About the Horizon Report
The Horizon Report 2010 was released this past January 15. If you are unfamiliar with this annual report, it is the result of the New Media Consortium Horizon Project—a qualitative research project started in 2002 and a collaborative effort between the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) and the New Media Consortium (NMC). First published in 2004, it identifies and describes six areas of emerging technology likely to have a significant impact on teaching, learning, or creative expression in higher education within three adoption horizons: a year or less, two to three years, and four to five years.
The Next Year
Mobile Computing
While it doesn’t take much of a prognosticator to predict the impact of mobile computing—what this should do for any institution is to evaluate the delivery of all types of content through mobile technology. Some content that could be delivered through a mobile interface: course scheduling, the class schedule with notifications of cancellations or delays, access to assignments with due dates, view grades, integrated communications, a campus directory, and campus maps.
Open Content
This much more controversial topic is where faculty, programs, and/or colleges make their course content available free of charge. MIT started this over a decade ago. As more content is made available, students will begin comparing programs based on what they see online.
Two to Three Years
Electronic Books
This past Christmas saw a significant rise in the sale of e-books. Apple just announced its iPad that will compete with the Amazon Kindle, the Sony Reader, and others. In order for electronic books to make an impact on the classroom, I see two primary changes that need to take place: 1) Publishers will need to modify their business model to incent readers to purchase electronic books. 2) Make it easy for self-publishers (faculty and students) to easily make content available to the class.