This is a critical view of the ubiquitious but differently interpretted term Emerging Technologies. The clauses he sets out on how we can explore ETs are useful and succinct. This paper reinforced some of the ideas we talked about in week1:
- That emerging does not necessarily mean new - new uses I guess is a better term.
- That in terms of the product lifecycle, Veletsianos further defines as the period in which a technology has not yet become a 'must-have'.
- That emerging Technologies within education sector are not necessrily still in this phase within other areas.
- That beyond initial evalenst papers there will not have been much research - he exaplins that there is likely to have been analysis of benefits/drawbacks, but not work put into understanding the affordances of said ET to teaching & learning (I find this diffuclt to understand this distinction, is there any examples of this). He goes onto qualify this research as under case study and formative approaches (Dede, 1996) which might be worth looking for further direction.
He describes the classification of emerging technologies by the Horizon Project, and in particular I was interested in their year by year softening in tone about the affect ET have: Very important; increasingly significant; significant impact; impact; will enter mainstream use. This kind of gives a taste of the dot com boom in that people/proponents could not imagine a future where this technology is not pervasive into everybodies lives, but when that ET eventually arrives it is present but not that you can live without. Is the same thing true of the Internet or computers? Of course you can live without these but certainly are the mainstream, but we haven't stopped going to shops to buy newspapers, but it has a significant impact and social effects.
I like the terms: Hype cycle and that people often argue that ETs are 'new iterations of the media' seems a lovely way to express how we intially get technologies to do the things we always did in a newer way (PowerPoint:Lectures)
Thanks for this Will. It's really useful as a distance student to have access to the thoughts that are likely to have been expressed in class.
ReplyDeleteI too have problems identifying the tipping point when a technology ceases to be emergent and becomes mainstream. Surely this occurs at different times from situation to situation? The MA:DTCE clearly uses a variety of technologies to present materials and engage students interactively. Taking Blackboard as an example, this course requires students to engage through this medium on a regular basis and makes use of many (most) of the tools available. However my BA course, at another institution, used Blackboard only intermittently and merely to provide students with documents (occasionally) which were also available as handouts on campus.
I do not know whether the DTCE experience is typical of courses at Manchester nor whether my previous course was an isolated incident in that institution. So how do I decide whether Blackboard is emerging or mainstream?
That's an interesting one. At Manchester the management decided on a set of 'Minimum Specifications' for every course offered to have at least a basic set of Blackboard delivered provisions (calender, course outline, discussion board etc.) I guess this was in order to make Blackboard use the 'norm', but obviously most lecturers didn't commit wholeheartedly, or they have never heard of this 'minimum specification' so almost the eLearning teams practically do the setting up for staff.
ReplyDeleteComplex issues, nothing's ever easy!