ways, but to think laterally) – to see multiple answers, not one.
Ken Robinson cites examples of divergent thinking from a book called Breakpoint and beyond: Mastering the future--today, noting that almost all Kindergarten students are able to think divergently (98%); however, this capacity deteriorates with age…and education…
Therefore, could emerging technologies provide more opportunities for divergent thinking, if implemented with careful consideration to the desired learning outcomes and in conjunction with a strong understanding of optimal pedagogical approach(s) to learning?
In the following RSA Animate, Sir Ken Robinson talks about the need to change education paradigms, stating he believes we have to go in the opposite direction to standardization (standardized testing and standardized curricular).
Sir Ken Robinson talks about divergent thinking, saying it isn’t the same thing as creativity (creativity is the process of having original ideas that have value). Divergent thinking is an essential capacity for creativity. It’s the ability to see lots of possible answers to a question and lots of possible ways to interpreting a question (to not just think in linear or convergent ways, but to think laterally) – to see multiple answers, not one.
Ken Robinson cites examples of divergent thinking from a book called Breakpoint and beyond: Mastering the future--today, noting that almost all Kindergarten students are able to think divergently (98%); however, this capacity deteriorates with age…and education…
Therefore, could emerging technologies provide more opportunities for divergent thinking, if implemented with careful consideration to the desired learning outcomes and in conjunction with a strong understanding of optimal pedagogical approach(s) to learning?
RSA ANIMATE: Changing Education Paradigms, adapted from a talk given at the RSA by Sir Ken Robinson