NMC-Educause report on technologies that will impact higher education

The New Media Consortium and Educause have teamed up on a report that looks into the crystal ball to predict technologies that will impact higher education in the next year, the next two or three years and the next four or five years.

The technologies they are bullish on are listed below. Do you agree? Can you think of educational applications for each of them? Download the report and see the basis of their predicitions.

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less

• Flipped Classroom
• Massively Open Online Courses
• Mobile Apps
• Tablet Computing

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years

• Augmented Reality
• Game-Based Learning
• The Internet of Things
• Learning Analytics

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Four to Five Years

• 3D Printing
• Flexible Displays
• Next Generation Batteries
• Wearable Technology

Is college's stone age is about to end?

Mark C. Taylor, chairman of the department of religion at Columbia University, asks whether college's stone age is about to end in a three part article on the university in the Internet era.

The three parts are at:

• How competition is killing higher education
• Is college's stone age about to end?
• College crackup and the online future

Here are a few quotes and paraphrases:

• We produce too many unemployable PhDs.
• Is one paying for education or certification when attending college?
• Some subjects can be outsourced; for example, let one college have a strong French department and another a strong German department.
• Online education will be modular.
• There will be online winners and losers.
• Financial pressure and improved technology have reached the point where much education will soon go online.
• The networking of higher education will transform how teachers teach and what students learn.
• Disciplines will need to be reconfigured -- departments can be transformed or abolished.
• Faculty will increasingly serve as academic counselors who advise students on designing classes and integrating programs at different institutions.
• Excessive competition and overspecialization are the plagues of higher education.