bend me, shake me, anywhere you want me
...As long as its online, we're alright.
Apologies to the American Breed for the remix! However, this is not about one hit wonders from years gone by, it's about technology - screens that bend, input devices you can shake, anywhere and anytime.
What's over the horizon for us with new technologies and how will they be used in education? Lets start with screens - have a look at what Sony is up to - video courtesy of break.com.
Sony Flexible screen - Watch more Entertainment
As I commented in a previous post, I am really interested in interfaces where I don't have to use a keyboard and the Nintendo Wii just keeps going from strength to strength. I can't believe it was so long ago now that I first posted about it. Using the whole body rather than just fingertips and eyes has got to have merit in all sorts of applications. How about gestures, not simply those we make with a mouse, but potentially the body, as in Minority Report. There is a fantastic scene in this film showing one particular vision of how interfaces may evolve.
Its great to look at science fiction for ideas on future technologies but these types of interfaces are almost with us (eg Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch interfaces). Then there's this demo from Cebit 2008.
We are running an online discussion thread over the next month on future technologies and if you are interested in this area and would like to join the discussion, feel free to join the Edna group on Future Technologies (the invitation key is FT2012). We hope to wrap it up with a panel discussion from a small group of experts which we will then publish and feed into further work on emerging technologies for education.
technorati tags: sictasft
