Emerging Education Technologies: Approaches To Staying Informed

How can you keep up with what’s coming down the Ed Tech road?

Last year, Brian Alexander wrote a great article in EDUCAUSE Review titled, “Apprehending the Future: Emerging Technologies, from Science Fiction to Campus Reality” [access the full article here: EDUCAUSE Review, Vol 44, No. 3 (June/July 2009): 12-29]. This week, I borrow heavily from this article, to provide a few recommendations for some methodologies for keeping up with the ever changing world of Education Technology.

The Environmental Scan
This common and simple technique calls for repeatedly scanning the horizon to try and stay informed about what might be coming over it. By consulting multiple sources and comparing details and looking for complimentary perspectives, one can attempt to arrive at one’s own conclusions about which upcoming technologies to keep abreast of. E-scans can be conducted by one person, or many, and can utilize a mix of ’manual’ efforts (searching out resources and reviewing them) and semi-automated approaches (using tools like RSS Feeds or Google Alerts to provide a steady stream of potentially useful information – see the video below for more on Google Alerts).

There are many sources of insight into emerging education technology trends available on the Internet to inform your environmental scan. Here’s a few examples: [Read More]