An hour and a half has been allocated to this; I have given it the best part of six.
I may have nodded off (ill with a heavy cold) but I reckon my mind just goes into cruise mode continuing whatever I was doing, mostly skating my fingers around an iPad dipping into pools of mind-mashing stuff.
The Masters in Open and Distance Education (MAODE) is to blame. At last we have a way to engage with the latest thinking even though the module was designed and written some years ago. We are asked to read and make notes in the 2011 Horizon Report from the New Medium Consortium. I've printed it off, but can see there would be no need just as soon as an A3 or Fulscap clipboard sized tablet is released.
I start by making notes in 'notes' on the ipad. In moments I feel a compulsion to Tweet some of this, and between url shortening and TweetDeck, then Linkedin and Facebook I fins I am sprinkling the electronic dust of enlightenment each way I csn think.
Horizon 2011 (My Notes July 2011)
The world of work is increasingly collaborate driven by increasingly the global and cooperative nature of business. Horizon 2011
The challenges of privacy and control affect adoption and deployment. Horizon 2011.
Digital media literacy continues its rise in importnce. Horizon 2011
The challenge is exacerbated by the fact that digital technologies morph and change so quickly at a rate that generally outpaces curriculum development. Horizon 2011
Reconciling new forms of scholarly activity with old standards continues to be difficult. Horizon 2011
New models of learning are presenting unprecedented competition to traditional models of the university. Horizon 2011
Keeping pace with the rapid proliferation of information, software tools, and devices is challenging for students and teachers alike. Horizon 2011
Given the plethora and wealth of user generated content ... There is a greater need than ever for effective tools and filters for finding, interpreting, organizing, and retrieving the data that is important to us. Horizon 2011
Three horizon lines are offered:
Near-term
E-books + note-taking, sharing, immersive engagement, changing our notion of what it means to read. (engagement)
Mobiles + everyone has one, access to affordable and reliable networks.+ increasdingly the first choice for Internet access.
Second Term
Augmented reality (spotify, 4squared) an easy extension of expectations and practices. Horizon 2011
Game-based learning +to foster collaboration, problem-solving, and procedural thinking.
Far Term
Gesture based computing
Learning analytics
Our research indicates that all six of these technologies, taken together, will have a significant impact on learning-focused organizations within the next five years. Horizon 2011
My view is that they have been cautious over the pace and readiness for adoption; I find I am wedded to mobility, the dexterity, manipulable and versatility of an iPad.
I churn though e-books in preference to TV as if the book was a new invention.
I read in multiple ways and sizes and speeds, skim reading, or takes notes, or just reading my notes and highlights. On long drives I wear a headset and let the book read itself to me. I find I take in something different, as if I've seen the bricks that construct the sentences and paragraphs, but now I'm getting the cement as a form of sense making.
As invited to do I click on www.Navigator.nmc.org and have been there ever since. I found my way here at visual complexity and have ventured into a dozen sites, ultimately downloading the App iWriter convinced by its sales blurb:
“iA Writer for Mac is a digital writing tool that makes sure that all your thoughts go into the text instead of the program. One of our goals was to create a writing app without settings. When opening Writer, all you can do is write. The only option you have is full screen and FocusMode. To increase the pleasure of writing is exactly what we intended when creating Writer. A better tool doesn’t make a better craftsman, but a good tool makes working a pleasure.”
and the quality of everything else I saw that the Information Architects (iA) team are doing.
Regarding the second adoption horizon I feel we are there.
I had it explained to me at UCL on Tuesday and could immediately relate to it and indeed have stepped into that mode already a few times. While 'game-based learning' is very much my son's world. I only permit the amount if time he is engage, because he is engaged, with a headset, in a team, constructing and deconstructing the worlds he is active in.
Which draws that horizon that is meant to be three or more years away far, far closer.
There is more reading yet to do. I cannot be. Told to read seven pages and then ignore the next 26. That's like going to a recommended restaurant, having a lyrical starter then sitting around while everyone else indulges themselves on the main course.
Talking of restaurants, the other product I want from iA is there Web Trend Map.
It uses the idea of restaurants to give weight to various web forces that are the given visual weighting and a spatial setting that overlays the Tokyo underground map.