Emerging technology

I just read an article from the Horizon Report, which talked about emerging technologies. The first was Grassroots video, with this virtually anyone can capture, edit and share short video clips using just their mobile phones: as we know it is very common to find news clips, tutorials and informative videos alongside information. What used to be difficult and expensive now has become something that anyone can do inexpensively. The benefits of this mean that not only can these clips help children or anyone with the site that they are on, it means that they can access this help just at the click of the button, instead of emailing or waiting for the teacher to explain. Whilst we have always had this, the emerging inexpensive nature now means that more can be uploaded and anyone can do it, which allows children to share their work with a wider audience.

The second was collaboration webs, Horizon states that the newest tools for collaboration are small, flexible and free and require no installation. All that needs to be done is opening web browsers and they are able to edit group documents, hold online meetings, swap information and data, and collaborate without even leaving their seats. This allows children to collaborate with each other and share their views; it also allows children to share their work.

Horizon also talks about the endless possibilities of mobile phones, phones are being made rapidly with more access to the internet portably than ever. This means that any information is at our fingertips no matter where we go.

The final is Collective Intelligence, Horizon states that in the coming years we will see educational applications for both explicit collective intelligence- evidenced through things such as Wikipedia, and in community tagging.

If we look at what we were with such traditional teaching methods to the society that we are living in to the society that will be, it isn’t hard to notice just how much of a technology based society we are becoming, all these tools will allow us to share information more freely and makes it open for anyone to use, the extent which collaboration is being used through the internet only allows children and people collaborate more easily and instantly. And the internet at our finger tips no matter where we go, that is information on the go.

This article only proves that we are never going back so as a society we should embrace the wonders of technology.

Taken from: http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2008-Horizon-Report.pdf