During the past 2 months I have given workshops on emerging learning technologies in 6 locations in Canada and the United States. Most workshops were attended by 10 to 20 people, most of whom had developed at least one online course for their organization, but who were looking for what was coming next. Interestingly, only about 10% of the workshop participants were under 35. I know that because I would ask who had a Facebook account. Invariably, it was the one or two people in the group who were younger ”digital natives” who volunteered to show the group their Facebook account.
The rest of the group had heard of blogs and wikis, but had usually never tried them, not even to enter a comment into a blog. But, they were there because they knew they were being left behind. The workshop time was used to introduce group members to about 10 technologies emerging in corporate training, with a chance to actually try them out.
So what ten learning technologies should be the focus of my 2008 workshops and webinars? Here is my list (but I would love to hear yours):
1. Technologies of collaboration – wikis and teamspace software will grow in use in non-academic organizations, and the field of ”computer supported collaborative learning” (CSCL), now mostly found in schools and universities, will develop outside of academic settings, including corporate training.
2. Learning Games for Business – This field is old news to die-hard gamers, but just being discovered by most people in corporate training. Most of the participants in our workshops and conference in September tried a training game for the first time. Games are being used both for training and for recruitment of a new generation of employees.
3. Distributed Computing Technologies – I introduce “mashups” and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) to workshop participants because this is a fundamental shift in how we view “websites”. Instead of sites, we need to think of a group of agents harvesting and gathering content and applications from many locations, and delivering it as a dynamic personal mix based on a user’s profile and needs.
4. Embedded Learning Technologies - computing power is already almost everywhere, from toilet seats to cell phones. I show the “hug shirt” (it vibrates and squeezes you in response to a friend’s phone message) as an example of the convergence of affective computing, wearable computing, mobile computing, haptics and teledildonics. One person at last year’s ASTD conference asked me if a “kick in the ass pants” was being developed. Hmm…
5. Multisensory input devices – Computing is mostly a visual and auditory experience. The use of touch (“haptics”) is rapidly becoming more common, led by the interace for Apple’s iPhone and Microsoft Surface technology. Watch for levers, gloves and places to put your finger in new training applications this year. While haptics will lead the way, technologies for the senses of taste and smell are not that far behind.
6. Rollout Flexible Screens for Mobile Devices – the ability to reach employees with information as they need it through mobile devices is very attractive to many training departments, but is held back by the small screens and keyboards. The introduction of flexible rollout screens (“digital paper”), with touch capabilities (“digital ink”), gesture recognition, and speech recognition for mobile devices may break that logjam. I know that this has been forecast for the past ten years, but now that it is in the Economist, it must really be happening.
7. Social Bookmarking and Automatic Synthesis of Tags – As people add tags to just about everything, a new set of technologies that gathers related tags and makes something out of them will construct some amazing synthetic worlds. Already the millions of photographs on Flickr.com are being used to develop 3D models of buildings and landscapes, through such applications as Photosynth.
8. Personalization Technologies – software for automatically constructing personal profiles beased on e-mail, web use trails, and user input is now available and is being used in recommender systems (e.g., Amazon), dynamic museum exhibits and information systems that change for each user, and adaptive tutoring systems. Watch for training to become more personalized.
9. Visualization of Complexity – computer data systems can continuously compile huge amounts of information. The problem is what to do with it. Because of our strong visual processing abilities, transforming large and complex data sets into pictures may be the best way for us to grasp its meaning. See www.visualcomplexity.com for lots of examples.
10. Location-based Augmented Reality - the Global Positioning System (GPS) will track where you are through cell phones and other GPS devices, while vast amounts of data stored in Geographic Information Systems and applications such as Google Earth will drive augmented reality applications to add to your experience of any location on the globe. This information will be superimposed on the world as you move through it.
Those are my 10 learning teachnologies with great potential to shake up training in the coming year. Let me know what you think.
News
Subscribe by Email
Follow us on Twitter
Join us on Facebook
Join us on LinkedIn
{ 6 trackbacks }
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Hello Gary. I was led here by the link in Stephen Downes’ OLDaily. You will see at my blog that I am very interested in what you are saying with the first on your list. It ties in well with what I think will become important too. I would be interested in where you think Second Life will be heading. Do you use it in your workshops or to support learners?
This is a great list Gary. Having been at one of those workshops with you (where there was one person with a FB account who happened to be under 30) I decided to ask the same question about FB/social networking while presenting my end of semester research. The university class is about 1/3 under 25 and 2/3 over 35. Only the under 25 group was ‘on’ FB – ALL of them. NO ONE over 35. Some had not even heard of FB. I’m always a little amazed that people who are so interested in what’s coming next aren’t involved in (doing) what’s happening now. Of course being at a workshop and working in a wiki, commenting on a blog, and joining a social network are all a step in the right direction. But, I wonder how many older corporate learning professionals that don’t stay abreast of changes are aware of the digital lives of young employees.
Re: teledildonics…thought you might like the Kiss phone
Would multi-user virtual environments (MUVE) be your 11th technology? Second Life is the most publicized, but schools are using others as well such as the River City Project.
Janet’s reamrk about “older corporate learning professionals” caught my eye. I think that Digital Life is proof positive that age is in the mind. I am 50+ and have a very active digital life. But I meet many Training and especially HR executives, who are much younger than me, but have still not ventured into e-learning at all … probably would have NO IDEA what collaborative learning is.
Gary
Much is written regarding corporate training. Many of the Fortune 50s may say they are using the latest and greatest concepts, methodology, and products for elearning, but in reality, they fail to share that most innovative products are actually outsourced.
We were discussing changing the dynamics within the organzatiions training department. Management is expecting the same caliber of product contractors deliver. One area we must enhance is the various applications need to get us there. I looked at the Brandon Hall Research website and searched recommended animated speaking character to our learning modules. You did quite a lot of research on this topic and wondered if you could recommend a COTS versatile product we can go through flaming hoops to purchase?