Our last meeting will look at several major future trends.  What’s happening next?  What do we think about it?  How does it relate to our goals as educators at a liberal arts institution?

Discussion Leaders: Rich Parsells, Mary Brantl 

We will focus on one document for this final meeting:

1) The 2013 New Media Consortium Horizon Report: Higher Education Edition.

The NMC Horizon Project, a decade-long research project designed to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have an impact on learning, teaching, and creative inquiry in higher education. Six emerging technologies are identified across three adoption horizons over the next one to five years, as well as key trends and challenges expected to continue over the same period, giving campus leaders and practitioners a valuable guide for strategic technology planning.

Click on the first hyper-link: “> Download the NMC Horizon Report > 2013 Higher Ed Edition PDF”

How much should you read?
I encourage you to read the Executive Summary (pg 3), Key Trends (pg 7), and Significant Challenges (pg 9). Then, skim over the 6 trends and focus on those that interest you most.

2)  Optional reading – one for the road:
Kevin Carey, “The Seige of Academe,” Washington Monthly, Sept/Oct 2012. 

Teaser: “For years, Silicon Valley has failed to breach the walls of higher education with disruptive technology. But the tide of battle is changing. A report from the front lines.”

This article describes the growing ranks of ed tech entrepreneurs and the changes they may bring to higher education and the academy.  The article is both fascinating and disturbing.   If you don’t have time to read it before our next meeting, come back to it after grades are in.  You can’t think about the future of teaching and technology without knowing about how for-profit entrepreneurs are working to shape it.