2006 Horizon Report

The 2006 Horizon Report, jointly produced by the Educause Learning Initiative  and the New Media Consortium, is out and available as a PDF.
It identifies four trends, five challenges and six technologies to watch

Four trends

1. Dynamic knowledge creation and social computing tools and processes are becoming more widespread and accepted
2. Mobile and personal technology is increasingly being viewed as a delivery platform for services of all kinds
3. Consumers are increasingly expecting individualized services, tools, and experiences, and open access to media, knowledge, information, and learning.
4. Collaboration is increasingly seen as critical across the range of educational activities, including intra- and inter-institutional activities of any size or scope

Five challenges:

1. Peer review and other academic processes, such as promotion and tenure reviews increasingly do not reflect the ways scholarship actually is conducted.
2. Information literacy should not be considered a given, even among “net-gen” students.
3. Intellectual property concerns and the management of digital rights and assets continue to loom as largely unaddressed issues.
4. The typical approach of experimentally deploying new technologies on campuses does not include processes to quickly scale them up to broad usage when they work, and often creates its own obstacles to full deployment.
5. The phenomenon of technological “churn” is bringing new kinds of support challenges.

 Six technologies to watch

1. Social Computing.
2. Personal Broadcasting.
3. The Phones in Their Pockets.
4. Educational Gaming.
5. Augmented Reality and Enhanced Visual­ization
6. Context-Aware Environments and Devices

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