January 03, 2012 | By: Nick Morris

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10 eLearning Predictions for 2012

OK, happy 2012…. and here are my 10 eLearning predictions for 2012

1. The rise of mobile learning

2. The continued rise of cloud computing

3. The death of the computer cluster

1, 2 and 3 are actually linked, and you could argue I am cheating to get to my 10 by splitting these up.

Mobile learning is on the rise. Students are discovering cloud-based services and systems that are 'off-campus' and that are better and easier to use than the on-campus alternatives and they are migrating to them. I have already seen examples of this with students opting to use systems such as dropbox and Evernote rather than the on-campus alternatives.

The net result (pardon the pun) of this change in student learning methods is that students will stop using clusters (large collections of computers in one room for students to use) so much for 'just working' and instead use their mobile devices and cloud-based systems to move work and files around. Basically, 'working on the go' (as I am now on this train - this post is written on a 'netbook' connected to the cloud (I am using Evernote - see Software I use: Evernote and Software I use: More on Evernote - teaching, research and students?). Later I will finish this post off on my laptop which will have pulled the text from the Evernote cloud.)

4. Increased use of HTML5 in teaching websites (and the death of Flash)

Last semester (see my 'Surviving the Semester' posts) I produced my first teaching site using HTML5. I personally think the site was successful and the students had a 'good experience' in using it. What was telling was that none of the students realised what they were looking at, i.e. that it was a site using the latest HTML technology. I personally view this as a great success as the technology did not get in the way of the student experience.

On the plus side, an increased use of HTML5 will see (hopefully) a decreased use of Flash in teaching websites which will make the sites faster, and less buggy. This in turn will improve the student experience.

5. The introduction of an email killer

This was a prediction (wish) from last year (see 10 eLearning Predictions for 2011 (now with an extra 10% for free)), and I would so like it to come true this year

6. The death of Twitter

Slightly controversial this one….

I am not suggesting that Twitter will fade away and die, but I think 2012 may see a decrease in use.

The reason I say this is because Twitter needs to make money from the site. They need some way of making cash. They have had a couple of goes, but nothing has really worked. My guess is that Twitter may come up with something in 2012 that inadvertently causes users to leave the site.

7. The rise of the eText Book

This was one of my predictions for 2011 (see 10 eLearning Predictions for 2011 (now with an extra 10% for free)).

I still think this will happen, but as of yet no one seems to have cracked it. Fingers crossed.

8. The rise of voice activated system/dictation

OK, this is happening now, and I think there will be an increased use of this type of technology in 2012.

For example, Siri on the Apple iPhone 4s is an amazing piece of technology and surprisingly good. In fact, I use the voice recognition system underlying Siri for dictation, and I now 'write' most of the first drafts of these blog posts by dictating straight to Evernote on the phone (and as Evernote is cloud based this means everything syncs up automatically between my various computers and phones). I would be using the Siri voice recognition software to dictate this blog post now if it wasn't for the fact that I am on a train and the other passengers may think I am a nutter.

I think students will use systems like Siri more and more in their learning for dictating essays, and also for doing research (Siri and Wolfram Alpha make a particularly useful and powerful learning tool).

9. The adoption of IFTTT by students

As I discussed in an earlier post, see Slaves to the machine…* The fault of ICT?, most people don't 'use' computers, but are in fact 'used' by computers. That is, we work for the computers, instead of the computers working for us.

The arrival of systems such as dlvr.it (see Blogging: Write once, publish many - connecting with students - part 2), IFTTT (if this, then that - http://ifttt.com/) and now dropbox automator for dropbox means that users can start producing simple little procedures that means that the computer do the work, instead of the humans. Such systems have the potential to be very powerful.

10. Nature Scitables will install a decent blogging platform

OK, this last one is a cheap shot and not really related to eLearning, but I think it is a fair comment (see An open letter to Nature Scitable - please add markdown! for more details).

Basically, and I don't like saying this, but the blogging software on this site is slow, clunky and buggy. The bottom line is that software should never ever get in the way if you doing a job, unfortunately the blogging software on Scitable does... Hopefully 2012 will see the discussed overhaul!

2 Comments

January 06, 2012 | 04:12 PM

Posted By: Nick Morris

All true points. However, the speech recognition is surprisingly good, and I find it is a great way to start writing a blog post (plus it forces you to edit the few mistakes that creep in, and therefore you refine and polish the blog post). (Plus, it saves my aching wrists.)

January 03, 2012 | 01:20 PM

Posted By: carmen lu

siri will not be in my 'an increased use' list, for me siri is like the 'fist sign love' , the love can not last long...fistly i think it would be faster for me to type an appoinment for a date immeditely. most of the time they can not repesent it correctly or without a few mistakes, and as you mentioned it, i don't want people think i am a nutter even if i dont really mind. But still not very nice in a quiet area to talk to siri.
moreover, not everywhere providing wifi or had a perfect signal for conneting, unless I got a bad signal under O2.

10 eLearning Predictions for 2012

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