tech-ed collisions

on the challenges of emerging technologies and education

Tomorrow morning I am participating in (what I hope to be) a really engaging online discussion on emerging technologies and education. There should be about a dozen participants in this discussion with a mix of technologists and educators that are doing really interesting stuff in their environments with technology. This conversation is part of the SICTAS work that we are engaged in and I hope we get some really valuable insights into where technology is going and where there may be opportunities in education with those technologies. One of the challenges for this type of discussion seems to be the levels of comfort with technologies across the education sector. There is no doubt that there is an increasing number of educators doing fantastic stuff with technologies in their classrooms and achieving great results with it. As with many other areas of society though, there is also a large portion of the sector not engaged with technology but in many cases, wanting to be. When we talk about emerging or new technologies to these different groups, we can often be talking about quite different technologies. To some, the types of concepts in, or services we refer to as Web 2.0 are challenging enough or are very new. To others, mashing up electronic whiteboards and virtual worlds is mainstream. So it is with interest that I am looking forward to the release of the first Horizon.au report. The Horizon.au Project

will produce a report focusing on emerging technology and its applications for education in Australia and New Zealand.
This project aims to identify emerging technologies and classify them around their 'time to adoption horizon'. From the preview available on the website, this is how it's going to look over the next few years:
Time-to-Adoption: One year or Less * Virtual Worlds / Immersive Environments * Cloud-Based Applications * Social Bookmarking * Alternatives to Copyright (originally Creative Commons Licensing) Time-to-Adoption: Two to Three Years * Geolocation * Alternative Input Devices * Open Education and Courseware * Seamless Logon Integration Time-to-Adoption: Four to Five Years * Deep Tagging (originally Tagging Within Rich Media) * Next-Generation Mobile (originally Integrated Ubiquitous Technologies) * Lifestreams (originally Life Portfolios) * Flexible Screen Technologies
For some of us, some of these technologies may already be quite embedded in our practice or thinking however one of the great challenges for reports such as the Horizon.au report is to consider the sector more broadly. The Horizon.au project goes on to list challenges facing the sector and lists a number of critical challenges including:
  • security, policies etc limiting access to information, collaboration etc.
  • technology skills of educators in relation to students
  • evidence of the efficacy of new technologies being a barrier to experimentation
  • broadband availability
When creating a vision for what a future might look like, I hope we concentrate on the possibilities first and don't get too drawn into the barriers/blocks that will inevitably appear. There will be much time for tackling those issues later. On the list identified by the Horizon.au project, do you think they have it right? Are there any technologies that have been omitted? One that I have been thinking about is the importance of games in education. The report mentions games very briefly (some virtual worlds have games elements within them) and some of the alternative input devices (eg Nintendo's Wiimote) get a mention but what of the value of technology based games and games themselves? Cheers, Jerry.

Filed under  //   emerging technology  

the fifth screen

In his post 'The fourth screen and counting' Wayne Hodgins links to a great ad by Nokia on the evolution of screens, not just how they have evolved technologically but to the way in which they contribute to how we see in, and how we interact with, our world. The ad shows how screens have evolved from the cinematic screen through to the mobile technologies we see today. Wayne goes on to postulate what screens of the future might be like. Immediately I started thinking of 3d / holographic technologies but there is a whole lot more to it than just that. In another post from Wayne, linked to in the previously mentioned article, he discusses senses and the use of bi-directional feedback. If you want to see a really interesting human/computer interaction (HCI), check out Microsoft's Surface. If you want to see what some great innovators in education are doing by mashing up the technologies available to them, check out this fantastic use of interactive whiteboards and virtual worlds. At the recent ECTEL 2008 Conference, there was a fantastic keynote address by Kristina Hook entitled "Mind, mouse and body: designing engaging technologies". Supposedly ECTEL are publishing the video of this and if and when it becomes available, I encourage anyone to take the time to view this speech. We need to get away from the paradigm of fingertips and eyeballs when interacting with computers. Kristina Hook works on projects that engage 'the body'. Have a look at the phenomenal success of the Nintendo Wii for an example of a much more interesting HCI. I am really looking forward to what the next generations of interfaces may look, feel, sound, smell or taste like! Cheers, Jerry

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Filed under  //   emerging technology   interface  

Trends to watch out for

Part of my work for SICTAS is supporting an online event on future technologies (more here) where we hope to engage people in interesting, provocative discussion on what emerging technologies may yield for us in education. As I started to think about this I realised I can't just look at this area in isolation. A while ago I started to read a book entitled 'The extreme future: the top trends that will reshape the world in the next 20 years' by James Canton PhD. While the book seems to be primarily targeted at an American audience, it nevertheless offers some interesting insights for the rest of us too. Canton lists the following top ten trends and dedicates a chapter to each of them in his book:

  1. the energy crisis
  2. innovation
  3. workforce changes
  4. medicine/longevity
  5. 'weird' science
  6. security
  7. globalisation
  8. climate change
  9. the future of the individual
  10. the future of America and China
The book was released in 2006 so you could argue that in some ways it is already dated but its certainly worth a read (2 years is long time in these days of accelerated change!). What it does highlight for me though as we consider what future technologies may impact education, we need to consider them in light of these broader trends.

Filed under  //   emerging technology  

concern over fingerprinting kids in (UK) schools

Well its supposed to cut down times in the lunch queues and help remove some bullying along with a few other uses but there is nothing like fingerprinting kids to get people worked up. I looked at biometrics in schools some time ago and here it is again in a video piece from the BBC. There is something really emotive about this issue and it strikes wherever we see an opportunity for technology to be misused. Like so many things in our lives, technologies such as these can be put to good use or bad and it is the potential for future bad or un-anticipated use that creates so much fear. No easy answers here.

Filed under  //   emerging technology  
Posted July 22, 2008

Biometrics in Schools

Since this blog has just been renamed it may be interesting to comment about a real technology/education collision and that is the use of biometrics in schools. In the last 24 hours there has been a couple of articles in the mainstream press on the use of biometrics. Last night on the news Japan hit the headlines with its adoption of biometrics for processing foreigners entering the country. This follows on from the lead in the USA although in the US I think everyone is fingerprinted and photographed. The justification for doing this is of course the struggle against terrorism. To date I think there has been a mixed reaction to this. Some feel that initiatives such as this are ok if it improves their safety, others have major concerns over privacy and the uses that such information could be put to. This morning on the radio there was a piece on a supermarket chain in Germany using biometrics as a way of paying for your groceries. Using your fingerprint to authorise payment of your groceries brings a whole new meaning to the term 'finger food' (not my joke). The article was aired on ABC radio but I haven't found a link to it yet. I am sure privacy groups would have concerns here. Imagine the uses such information could be put to. Say for example, your health insurance company had proof that your diet was a major risk for certain medical conditions, what would they do with that? Of course if you are paying by credit card or any other payment method that identifies you, the same information would be potentially available. You could try to argue that just because you bought the food doesn't mean you ate it! So what is the purpose of this rant? I wonder whether we may gradually be becoming more accustomed to the use of these technologies and will look back one day and ask 'how did that happen?'. Back in the day when PDA's were nearly a useful thing I used to have one that had biometric authentication. It was a Compaq iPaq with fingerprint identification on it. Walking around the office today I noticed that there is at least one laptop in the organisation that also has fingerprint authentication built in. Is this stuff starting to become more prevalent? What about in schools? I did a quick Google search and there is a stack of information on the use of biometrics in schools being put to use in areas such as lunch purchases, borrowing from the library, attendance etc. Obviously there are major concerns about the use of these technologies from privacy groups, parents etc and there seems to be far more articles about these concerns than the use of the technologies themselves. Some technologies just get snapped up and adopted by the community without much thought while others strike fear into our hearts. Do we pay enough attention to the adoption of new technologies - should we pay more or less attention to specific types of technologies and are we truly aware of all the implications of adopting different types of them. Do we really understand the potentials (good and bad) of those that we accept or reject. Access and authentication is always a challenge and biometrics offer very interesting solutions in this area. In security terms I believe there are three types of authentication that you may be able to offer. These are: something you know (your userid/password. PIN etc), something you have (an access card, key), and something you are (fingerprint, retinal scan etc). There is a line of thought that the presence of two of these types provides reasonably strong authentication. They are all being used to provide the same service yet one of them seems to induce fear rather than comfort in being secure. Its an interesting area and one that I am sure will generate much discussion going into the future.

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Filed under  //   emerging technology   gadgets