Becta currently runs a big Emerging Technologies web site. It has valuable contents but I found it frustratingly organised. (I vaguely remember being consulted a few years ago - with wire-frames - by a company that had won the contract for this service, or the web site on which the service runs.) I found the site quite difficult to navigate, with unhelpfully short abstracts, and peculiar policies on things like the dating of items, and their authorship. I n the continuation post below I combine some links on the site with abstracts about the (interesting and useful) items to which they point.
Abstracts of this kind save the user a lot of time in the long run, and JISC does them a bit better in sites like this one, although it is also evidence that the UK technology in learning world is unhelpfully fragmented, something that is on my mind as a result of UK Government's decision to close Becta. (The Association for Learning Technology - ALT - for which I work part-time, had something about this published yesterday.)
I played about with a custom search that gives returns from JISC, Becta, ALT, Naace, Futurelab, TEL (it would be simple to add others, cheap to get the advertisements removed, and the current version of the code for the search window is at the foot of the continuation post if you would like to reuse it):
Accessing the mobile web: myth or reality?, by Henny Swan, February 2010. "This article highlights a few of the problems with mobile access today, considers who is affected by them and looks at how we can overcome these issues by drawing on lessons learnt from desktop technology and how the evolution of accessible web content there can influence the evolution of accessible web content for mobile devices."
Real Virtuality, by Alan Chalmers and Eva Zanyi, November 2009. "An article which explores the sensory shortcuts that can make true immersive experiences available in real time. The report gives an overview of the technologies for sight, sound, feel, taste and smell, and reviews current trends and developments. It draws on the authors' current 'real virtuality' project with its concept of the virtual cocoon, which can either capture and reflect reality or create new virtual worlds. The overview includes suggestions of how these could be relevant to learning in the future."
Robots, drugs, reality and education: How the future will change how we think, by Richard Sandford, October 2009. "A far-reaching inspection of future technology and futurology, exemplified four areas of innovation which may pose particular challenges to the worlds of education in the next twenty years. The article deals in turn with Artificial intelligence and robotics, Psychopharmacology, Augmented reality and Computing as bioscience. In each case the implications for education may be disquieting. The new capacities, processes and environments which are on the way may lead to very different futures from those we tend to expect, forcing unexpected perceptions of ourselves and our identities, as well as definitions of intelligence, consciousness, individual and group behaviour. Teachers will need to prepare learners for uncertainty and change, and help them to become agile members of a society which may make striking new demands."
A short history of educational computing, by Richard Millwood, September 2010 (sic). "Richard Millwood has produced a thorough history of the developments of hardware from the teletype to the smartphone and of software from punched card input to LOGO to cloud computing. Graphic displays, office productivity tools, interactive multimedia and social networking are considered in the context of the educational imperatives of the time and the development of communication and creativity among learners in each decade since the 1970s. The article looks at the implications of the way that technologies and pedagogies have interacted in the past to focus ideas for the educational technology of the future."
Games based learning or games based teaching?, by Paul Pivec, July 2009. "Paul Pivec takes a critical look at games based learning and some of the claims made for their use in education. He discusses the lack of robust evidence for an improvement in cognitive abilities through playing games and explores some of the theories and research in this area. However, he is positive about the potential of games in education and argues that it is teacher-led structured activities taking place around a game that can add real value: this is games based teaching."
Enhancing the environmental sustainability of ICT, by Dave O'Hara and Anthony Steven, May 2009. "In this report Dave Ohara and Anthony Steven explore the issues around ICT and environmental sustainability in education. They discuss the impact of ICT on the environment before going on to look at approaches to reducing it, through the adoption of a number of technologies, policies and behaviours."
Location-based technologies for learning, by Steve Benford, 2009. "Steve Benford explores the growing area of ‘location-based computing in which computer users become unchained from their desktops and consoles to instead explore the physical world around them, a world that becomes richly populated with digital media.’ Steve examines a number of innovative research projects to show how location based technologies can be used now and in the future when the ‘ virtual worlds of games, online social spaces and the Internet are merged with the everyday physical world to create new physical-digital hybrids.’ He discusses the uses for location based technologies to enable new forms of learning ‘ extending learning beyond the boundaries of the classroom, engaging learners in context, enabling them to capture information from the wider world for subsequent study and reflection, and interweaving episodes of learning with other ongoing activities."
Learners - should we leave them to their own devices?, by John Traxler, 2009. "John Traxler looks at the trend of learners owning a range of increasingly sophisticated mobile devices and what this means for education. He explores the nature and characteristics of these devices, the relationship learners have with them and the social, economic, and educational implications of their use. Learner owned mobile devices present unique opportunities and challenges for the ‘support and provision of learning, and indeed for the meaning and nature of learning’. John discusses the many issues around institutions allowing and encouraging learners to use their own devices and what the implications may be."
The Snowflake Effect: The Future of Mashups and Learning, by Wayne Hodgins, 2009. "In this article Wayne Hodgins explores the emerging area of web mashups and how they can be used for learning and teaching in new and innovative ways. He gives many examples of use and then goes on to argue that the true power of mashups is in seeing them as a wider concept that can bring elements of customisation and personalisation to any number of different areas. This development of mass customisation and unique solutions tailored to the needs of the individual are put forward as a way of achieving the personalisation of learning."
Growing up with Google - what it means to education, by Diana Oblinger, 2008. "Diana Oblinger explores the ‘net generation’ who can seamlessly move between their real and digital lives. Their behaviours, preferences and expectations may be very different from those of their teachers. Diana examines the characteristics of these learners, the possibilities offered by new technologies and the skills that an education system needs to provide for the 21st century. She also argues that we need to adapt to this rapidly evolving context and goes on to explore the implications for learning space design, assessment and learning and teaching."
Code for custom search window that is higher up this page
<div id="cse" style="width: 100%;">Loading</div>
<script src="http://www.google.com/jsapi" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
google.load('search', '1', {language : 'en'});
google.setOnLoadCallback(function() {
var customSearchControl = new google.search.CustomSearchControl('014456744534053281122:dgh7jwplqkk');
customSearchControl.setResultSetSize(google.search.Search.FILTERED_CSE_RESULTSET);
customSearchControl.draw('cse');
}, true);
</script>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://www.google.com/cse/style/look/default.css" type="text/css" />
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