On the Horizon:What Is New for 2012 and Beyond?Part 1

Abstract

THE ANNUAL NMC HORIZON REPORT: 2012 HIGHER EDUCATION EDITION IS PUBLISHED AS A COLLABORATION OF TWO ORGANIZATIONS, THE NEW MEDIA CONSORTIUM AND THE EDUCAUSE LEARNING INITIATIVE. As in previous years, the latest report highlights key trends, challenges, and emerging technologies across three adoption horizons: one year or less, two to three years, and four to five years. Tools are examined for their potential relevance to teaching, learning, and creative inquiry. (Visit www.nmc.org to learn more about the New Media Consortium 2012 advisory board and view a quick video for an overview of the findings.) The Six Key Trends The six key trends, examined from a global perspective, are considered drivers of educational technology adoptions for the period of 2012-2017 (Johnson, Adams, & Cummins, 2012, p. 4). I. The highest ranking trend has been consistent for many years: People expect to be able to work, learn, and study, whenever and wherever they want. This is the reason we developed distance education. We all understand the demands on our nursing students, especially our nontraditional students, who are balancing work, family, and school, and those informal learners who want just-in-time learning. 2. The technologies we use are increasingly cloud-based and/or notions of IT support are decentralized. Some of us have already embraced the cloud. As a Mac user, I love having the iCIoud[TM] to facilitate my work across all my devices (Mac desktop and laptop, iPod, iPhone, and iPad). I wrote about cloud computing in my July/August column (Skiba, 2011). 3. The world of work is increasingly collaborative, driving changes in the way student projects are structured. This trend fits nicely into health care as we move toward interprofessional practice and think about the importance of teamwork, as opposed to group work. The Institute of Medicine Future of Nursing report (2011) reminds us that collaborative skills are vitally important, not only for work with other health care professionals, but also as we form new patient/consumer-nurse partnerships. 4. The abundance of resources and relationships made easily accessible via the Internet is increasingly challenging us to revisit our roles as educators. Formal academic institutions must justify the value they add when knowledge is so easily web-accessible. Think about the open courseware movement and what it will mean. Universities have always been seen as the gold standard for educational credentialing, but emerging certification programs from other sources are eroding the value of that mission daily (Johnson et al., 2012, p. 4). Think about the availability of social media and the wisdom-of-the-crowd concept. Educators are no longer the only mentors and disseminators of knowledge. 5. Educational paradigms are shifting to include online learning, hybrid learning, and collaborative models. With the economic issues facing academia, it is the rare school that is not confronted with the need to provide multiple learning opportunities beyond the traditional face-to-face learning. The use of social networks by all levels of learners, regardless of age, also affects how we interact and communicate. 6. There is a new emphasis in the classroom on more challenge-based and active learning, Faculty are trying to leverage the use of etexts, mobile devices, and clickers to engage learners and have them participate actively in class. Death by PowerPoint is nearing its end in the classroom environment. Constraints Affecting the Academy Along with these trends, the report identifies significant challenges facing academic institutions. I. Economic pressures and new models of education are bringing unprecedented competition to the traditional models of higher education. As poignantly noted by the former president of the University of Michigan (as cited in Stanley & Trinkle, 2011), higher education institutions have been forced to evolve from 'state-supported' to 'state-assisted' to 'state-related' to what might only be characterized as 'state-located' 2. …