#Future of #learning on the go: Project Glass

Project Glass from Google research starts out as a personal assistant type of technology. But ... even in the short 2:30 minute YouTube movie you can see how it could be used for future learning purposes as well. It definitely adds to the mobile learning options as well and most of all, that would result in only having to use one - 1 - tool, a thing that sits on my nose daily anyway, my glasses.

Just imagine, combining these glasses with augmented reality and gesture-based learning (keep on top of new innovations at the Kinect education site)! For real! I would definitely travel to Rome and walk around all the sites, learning and viewing ancient Roman traditions, crafts, historical reenactments ... Everything is there: the Roman itineraries have been laid out (http://omnesviae.org/), there are 3D walks through the city of Rome and its architectural glory (http://earth.google.com/rome/) and add simulated mobile reality (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NliEGCnlSwM) to this and ... you have got a whole different immersive learning package!

The only thing I want to know is ... how to turn it off and stay off until I want my glasses to start providing me information and interaction again. Too much media overload never works for me, but when I like it or need it, it is simply wonderful! It would enable anyone to tap into the stream of information on the Web and ... create knowledge on the go.

New Horizon report on #mLearning and latest #eLearning technologies

If you have not read it yet, this report on the latest The NMC Horizon Report > 2012 Higher Education Edition is a collaborative effort between the NMC and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI), an EDUCAUSE Program. The nice thing about this 42 page publication is that it looks at probable implementation of new and upcoming learning technologies (games, augmented reality, gesture based computing...).

To get this free publication you do have to register for an account, but it is worth it! You will also be able to keep updated on future publications, and more excitingly to give your feedback on upcoming drafts. How cool is that?!

This ninth edition describes annual findings from the NMC Horizon Project, a decade-long research project designed to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have an impact on learning, teaching, and creative inquiry in higher education. Six emerging technologies are identified across three adoption horizons over the next one to five years, as well as key trends and challenges expected to continue over the same period, giving campus leaders and practitioners a valuable guide for strategic technology planning.

The 2012 Horizon Project Higher Education Advisory Board initially voted on the top 12 emerging technologies — the result of which is documented in the NMC Horizon Project Short List > 2012 Higher Education Edition. This Short List helped the advisory board narrow down the 12 technologies to six for the full publication.

Horizon report is out: gesture based learning is in

With the weekend coming up, the 2011 Horizon report is a good read (40 pages), or you can also access it through the educause link (click on the pdf-logo near the end of the page).

The New Media Consortium has an annual habit of looking at contemporary, emerging and future trends in education. And lets face it: education is being redesigned on a weekly basis by now, so it is good to stay on top and pick out those topics that might interest you.

So what do they see as hot educational innovations to watch out for?

Time-to-Adoption: One Year or Less
Electronic Books
Mobiles

Time-to-Adoption: Two to Three Years
Augmented Reality.
Game-Based Learning.

Time-to-Adoption: Four to Five Years
Gesture-Based Computing.
Learning Analytics.

The thing I am looking forward to is the gesture-based computing. Yes, a bit like X-box Kinect, SixthSense, ... which to me erases yet another middle man that keeps us from learning close to the body and brain. So, I see this as a big learning enabler.

The learning analytics fit in closely with our global move forward to a semantic web, where the data gathered from all of us (in this case as a learner) pushes our learning capacity, because it will filter out those learning bits we need the most (or those that the learning/teaching algorithm will think we need the most). The Learning analytics are closely linked to the almost finished course of LAK, that I wrote about earlier.

All of the above mentioned learning technologies are all provided with links for further reading, so give it a go.

Some of the challenges mentioned in the report are also important for today's learners:

1. Digital media literacy continues its rise in importance as a key skill in every discipline andprofession;
2. Appropriate metrics of evaluation lag behind the emergence of new scholarly forms of authoring,publishing, and researching;
3. Economic pressures and new models of education are presenting unprecedented competition to traditional models of the university;
4. Keeping pace with the rapid proliferation of information, software tools, and devices is challenging for students and teachers alike.

It is a nice and inspiring read.