2010 Horizon Report

The 2010 Horizon Report: Australia-New Zealand Edition, examines emerging technologies for their potential impact on and use in teaching, learning, and creative enquiry within higher education in Australia and New Zealand over a five-year time period. Below is a sumamry of the key trends described in detail in the report.

Electronic books/readers: the report describes the extensive changes the publishing industry is undergoing as a result of people's desire to have easy, flexible access to electronic books, including textbooks. We have trialled using a 'live' version of the maths text in our Year 7 curriculum this year. A definite advantage for students is the ability to tap into tutorial videos and interactive worksheets which are embedded in the electronic version of the text.

Educational content for mobile devices: with the development of electronic texts have come devices and applications which allow materials to to be customised and accessible anywhere, anytime. Apps for iPads, iPods and Kindles are produced at great speeds.

The evolution of learning enviroments: especially at the tertiary and upper secondary level, there are now multiple options for students and teachers to interact and learn outside of the traditional classroom. Social networking tools, virtual worlds and mobile technologies allow for materails to be exchanged online.

The report also goes into detail on the challenges institutions face with integrating new technologies. Those put forward include:

• the need for professional development
• the mismatch between open collaboration and traditional forms of assessment (exams)
• the need for explicit teaching of new skills - information literacy, digital literacy and visual literacy
• the shift towards knowing where to find information rather than knowing the inforamtion itself

Finally the report lists: mobiles, augmented reality, open content and gesture based computing as key emerging technologies.