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NMC   Horizon Report > 2012 Higher Education Edition
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The NMC (New Media Consortium) is an international community of experts in educational
technology — from the practitioners who work with new technologies on campuses everyday;
to the visionaries who are shaping the future of learning at think tanks, labs, and research
centers; to its sta and board of directors; to the advisory boards and others helping the NMC
conduct cutting edge research.

>   The NMC helps its members stay at the leading edge of emerging technology.
>   The key interest of the NMC community is in technologies and applications that make
    learning more relevant and more engaging.
>   As a community, we engage in research that catalyzes discussion, we convene people
    around new ideas, and we build communities and networks that encourage exploration
    and experimentation.

We help our hundreds of member universities, colleges, schools, museums, and organizations
drive innovation across their campuses.

>   Find out how you can join the NMC at go.nmc.org/join
>   Learn more about the NMC here
The internationally recognized NMC Horizon Report series and regional NMC Technology Outlooks are part
of the NMC Horizon Project, a comprehensive research venture established in 2002 that identi es and
describes emerging technologies likely to have a large impact over the coming ve years in education
around the globe.
1




Contents                                                > Click on a topic or page number to jump to that page.




Executive Summary                                                                                              3

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less
> Mobile Apps                                                                                                 10
> Tablet Computing                                                                                            14

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years
> Game-Based Learning                                                                                         18
> Learning Analytics                                                                                          22

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Four to Five Years
> Gesture-Based Computing                                                                                     26
> Internet of Things                                                                                          30

Methodology                                                                                                   34

The NMC Horizon Project: 2012 Higher Education Advisory Board                                                 36




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The NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition is a collaboration between the
New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, an EDUCAUSE Program.

The research behind the NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education             The NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education
Edition is jointly conducted by the New Media Consortium (NMC) and            Edition is made possible via a grant from HP.
the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI), an EDUCAUSE Program. The ELI’s
critical participation in the production of this report and their strong      HP creates innovative technology solutions that bene t individuals,
support for the NMC Horizon Project is gratefully acknowledged. To            businesses, governments and society. HP’s O ce for Global Social
learn more about ELI, visit www.educause.edu/eli; to learn more about         Innovation applies HP’s global reach, broad portfolio of products and
the NMC, visit www.nmc.org.                                                   services, and the expertise of its employees to support initiatives in
                                                                              education, healthcare and communities around the world. As the
© 2012, The New Media Consortium.                                             world’s largest technology company, HP brings together a portfolio
                                                                              that spans printing, personal computing, software, services, and IT
ISBN 978-0-9846601-3-1                                                        infrastructure to solve customer problems. More information about HP
                                                                              is available at www.hp.com.
Permission is granted under a Creative Commons Attribution License to
replicate, copy, distribute, transmit, or adapt this report freely provided   Cover photograph
that attribution is provided as illustrated in the citation below. To view    By Kate Morgan, Director of University Relations at Penn State Lehigh
a copy of this license, visit creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ or         Valley. As part of the University’s Mobile Media pilot, two honors biology
send a letter to Creative Commons, 559 Nathan Abbott Way, Stanford,           students at Penn State Lehigh Valley document, edit, and upload lab
California 94305, USA.                                                        procedures for Bio 110 students to reference, using only iPod Touch 4Gs.
                                                                              http://mediacommons.psu.edu/mobilemedia.
Citation
Johnson, L., Adams, S., and Cummins, M. (2012).                               Inside Front Cover Photograph
The NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition. Austin, Texas:         © Ohmega1982/Shutterstock
The New Media Consortium.
                                                                              Inside Back Cover Photograph
                                                                              © Jordan Rose Grulke


                                                                              Design by emgusa.com
3




Executive Summary




T
       he internationally recognized NMC Horizon              topics that appear here in the NMC Horizon Report: 2012
       Report series and regional NMC Technology              Higher Education Edition. The examples and readings
       Outlooks are part of the NMC Horizon Project,          under each topic area are meant to provide practical
       a comprehensive research venture established           models as well as access to more detailed information.
       in 2002 that identi es and describes emerging          The precise research methodology employed is detailed
technologies likely to have a large impact over the           in the closing section of this report.
coming ve years in education around the globe. This
volume, the NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education         The report’s format is consistent from year to year and
Edition, was again produced in a collaborative e ort          edition to edition, and opens with a discussion of the
with the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, an EDUCAUSE            trends and challenges identi ed by the advisory board
Program, and examines emerging technologies for their
potential impact on teaching, learning, and creative
inquiry within the higher education environment.              The technologies featured in each
To create the report, an international body of experts in
education, technology, and other elds was convened
                                                              edition of the NMC Horizon Report are
as an advisory board. The group engaged in discussions
around a set of research questions intended to surface
                                                              embedded within a contemporary
signi cant trends and challenges and to identify a wide
array of potential technologies for the report. This dialog
                                                              context that reflects the realities of
was enriched by a wide range of resources, current
research, and practice that drew on the expertise of
                                                              the time, both in the sphere of higher
both the NMC community and the communities of
the members of the advisory board. These interactions
                                                              education and in the world at large.
among the advisory board are the focus of the NMC             as most important for the next ve years. The format
Horizon Report research, and this report details the areas    of the main section of this edition closely re ects the
in which these experts were in strong agreement.              focus of the NMC Horizon Project itself, centering
                                                              on the applications of emerging technologies — in
Each of the three global editions of the NMC Horizon          this case for higher education settings. Each section
Report — higher education, primary and secondary              is introduced with an overview that describes what
education, and museum education — highlights six              the topic is, followed by a discussion of the particular
emerging technologies or practices that are likely to         relevance of the topic to teaching, learning, and creative
enter mainstream use with their focus sectors within          inquiry in higher education. Several concrete examples
three adoption horizons over the next ve years. Key           of how the technology is being used are given. Finally,
trends and challenges that will a ect current practice        each section closes with an annotated list of suggested
over the same period frame these discussions. Over            readings and additional examples that expand on the
the course of just a few weeks in the late fall of 2011,      discussion in the report. These resources, along with
the advisory board came to a consensus about the six          countless other helpful projects and readings, can all
4                                                                   NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition




be found in the project’s open content database — the         adoption of cloud-based applications and services
NMC Horizon Project Navigator (navigator.nmc.org) All         is changing not only the ways we con gure and use
the ephemera of the NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher           software and le storage, but also how we conceptualize
Education Edition, including the research data, the           those functions. It does not matter where our work is
interim results, the topic preview, and this publication,     stored; what matters is that our information is accessible
can be downloaded for free on iTunes U (go.nmc.org/           no matter where we are or what device we choose
itunes-u).                                                    to use. Globally, in huge numbers, we are growing
                                                              accustomed to a model of browser-based software
Key Trends                                                    that is device independent. While some challenges
The technologies featured in each edition of the NMC          still remain, speci cally with notions of privacy and
Horizon Report are embedded within a contemporary             sovereignty, the promise of signi cant cost savings is an
context that re ects the realities of the time, both in the   important driver in the search for solutions.
sphere of higher education and in the world at large. To
ensure this context was well understood, the advisory
board engaged in an extensive review of current
articles, interviews, papers, and new research to identify
                                                              3   The world of work is increasingly collaborative,
                                                                  driving changes in the way student projects are
                                                              structured. Because employers value collaboration as
and rank trends that are currently a ecting teaching,         a critical skill, silos both in the workplace and at school
learning, and creative inquiry in higher education. Once      are being abandoned in favor of collective intelligence.
detailed, the list of trends was then ranked according        To facilitate more teamwork and group communication,
to how signi cant each was likely to be for higher            projects rely on tools such as wikis, Google Docs, Skype,
education in the next ve years. The highest ranked            and easily shared le-storage sites including Dropbox.
of those trends had signi cant agreement among the            Students are increasingly evaluated not just on the
advisory board members, who considered them to be             overall outcome, but also on the success of the group
key drivers of educational technology adoptions for the       dynamic. In many cases, the way an online collaboration
period 2012 through 2017. They are listed here in the         tool is used is an equally important outcome. Like the
order in which the advisory board ranked them.                wiki used to create this report, such sites preserve the
                                                              process and the multiple perspectives that lead to the

1  People expect to be able to work, learn, and study
   whenever and wherever they want to. Life in an
                                                              end results.

increasingly busy world where learners must balance
demands from home, work, school, and family poses
a host of logistical challenges with which today’s ever
                                                              4   The abundance of resources and relationships
                                                                  made easily accessible via the Internet is
                                                              increasingly challenging us to revisit our roles as
more mobile students must cope. Work and learning             educators. Institutions must consider the unique
are often two sides of the same coin, and people want         value that each adds to a world in which information
easy and timely access not only to the information on         is everywhere. In such a world, sense-making and
the network, but also to tools, resources, and up-to-the-     the ability to assess the credibility of information are
moment analysis and commentary. These needs, as well          paramount. Mentoring and preparing students for
as the increasingly essential access to social media and      the world in which they will live and work is again at
networks, have risen to the level of expectations. The        the forefront. Universities have always been seen as
opportunities for informal learning in the modern world       the gold standard for educational credentialing, but
are abundant and diverse, and greatly expand on earlier       emerging certi cation programs from other sources are
notions like “just-in-time” or “found” learning.              eroding the value of that mission daily.


2  The technologies we use are increasingly
   cloud-based, and our notions of IT support
are decentralized. The continuing acceptance and
                                                              5 Education paradigms are shifting to include
                                                                online learning, hybrid learning and collaborative
                                                              models. Budget cuts have forced institutions to re-
Executive Summary                                                                                                      5




evaluate their education strategies and nd alternatives     factors in any decision to adopt — or not to adopt — a
to the exclusive face-to-face learning models. Students     given technology.
already spend much of their free time on the Internet,
learning and exchanging new information — often via         Even institutions that are eager to adopt new
their social networks. Institutions that embrace face-to-   technologies may be critically constrained by the
face/online hybrid learning models have the potential       lack of necessary human resources and the nancial
to leverage the online skills learners have already         wherewithal to realize their ideas. Still others are
developed independent of academia. We are beginning         located within buildings that simply were not designed
to see developments in online learning that o er            to provide the radio frequency transparency that
di erent a ordances than physical campuses, including       wireless technologies require, and thus nd themselves
opportunities for increased collaboration while             shut out of many potential technology options. While
equipping students with stronger digital skills. Hybrid     acknowledging that local barriers to technology
models, when designed and implemented successfully,         adoptions are many and signi cant, the advisory board
enable students to travel to campus for some activities,    focused its discussions on challenges that are common
while using the network for others, taking advantage of     to the higher education community as a whole. The
the best of both environments.                              highest ranked challenges they identi ed are listed
                                                            here, in the order in which the advisory board ranked

6   There is a new emphasis in the classroom on
    more challenge-based and active learning.
                                                            them.

Challenge-based learning and similar methods foster
more active learning experiences, both inside and
outside the classroom. As technologies such as tablets
                                                            1  Economic pressures and new models of education
                                                               are bringing unprecedented competition to the
                                                            traditional models of higher education. Across the
and smartphones now have proven applications in             board, institutions are looking for ways to control costs
higher education institutions, educators are leveraging     while still providing a high quality of service. Institutions
these tools, which students already use, to connect         are challenged by the need to support a steady — or
the curriculum with real life issues. The active learning   growing — number of students with fewer resources
approaches are decidedly more student-centered,             and sta than before. As a result, creative institutions
allowing them to take control of how they engage with       are developing new models to serve students, such as
a subject and to brainstorm and implement solutions to      streaming introductory courses over the network. As
pressing local and global problems. The hope is that if     these pressures continue, other models may emerge
learners can connect the course material with their own     that diverge from traditional ones. Simply capitalizing
lives, their surrounding communities, and the world as a    on new technology, however, is not enough; the new
whole, then they will become more excited to learn and      models must use these tools and services to engage
immerse themselves in the subject matter.                   students on a deeper level.

Signi cant Challenges
Any discussion of technology adoption must also
consider important constraints and challenges, and the
                                                            2   Appropriate metrics of evaluation lag the
                                                                emergence of new scholarly forms of authoring,
                                                            publishing, and researching. Traditional approaches to
advisory board drew deeply from a careful analysis of       scholarly evaluation, such as citation-based metrics, are
current events, papers, articles, and similar sources, as   often hard to apply to research that is disseminated or
well as from personal experience, in detailing a long       conducted via social media. New forms of peer review
list of challenges higher education institutions face       and approval, such as reader ratings, inclusion in and
in adopting any new technology. Several important           mention by in uential blogs, tagging, incoming links,
challenges are detailed below, but it was clear that        and re-tweeting, are arising from the natural actions of
behind them all was a pervasive sense that individual       the global community of educators, with increasingly
organizational constraints are likely the most important    relevant and interesting results. These forms of scholarly
6                                                                  NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition




corroboration are not yet well understood by mainstream      nature of the way we communicate, access information,
faculty and academic decision-makers, creating a gap         connect with peers and colleagues, learn, and even
between what is possible and what is acceptable.             socialize. Taken together, they provided the advisory
                                                             board a frame through which to consider the potential

3    Digital media literacy continues its rise in
     importance as a key skill in every discipline
and profession. Despite the widespread agreement
                                                             impacts of nearly 50 emerging technologies and related
                                                             practices that were analyzed and discussed for possible
                                                             inclusion in this edition of the NMC Horizon Report series.
on the importance of digital media literacy, training in     Six of those were chosen through successive rounds of
the supporting skills and techniques is rare in teacher      ranking; they are summarized below and detailed in the
education and non-existent in the preparation of most        main body of the report.
university faculty. As lecturers and professors begin
to realize that they are limiting their students by not      Technologies to Watch
helping them to develop and use digital media literacy       The six technologies featured in the NMC Horizon
skills across the curriculum, the lack of formal training    Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition are placed along
is being o set through professional development or           three adoption horizons that indicate likely timeframes
informal learning, but we are far from seeing digital        for their entrance into mainstream use for teaching,
media literacy as an expected norm for academic              learning, and creative inquiry. The near-term horizon
professionals, nor as a key part of degree programs.         assumes the likelihood of entry into the mainstream
                                                             for higher education institutions within the next twelve

4   Institutional barriers present formidable
    challenges to moving forward in a constructive
way with emerging technologies. Too often it is
                                                             months; the mid-term horizon, within two to three years;
                                                             and the far-term, within four to ve years. It should be
                                                             noted at the outset that the NMC Horizon Report is not a
education’s own processes and practices that limit           predictive tool. It is meant, rather, to highlight emerging
broader uptake of new technologies. Much resistance          technologies with considerable potential for our focus
to change is simply comfort with the status quo, but in      areas of education and interpretation. Each of the six
other cases, such as in promotion and tenure reviews,        is already the target of work at a number of innovative
experimentation with or adoptions of clearly innovative      organizations around the world, and the projects we
applications of technologies is often seen as outside the    showcase here reveal the promise of a wider impact.
role of researcher or scientist.
                                                             Near-term Horizon

5    New modes of scholarship are presenting
     signi cant challenges for libraries and university
collections, how scholarship is documented, and the
                                                             On the near-term horizon — that is, within the next
                                                             12 months — are mobile apps and tablets. These two
                                                             topics have become pervasive in everyday life, at least
business models to support these activities. While the       in the developed world, and students at universities and
university library has traditionally housed collections of   colleges have ever-increasing expectations of being
scholarly resources, social networks and new publishing      able to learn on these devices whenever and wherever
paradigms, such as open content, are challenging the         they may be. This year tablets have been separated from
library’s role as curator. Students and educators are        mobiles as a distinct category, preserving mobiles as a
increasingly able to access important, historic research     descriptor used for typical hand-held devices designed
in web browsers on devices of their choosing. As such,       to make calls.
libraries are under tremendous pressure to evolve new
ways of supporting and curating scholarship.                 > Mobile apps are the fastest growing dimension of
                                                               the mobile space in higher education right now, with
These trends and challenges are a re ection of the             impacts on virtually every aspect of informal life,
impact of technology that is occurring in almost every         and increasingly, every discipline in the university.
aspect of our lives. They are indicative of the changing       Always-connected Internet devices using 3G
Executive Summary                                                                                                     7




  and similar cellular networks, imbedded sensors,            > Game-based learning has grown in recent years as
  cameras, and GPS have proved to be a feature set              research continues to demonstrate its e ectiveness
  with hundreds of thousands of applications. Apps              for learning. Games for education span the range
  that take advantage of recent developments in these           from single-player or small-group card and board
  tools, along with advances in electronic publishing           games all the way to massively multiplayer online
  and the convergence of search technology and                  games and alternate reality games. Those at the
  location awareness, made this category of software
  enormously interesting in a higher education context.
  Higher education institutions are now designing apps        The NMC Horizon Report is not a
  tailored to educational and research needs across the
  curriculum.                                                 predictive tool. It is meant, rather,
> Tablet computing presents new opportunities to
  enhance learning experiences in ways simply not
                                                              to highlight emerging technologies
  possible with other devices. High-resolution screens
  allow users of tablets, such as the iPad, to easily share
                                                              with considerable potential for
  content with each other and pore over images and
  videos on the screen. As people tend to use tablets to
                                                              our focus areas of education and
  supplement and not replace smartphones, they are
  viewed as less disruptive tools (no phone ringing and
                                                              interpretation.
  no incoming text messages), which makes them ideal             rst end of the spectrum are easy to integrate into
  tools for learning opportunities. Because tablets are         the curriculum, and have long been an option in
  able to tap into all the advantages that mobile apps          many higher education institutions; but the greatest
  bring to smaller devices, but in a larger format, higher      potential of games for learning lies in their ability to
  education institutions are seeing them not just as an         foster collaboration and engage students deeply in
  a ordable solution for one-to-one learning, but also          the process of learning. Once educational gaming
  as a feature-rich tool for eld and lab work, often            providers can match the volume and quality of their
  times replacing far more expensive and cumbersome             consumer-driven counterparts, games will garner
  devices and equipment.                                        more attention.

Mid-term Horizon                                              > Learning analytics loosely joins a variety of data-
The second adoption horizon, two to three years out,            gathering tools and analytic techniques to study
is where we will begin to see widespread adoptions              student engagement, performance, and progress
of two technologies that are experiencing growing               in practice, with the goal of using what is learned
interest within higher education: game-based learning           to revise curricula, teaching, and assessment in real
and learning analytics. Educational gaming brings               time. Building on the kinds of information generated
an increasingly credible promise to make learning               by Google Analytics and other similar tools, learning
experiences more engaging for students, while at                analytics aims to mobilize the power of data-mining
the same time improving important skills, such as               tools in the service of learning, and embrace the
collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking. Over          complexity, diversity, and abundance of information
the past year, learning analytics has garnered a lot of         that dynamic learning environments can generate.
attention. The ability to synthesize data in real-time
is exciting because it changes the structure of the           Far-term Horizon
learning dynamic — educators can use the data to              On the far-term horizon, set at four to ve years away from
make adjustments to their teaching style that better          widespread adoption, are gesture-based computing
caters to student needs.                                      and the Internet of Things. Gesture-based technology
8                                                                 NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition




  has enabled students to learn by doing. Interfaces that       environmental data such as temperature or humidity
  react to touch, movement, voice, and facial expression        (and much more) attached to it; and then communicate
  allow more freedom in how we interact with our                the status of that information on demand, whether
  devices. The Internet of Things, a notion rst outlined by     optically or via electromagnetic frequencies. With
  Vint Cerf as one of the many reasons to move to IPv6 to       the advent of the new internet Protocol, version six,
  expand the address space of the Internet, is converging       those objects can now have an IP address, enabling
  with smart objects, and fueling considerable innovation       their information store to be accessed in the same
  in how these devices communicate with each other and          way a webcam might be, allowing real-time access
  with us. Smart objects are already well established in        to that information from anywhere. At the same time,
                                                                new wireless communication strategies, such as near
                                                                  eld communication, are making it easier for smart
Interfaces that react to touch,                                 objects to connect to networks. The implications
                                                                are not yet clear, but it is evident that hundreds of
movement, voice, and facial                                     billions of devices — from delicate lab equipment
                                                                to refrigerators to next-generation home security
expression allow more freedom in                                systems — will soon be designed to take advantage
                                                                of such connections.
how we interact with our devices.                             Each of these technologies is described in detail in the
  the commercial sector and range along a continuum           main body of the report, where a discussion of what
  from RFID sensors to near eld communication (NFC).          the technology is and why it is relevant to teaching,
  These technology topics do not yet have an abundance        learning, or creative inquiry may also be found. Given
  of well-documented project examples in higher               the practical focus of the report, a listing of examples
  education, but the high level of interest found in both     of the technology in use, especially in higher education,
  areas indicates that they are worth following closely.      is a key component of each of the six main topics. Our
                                                              research indicates that all six of these technologies, taken
  > Gesture-based computing moves the control                 together, will have a signi cant impact on learning-
    of computers from a mouse and keyboard to                 focused organizations within the next ve years.
    the motions of the body, facial expressions, and
    voice recognition via new input devices. It makes         The NMC Horizon Project
    interactions with computational devices far more          This report is part of a longitudinal research study of
    intuitive and embodied. From the touchscreens on          emerging technologies that began in March 2002. Since
    smartphones to the gesture and voice interpretation       that time, under the banner of the Horizon Project, the
    of the latest gaming systems (Xbox Kinect and             NMC and its research partners have held an ongoing
    Nintendo Wii) and virtual assistants, gesture-based       series of conversations and dialogs with its advisory
    computing enables users to learn by doing and             boards — now more than 450 technology professionals,
    facilitates the convergence of a user’s thoughts with     campus technologists, faculty leaders from colleges and
    their movements. Large multi-touch displays support       universities, museum professionals, teachers and other
    collaborative work, allowing multiple users to interact   school professionals, and representatives of leading
    with content simultaneously.                              corporations from more than thirty countries. For more
                                                              than a decade, these conversations have been mined to
  > The Internet of Things is the latest turn in the          provide the insights on emerging technology that are
    evolution of smart objects — a category of small          published annually in the NMC Horizon Report series.
    devices or methods that enable an object to be
    assigned a unique identi er; contain small bits of        This report, the NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher
    information, such as the object’s age, shelf life, and    Education Edition, kicks o the tenth year of the
Executive Summary                                                                                                 9




series, which is dedicated to charting the landscape        fuel the work of the NMC Horizon Project throughout
of emerging technologies for teaching, learning, and        2012. For those wanting to know more about the
creative inquiry in higher education globally. In 2008,     processes used to generate the NMC Horizon Report
the NMC added to the three main NMC Horizon Reports         series, many of which are ongoing and extend the work
a new series of regional and sector-based studies, called   in the reports, we refer you to the report’s nal section
the NMC Technology Outlooks, with the dual goals of         on the research methodology.
understanding how technology is being absorbed
using a smaller lens, and also noting the contrasts
between technology use in one area compared to
another. To date, the NMC has conducted studies of
technology uptake in Australia, New Zealand, the UK,
and Iberoamerica, and has plans in place to expand that     The 47 members of this year’s
research to Central Europe, India, Singapore, and Africa.
This report, the agship publication of the NMC Horizon
Project, is translated into multiple languages every
                                                            advisory board were purposely
year. Over all editions, the readership of the reports is
estimated at more than one million worldwide, with
                                                            chosen to represent a broad
readers in some 100 countries.                              spectrum of the higher education
The 47 members of this year’s advisory board were
purposely chosen to represent a broad spectrum of
                                                            sector; key writers, thinkers,
the higher education sector; key writers, thinkers,
technologists, and futurists from education, business,
                                                            technologists, and futurists from
and industry rounded out the group. They engaged
in a comprehensive review and analysis of research,
                                                            education, business, and industry
articles, papers, blogs, and interviews; discussed
existing applications, and brainstormed new ones; and
                                                            rounded out the group.
ultimately ranked the items on the list of candidate
technologies for their potential relevance to teaching,
learning, or creative inquiry. This work took place
entirely online and may be reviewed on the project wiki
at horizon.wiki.nmc.org.

The e ort to produce the NMC Horizon Report: 2012
Higher Education Edition began in November 2011, and
concluded when the report was released in February
2012, a period of just over three months. The six
technologies and applications that emerged at the top
of the nal rankings — two per adoption horizon — are
detailed in the chapters that follow.

Each of those chapters includes detailed descriptions,
links to active demonstration projects, and a wide
array of additional resources related to the six pro led
technologies. Those pro les are the heart of the NMC
Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition, and will
10                                                                    NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition




Mobile Apps
Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less




T
       here is a revolution that is taking place in             collections of apps, and adding to your set is as simple
       software development that parallels the                  as it is inexpensive.
       changes in recent years in the music, publishing,
       and retail industries. Mass market is giving             The app software model is clearly working: ABI research
       way to niche market, and with it, the era of             shows that over 18 billion apps had been downloaded
highly priced large suites of integrated software is            in the Apple marketplace by October 2011, and over ten
giving way to a new view of what software should be.            billion in the Android marketplace by December the
Smartphones including the iPhone and Android have               same year. Those numbers just scratch the surface of
rede ned what we mean by mobile computing, and in               the anticipated growth of mobile apps. A recent study
the past three to four years, the small, often simple,          by Distimo predicted that 44 billions apps will have
low cost software extensions to these devices — apps            been downloaded by 2016 — or, around seven apps per
— have become a hotbed of development. New tools                person across the entire population of the earth.
are free or sell for as little as 99 cents, and anyone
can be a developer. A popular app can see millions of           The assortment of available apps is wide-ranging, from
downloads in a short time, and that potential market            those that extend the camera or sensors on the device
has spawned a ood of creativity that is instantly               (“Siesmometer”, “Hipstamatic,” and “360”); to new forms
apparent in the extensive collections available in the          of newspapers and magazines (“McSweeny’s”); to games
app stores — themselves a new way of delivering                 that make use of gestures in clever ways (“Angry Birds”);
software that reduces distribution and marketing                to new forms of mapping tools (“StarWalk”); to apps
costs signi cantly. Apple’s app store opened in July            that make restaurant recommendations based on the
2008; Google’s followed in October of that year. Since          user’s location (“Urbanspoon”). What makes apps as a
then, simple but useful apps have found their way into          category interesting are two key factors: the rst is that
almost every form of human endeavor.                            there are so many to choose from — one can nd an
                                                                app to support almost any interest or endeavor, and the
Overview                                                        possibilities expand every day. The second is that they
With the advent of mobile apps, the way we think about          are inexpensive — rare is an app on someone’s mobile
software itself is changing, and whole industries are           that costs more than $1.99. Taken together, the result
adjusting to a new world in which sophisticated but             is that it is both easy and economical to completely
simple tools routinely sell for 99 cents. In contrast with      customize a device to suit one’s own interests.
the model for desktop applications that stack feature
upon feature in a one-size- ts-all approach, mobile             The best apps are tightly integrated with the capabilities
apps are small, simple, and elegant. They generally             of the device itself, using location data, motion
do one thing, or a small list of tightly related things,        detection, gestures, access to social networks, and web
extraordinarily well. They cost so little, trial versions are   search, to seamlessly create a full-featured experience.
unnecessary, and it is simple to out t a tablet or mobile       As just one example, users are now able to not only
phone with exactly the feature set you want for far             read an article foregrounded because of its relation to
less than you would pay for typical desktop software.           the user’s location, but also to share it with their social
Both Apple and Google have developed extensive                  networks, make comments, swipe over an image to see
Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less                                                                           11




more, and store speci c content to read at a later date        video, audio, and imaging. Mobile apps encompass
— all within a typical newspaper app.                          it all, and innovation in mobile device development
                                                               continues at an unprecedented pace.
In the last year, new additions to mobile operating
systems have made it easier for newspapers, periodicals,       The potential of mobile computing is already being
and other subscription-based publications to migrate           demonstrated in hundreds of projects at higher
to mobile devices. Print and online publications, such         education institutions. Since 2009, Abilene Christian
as Time, Wired, or Mashable, provide users with new            University has provided each student with an iPhone
material on a regular basis, sometimes sending the             or iPod Touch, in addition to o ering professors
user alerts when there is a new edition, breaking news,
or a story that is relevant to the user’s interests. Mobile
apps designed for tablets have given many traditional
print-based publications a new life, and new tools, such
                                                               The mobile app marketplace reflects
as iBook Author, are making it very easy for anyone
to create and publish media-rich interactive pieces.
                                                               an expanding world of resources that
The newest version of iBook is optimized for viewing
interactive textbooks, and it seems that the e-readers
                                                               fits into the palm of a hand.
for the Kindle and Android platforms are heading the           mobile training and support. The institution has been
same direction.                                                developing apps to extend learning outside of the
                                                               classroom and documenting the results along the way
The mobile app marketplace re ects an expanding                in an annual mobile learning study. At the most basic
world of resources that ts into the palm of a hand.            level, many universities and colleges have developed
While the adoption of apps has been especially                 map and directory apps for current students to navigate
apparent in the consumer sector, there has also been a         campuses and for prospective students to take virtual
great interest in apps that illustrate scienti c and related   tours or to enhance physical tours.
concepts via tools that also have practical application.
Apps that support learning are commonplace. Fun,               As institutions begin to understand the potential of
easy-to-use tools can be found for budding chefs,              apps, they have built in features for students to check
astronomers, physicists, artists, musicians, book lovers,      their grades, or to update them with sports scores or
and writers — and all of them are designed to go with          breaking campus news. Ohio State University’s mobile
you anywhere and to be available with a tap on a screen.       app includes a campus directory, plus library resources
The higher education sector is beginning to capitalize         and personal information that is tied to each student’s
on this by integrating mobile apps into the curriculum         ID. Higher education institutions have also been
and designing their own to encompass course materials          designing apps that enhance the classroom learning
and campus maps.                                               experience. The University of Warwick in the UK created
                                                               an app that quizzes medical students on the human
Relevance for Teaching, Learning, or                           anatomy and various laboratory scenarios using video
Creative Inquiry                                               and audio clips.
Mobile apps embody the convergence of several
technologies that lend themselves to educational use,          While institutions are rapidly developing their own apps,
including annotation tools, applications for creation          they are also making use of external ones. Popular apps
and composition, and social networking tools. GPS              include those that help students and educators stay
and compasses allow sophisticated location and                 organized and exchange their ndings and ideas with
positioning, accelerometers and motion sensors enable          peers. Many apps, when coupled with digital textbooks,
the apps to be designed and used in completely new             ease the transition for students who are accustomed
ways, digital capture and editing bring rich tools for         to print books. For example, “Good Reader” is an app
12                                                                NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition




that enables users to highlight, annotate, sketch, and        organized outlines in addition to attaching notes
add footnotes to e-books — just as they would in the          to speci c topics or automatically arranging them
print version. “JotNot Pro” is another app that allows        based on common themes. The app has built in social
professors to digitally distribute course documents and       features that allow students to share their project
students to instantly scan printed documents and store        plans with each other. go.nmc.org/qnquw
them on their device.
                                                            > University Services. Professor Catheryn Cheal at
As mobile apps become an important xture in the               Oakland University, Michigan sends her students to
business world, many universities and colleges have            ve speci c campus locations with the “SCVNGR” app
deployed special courses and programs to teach                on their smartphones. They answer questions about
student entrepreneurs how to design, develop, and             visual rhetorical space into their phone at each site.
market them. Vanderbilt University founded the                Once back in the classroom, they have the background
Vanderbilt Mobile Application Team in 2009 to prepare         to write their essays in a learning management system.
their students for high technology jobs. Since the group      go.nmc.org/hochw
was founded, participating students have developed
three award-winning apps. All of their work is open         Mobile Apps in Practice
source, and can be used as a learning model at other        The following links provide examples of mobile apps in
institutions. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a     use in higher education settings:
faculty associate in the School of Journalism and Mass
Communication has incorporated app development              Berkley Mobile International Collaborative
into her magazine publishing class, recognizing that        go.nmc.org/pramk
mobile devices are taking on a prominent role in the        In the Berkeley Mobile International Collaborative,
magazine industry.                                          student-created mobile apps will be judged based on
                                                            business model and utility, with ten nalist university
The increasing availability of network access means         teams competing in Barcelona.
that the growing capabilities of mobiles are available to
more students in more locations each year. Educational      The Cleveland Historical App
institutions around the world are investing in the          go.nmc.org/aeeue
infrastructure that supports mobile access, sponsoring      “Cleveland Historical” is an interactive and GPS-enabled
programs that provide devices to students who do not        app, providing historical information on speci c sites
already have them, and commissioning custom mobile          within the city in the form of images, audio, and video
applications to serve their communities.                    clips. “Cleveland Historical” is curated by the Center
                                                            for Public History and Digital Humanities with stories
A sampling of applications of mobile apps across            contributed from community members, teachers,
disciplines includes the following:                         professors, and students.

> Multimedia Production. Students in the                    iPrinceton
  Instructional Systems program at Penn State               go.nmc.org/oadcp
  University are developing a mobile video app for          Princeton University’s free “iPrinceton” app enables users
  video ethnographers to record and annotate video in       to catch up on athletic and academic news, browse a
  the eld. The app allows users to add, edit, and delete    full library catalog, and connect to the university’s social
  text annotations displayed alongside the video            media pages. The app also connects with Blackboard for
  footage. go.nmc.org/waxvi                                 direct course support at any point.

> Project Management. Using the mobile app
  “MindJet,” students can create mind maps and
Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less                                                                          13




Stanford University’s iPhone and iPad Apps Course             How to Build a University Mobile Application: Best
go.nmc.org/tvlvs                                              Practice and Insight
Lectures and slides from Stanford’s iPhone and iPad           go.nmc.org/qnbcv
application development course can now be freely              (Karen Eustice, The Guardian, 8 December 2011.) This
accessed online through iTunes U. The appearance              article compares the di erent avenues universities
of the course material made iTunes history with one           are taking in creating and updating their mobile apps,
million downloads by the seventh week.                        showing the e ciency and reasoning behind each
                                                              option from the developer’s perspective.
The University of Michigan’s Mobile Apps Center
go.nmc.org/sewzg                                              Smartphones on Campus: the Search for ‘Killer’ Apps
University of Michigan’s Mobile Apps Center brings            go.nmc.org/wskke
together instruction and app building resources to            (Je rey R. Young, The Chronicle of Higher Education,
allow students and faculty to create and distribute           8 May 2011.) There is no one size ts all app because
useful apps to the U-M community.                             diversity in professors and courses leads to mobile
                                                              apps being used in varying degrees and manners. This
University of Virginia iPhone and Android Apps                article explores di erent examples of apps bene ting
go.nmc.org/xaess                                              professors and students, and how they are providing
The University of Virginia has developed its campus app       links from the classroom to the community.
through WillowTree apps. Augmented reality features
allow users to personalize their maps. The app has many       Taking Mobile Applications Into the Cloud
components useful for alumni too, allowing them to            go.nmc.org/zzrut
follow sporting events live and easily connect with UVA       (Mary Grush, Campus Technology, 31 August 2011.)
clubs and contacts.                                           Because mobile devices are limited in their capabilities,
                                                              researchers are looking to resource-rich cloud-based
For Further Reading                                           services that, when integrated with mobile apps, will
The following articles and resources are recommended          expand the depth of information mobile phones can
for those who wish to learn more about mobile apps:           access and the range of their function.

7 Things You Should Know about Mobile App                     University Leverages Mobile App to Keep Students
Development                                                   Connected
go.nmc.org/velrd                                              go.nmc.org/ehjiw
(EDUCAUSE, 19 April 2011.) This guide provides                (Je Goldman, Mobile Enterprise, 17 October 11.) This
higher education institutions with helpful information        article on Indiana State University’s mobile app powered
to take into consideration when building an app,              by Pryxis Mobile describes the challenges and decisions
including accessibility standards and enterprise system       that were a part of the app building process, as well as
integration opportunities.                                    marketing and monitoring the nished product.

Can the iPhone Save Higher Education?
go.nmc.org/abuoc
(John Cox, NetworkWorld, 23 March 2010.) Exploring the
e ect of digital devices for teaching and learning, Abilene
Christian University has focused on mobile phones and
how they are changing the classroom. The lecturer to
student model is becoming a more collaborative and
interactive model, now that instructors and students
have ubiquitous and equal access to information.
14                                                               NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition




Tablet Computing
Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less




I
    n the past year, advances in tablet computers have     Immensely portable, tablets are already a signi cant
    captured the imagination of educators around the       distribution element for magazines and e-books. iOS
    world. Led by the incredible success of the iPad,      5 even includes a newsstand that allows quick and
    which in the fourth quarter of 2011 was selling        easy access to newspapers and magazines and new
    at the rate of more than 3 million units a month,      subscriptions — with a mere touch. Even without
other similar devices such as the Samsung Galaxy and       extending their functionality via the full range of
Sony’s Tablet S have also begun to enter this rapidly      mobile apps, tablets serve as nicely sized video players
growing new market. In the process, tablets (a form        with instant access to an enormous library of content;
that is distinct from tablet PCs) have come to be viewed   digital readers for books, magazines, and newspapers;
as not just a new category of mobile devices, but          real-time two-way video phones; easily sharable photo
indeed a new technology in its own right — one that        viewers and even cameras; fast, easy email and web
blends features of laptops, smartphones, and earlier       browsers; and rich, full-featured game platforms —
tablet computers with always-connected Internet,           all in a slim, lightweight, portable package that ts in
and thousands of apps with which to personalize            a purse or briefcase — but which signi cantly omits
the experience. As these new devices have become           a traditional keyboard. That design choice, and the
more used and understood, it is clear that they are        implications it brings for interacting with the device, is a
independent and distinct from other mobile devices         key reason that tablets are not a new kind of lightweight
such as smartphones, e-readers, or tablet PCs. With        laptop, but rather a completely new computing device.
signi cantly larger screens and richer gestured-based
interfaces than their smartphone predecessors, they        When the iPad was introduced, it was described as a “lean
are ideal tools for sharing content, videos, images,       back” experience as contrasted to the “lean forward”
and presentations because they are easy for anyone         experience of typical computers. While second market
to use, visually compelling, and highly portable.          and wireless keyboards are available for tablets, the real
                                                           innovation in these devices is in how they are used. A
Overview                                                   swipe, a tap, or a pinch allows the user to interact with
Led by the category-de ning phenomenon that is the         the device in completely new ways that are so intuitive
Apple iPad, tablets have earned their own listing in the   and simple they require no manuals or instructions. The
NMC Horizon Report this year, completely distinct from     device itself encourages exploration of its capabilities,
mobiles. According to a recent study from comScore,        something easily demonstrated by simply placing the
the iPad now accounts for 97% of all tablet-based          device in the hands of a small child. For times when a
web tra c in the U.S. and 46.8% of all mobile web          keyboard is needed, a custom-con gured software
tra c. Similar statistics show tablets are increasingly    keyboard appears, but the best-designed apps make
the device of choice not just for web browsing, but        little or no use of it.
also social networking and reading news. Competing
models, including Motorola’s Xoom and Samsung’s            Screen technology has advanced to the point that
Galaxy Tab have not yet enjoyed the success of the iPad,   tablets are exceptionally e ective at displaying visual
but together, these companies have solidi ed tablets as    content, such as photographs, books, and video; similar
the new family of devices to watch.                        advances in gesture-based computing have moved
Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less                                                                            15




tablets far beyond the point and click capabilities of         More and more institutions are providing their students
touchscreens, and tablets are engaging and intuitive           with iPad devices that come pre-loaded with course
devices to use. These combinations of features are             materials, digital textbooks, and other helpful resources.
especially enticing to educational institutions at all         Under the Gri n Technology Advantage at Seton Hill
levels, and many K-12 institutions are considering             University, for example, all full-time students receive an
tablets as a cost-e ective alternative to the netbook          iPad 2. Similarly, the University of Southern Mississippi
when planning a one-to-one deployment. In these                is piloting up to 1,000 Galaxy Tab 10.1 devices that
and other group settings, their large screens — and            will be issued to students, loaded with Blackboard
the ease with which the image automatically adjusts            Mobile™ Learn. Students and professors, sharing the
its orientation to the viewer — make it easy to share          same hardware and software, will experience and share
content.                                                       audio, video, and other learning materials.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of tablets is that         Because these types of tablet programs are relatively
they owe their heritage not to the desktop, but to the         new, many universities and colleges are conducting
mobile phone. Both iOS and Android-based tablets               in depth studies to measure their outcomes. Studies
are designed with the app model rmly in mind, and              including those at Abilene Christian University,
hundreds of thousands of specialized apps are available        Oberlin College, the Missouri University of Science and
to extend the functionality of tablets. Apps for tablets       Technology, and many others have generally found
have many features in common with mobile apps,
such as seamless use of location awareness, network
connections, and other built-in sensors, but the larger
screen real estate allows for more detailed interfaces
                                                               Because of their portability, large
or viewing area. Also similar to smartphone apps, apps
for tablets are inexpensive and very easy to add to the
                                                               display, and touchscreen, tablets
device, using the same tools and online stores.                are ideal devices for one-to-one
Relevance for Teaching, Learning, or                           learning, as well as fieldwork.
Creative Inquiry
Because of their portability, large display, and               that integrating tablets into the curriculum has led to
touchscreen, tablets are ideal devices for one-to-one          increased student engagement and has enhanced
learning, as well as eldwork. Many institutions are            learning experiences. However, higher education
beginning to rely on them in place of cumbersome               institutions are just beginning to delve into more
laboratory equipment, video equipment, and various             research surrounding some of the many potential uses
other expensive tools that are not nearly as portable or       of tablets, including the replacement of print textbooks
as inexpensive to replace.                                     with e-books, the wide use of specialized apps, the
                                                               expanded use of the devices’ built-in sensors, GPS,
For example, the iPad has become an integral instrument        gesture interface, cameras, video and audio tools, and
in the cadaver laboratories at the University of California,   more.
Irvine. Images of body structures and radiographic lms
can be easily explored and manipulated on-screen, and          With their growing number of features, tablets give
apps such as “Epocrates Essentials” provide a mobile           traction to other educational technologies — from
drug and disease reference at students’ ngertips (go.          facilitating the real-time data mining needed to support
nmc.org/epeif ). Similarly, Duke University has been           learning analytics to o ering a plethora of game-based
exploring the use of the iPad as an e cient way to             learning apps. What makes tablets so powerful is that
collect global health research (go.nmc.org/fqxpm).             students already use these or very similar devices
                                                               outside the classroom to download apps, connect
16                                                              NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition




to their social networks, and immerse themselves in       iPad Makes Wall Street Debut
informal learning experiences. As such, students are      go.nmc.org/swnbt
already quite comfortable using them in both academic     During Drew University’s Wall Street Semester program,
and social settings.                                      students will be equipped with an iPad and apps that
                                                          access and interpret nancial information. Conveniently,
A sampling of tablet computing applications across        students can read course materials on their iPads instead
disciplines includes the following:                       of carrying books, and digitally compose documents,
                                                          spreadsheets, and presentations.
> Chemistry. In organic chemistry laboratories at the
  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, wall-       The iPad Replaces University Textbooks
  mounted iPads are equipped with a kiosk app to          go.nmc.org/vblpb
  deliver video reviews of the lab techniques most        The University of Adelaide will replace textbooks
  needed by the students. Students also use the           with Apple iPads for rst year students in its Science
  iPads throughout the chemistry courses to clarify       program. The University sees this as a way to allow the
  experiment set-up and answer other procedural           evolution of student learning environments to augment
  questions. go.nmc.org/hjjvi                             individual student growth.

> Lecture Capture. Tablet apps, such as McGraw Hill’s     Solar-Powered iPad Devices
  “Tegrity,” are used by the University of Colorado,      go.nmc.org/ctjzq
  Georgia Tech University, Fordham Law School, and        In partnership with Apple, the Zimbabwe government is
  many others as a campus-wide solution for recording     bringing solar-powered iPad devices to rural institutions
  and deploying class lectures. go.nmc.org/zmgnp          across Africa that have not had consistent — or any —
                                                          computer access in the past due to lack of electricity.
> Mathematics. As a collaborative project between
  the math support centers at three universities —        University of Dayton Undergraduate Viewbook
  Swinburne in Australia, Limerick in Ireland, and        go.nmc.org/wdcwm
  Loughborough in the UK — “MathsCasts” are videos        The free University of Dayton Viewbook app gives
  of mathematical explanations recorded by writing on     potential undergraduate students a virtual orientation
  a tablet. They cover topics with which undergraduate    to the school using video content, slideshows, and
  students typically struggle. All “MathsCasts” carry a   interactive feeds to explore academic facilities,
  Creative Commons license and are available for free     programs, opportunities and student life.
  on the Swinburne website and on iTunes U. go.nmc.
  org/igmlf                                               Valparaiso College of Engineering Releases iPad App
                                                          go.nmc.org/yqqhw
> Writing. Designed and developed by the University       Recent Valparaiso University graduates have developed
  of Queensland, UQMarkup is an iPad app developed        a new interactive digital magazine for the iPad that
  to facilitate the integration of contextualized audio   incorporates videos and photo galleries into stories so
  and written feedback in student writing assessments.    that students, faculty, alumni and anyone interested can
  The feedback from the app is personalized, and the      connect to news and happenings within the College of
  responses are provided in a short, xed and easily       Engineering.
  understood format. go.nmc.org/hwzcu
                                                          For Further Reading
Tablet Computing in Practice                              The following articles and resources are recommended
The following links provide examples of tablet            for those who wish to learn more about tablet
computing in use in higher education settings:            computing:
Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less                                                                           17




6 Reasons Tablets are Ready for the Classroom                Kindle Fire: Changing the Game in Higher Education?
go.nmc.org/lcrin                                             go.nmc.org/hdoru
(Vineet Madan, Mashable, 16 May 2011.) This article          (Vineet Madan, Geek Wire, 15 November 2011.) This
explores the applications of tablet computers in higher      article measures the new Kindle Fire to its competitor,
education, based on reports from classrooms that have        the iPad, citing that the smaller screen of the Kindle Fire
participated in pilot studies, citing that iPads t with      is the main shortcoming of the device for educational
students’ current lifestyles.                                purposes, since students are looking to use the device
                                                             to read and access multimedia, such as images and
The B-School Case Study Gets a Digital Makeover              videos.
go.nmc.org/delwj
(Erin Zlomek, Bloomberg Business Week, 25 July 2011.)
This article demonstrates how tablets allow students a       Tablets have come to be viewed
convenient way to access and interact with the many
business case studies that are a core part of business
school curriculum.
                                                             as not just a new category of
Campus Tour Now Comes with an iPad
                                                             mobile devices, but indeed a new
go.nmc.org/hszrt
(Jody S. Cohen, Chicago Tribune, 9 October 2011.)
                                                             technology in its own right — one
Bradley University is now distributing iPads during
campus tours so that when prospective students are
                                                             that blends features of laptops,
shown areas of the campus, they can also watch videos
of events that have taken place there throughout the
                                                             smartphones, and earlier tablet
year. Seeing laboratories and lecture halls in use gives
students an understanding of what busy campus
                                                             computers with always-connected
life will be like, even when touring during holidays or
summer months.
                                                             Internet, and thousands of apps with
Educators Evaluate Learning Bene ts of iPad
                                                             which to personalize the experience.
go.nmc.org/whlnr
(Ian Quillen, Education Week, 15 June 2011.) This article
discusses the use of iPad devices as learning tools, and
delves into the ongoing discourse about whether they
are more viable for one-to-one solutions or as part of a
group of shared devices.

An iPad University: Giving It the Old College Try
go.nmc.org/zxqiy
(Lena Groeger, Wired, 22 July 2011.) The University of
Southern California has teamed up with TouchAppMedia
and 2tor, Inc. to create an online distance learning
experience fully accessible with an iPad or mobile
device, featuring social integrations like video chat with
classmates and sharing notes and ideas on course walls
and forums.
18                                                                NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition




Game-Based Learning
Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years




G
        ame-based learning has gained considerable          and appealing to players of various ages and of both
        traction since 2003, when James Gee began to        genders: the feeling of working toward a goal; the
        describe the impact of game play on cognitive       possibility of attaining spectacular successes; the ability
        development. Since then, research, and interest     to problem solve, collaborate with others, and socialize;
        in, the potential of gaming on learning has         an interesting story line; and other characteristics. These
exploded, as has the diversity of games themselves,         qualities are replicable for educational content, though
with the emergence of serious games as a genre, the         they can be di cult to design well. This challenge is
proliferation of gaming platforms, and the evolution of     one reason why game-based learning continues to be
games on mobile devices. Developers and researchers         placed on the mid-term horizon.
are working in every area of game-based learning,
including games that are goal-oriented; social game         In the most recent National Education Technology Plan,
environments; non-digital games that are easy to            gaming was named as an ideal method of assessing
construct and play; games developed expressly for           student knowledge comprehension, citing the ability
education; and commercial games that lend themselves        of games to provide immediate performance feedback
to re ning team and group skills. Role-playing,             to the players. Students are engaged because they
collaborative problem solving, and other forms of           are motivated to do better, get to the next level, and
simulated experiences are recognized for having broad       succeed. Proponents also underscore the productive
applicability across a wide range of disciplines.           role of play, which allows for experimentation, the
                                                            exploration of identities, and even failure.
Overview
According to Trip Wire Magazine, 61.9 million people        In recent years, the Serious Games movement has
participated in online social games in 2011, up nearly      focused on uniting signi cant educational content
9 million people from 2010. Forty percent of these          with play. The games within this genre layer social
gamers are between the ages of 20 and 34. The average       issues or problems with game play, helping players
age of the American gamer is now 35-years-old, which        gain a new perspective through active engagement.
correlates with the early 1980s timeline in which the rst   Research shows that players readily connect with
digital games appeared with the rst home computers.         learning material when doing so will help them achieve
Ten years later, the web was born, and games began to       personally meaningful goals. Purdue University’s
be delivered over the Internet. The three most recent       Serious Games Center is just one of the many programs
cohorts of children — those born in the early 1980s,        dedicated to conducting research and nding new
the early 1990s, and the early 2000s — have grown up        means of collaboration with Serious Games in virtual
in a world where digital games have always been an          environments.
important part of their lives, and entered or graduated
from higher education institutions with hundreds of         Another area of gaming that is increasingly interesting
hours of gaming experience.                                 for higher education institutions is simulation-based
                                                            games. Militaries worldwide have adopted games and
Early studies of consumer games helped to identify the      simulations across the entire range of skills training
aspects of games that make them especially engaging         they provide, and the game-design insights from that
Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years                                                                          19




tremendous body of work are beginning to inform               solutions. The ideas players have proposed have
simulations designed for graduate students studying           earned them opportunities to put their proposals into
and training in speci c subjects including medicine.          practice through internships with social innovators and
“Emergency Room: Code Red” is one such popular                business leaders around the world, and scholarships
game.                                                         or funding for their own ventures. Stanford University
                                                              created “Septris,” an HTML5 mobile simulation game
The 2011 edition of this report viewed massively              that teaches practicing physicians and nurses about
multiplayer online (MMO) games as still a few years           Sepsis (blood poisoning) identi cation, triage, and
further out for learning, but increasingly interesting.       management. Learners play the part of a physician
This year, there has been more traction surrounding this
genre of gaming. Online games including “Minecraft”
and “World of Warcraft” have been integrated into             Proponents underscore the
course curriculum, with educators and educational
technology writers frequently documenting their
stories and outcomes. This type of game brings many
                                                              productive role of play, which allows
players together to work on activities that require
collaborative problem solving. They are complex, and
                                                              for experimentation, the exploration
include solo and group content, as well as goals that
tie to a storyline or theme. Their link to education exists
                                                              of identities, and even failure.
in the highest levels of interaction in which game-play       managing patients as their health deteriorates. Learners
requires teamwork, leadership, and discovery.                 read history, order labs, and assign treatments to
                                                              multiple patients at a time.
Relevance for Teaching, Learning, or
Creative Inquiry                                              The browser-based game “Ikariam” simulates life in
Game-based learning re ects a number of important             ancient civilizations, and players learn about economics
skills higher education institutions strive for their         and civic responsibility by building up the economy and
students to acquire: collaboration, problem solving,          caring for the residents on virtual islands. Some higher
communication, critical thinking, and digital literacy.       education institutions are taking the incorporation
What makes educational gaming appealing today is              of socially aware games a step further and designing
the plethora of genres and applications associated with       entire courses around them. St. Edward’s University
it. From role-playing games to online social games to         recently launched a pilot section of a required Cultural
entire courses created around teaching better game            Foundations course with an emphasis on the use of
design, aspects of game mechanics are well integrated         social media and experiential learning approaches.
in higher education curriculum.                               Their “Global Social Problems” course was designed
                                                              using “heroic gaming” strategies. All course activities
Games related speci cally to course content help              were rooted in a common set of heroic values and were
students gain a fresh perspective on material and             represented as “character traits” on each student’s pro le.
can potentially engage them in that content in more
complex and nuanced ways. Alternate reality games             Open-ended, challenge-based, truly collaborative
(ARGs), in which players nd clues and solve puzzles           games are an emerging category of games that seems
in experiences that blur the boundary between the             especially appropriate for higher education. Games like
game and real life, o er a clear example in which course      these, which occur in both online and non-digital forms,
content and game play can overlap. Recent examples            can draw on skills for research, writing, collaboration,
of large-scale ARGs include Jane McGonigal’s “EVOKE,”         problem solving, public speaking, leadership, digital
a social networking game that simulates real global           literacy, and media-making. When embedded in the
issues to empower people to nd new and innovative             curriculum, they o er a path into the material that allows
20                                                                 NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition




  the student to learn how to learn along with mastering         compares the student’s performance to that of a
  the subject matter. These games lend themselves to             professional musician. go.nmc.org/udrgw
  curricular content, requiring students to discover and
  construct knowledge in order to solve problems. They         > Online Learning. Students in an Adult Education
  are challenging to design well, but the results can be         undergraduate online course at the University of
  transformative.                                                British Columbia are participating in a role-playing
                                                                 game, in which they are reporters who are writing
  The challenge that persists with educational games             articles for an imaginary journal called Adult Educator
  — a good indicator of why they still reside on the mid-        Weekly. They also post comments as “readers” and
  term horizon — is embedding traditional educational            vote for the best article. The results showed that the
                                                                 students posted more in the journal than they used
                                                                 to in LMS discussion forums. go.nmc.org/yvrzz
Open-ended, challenge-based, truly                             > Science. “MicroExplorer3D,” developed by North
collaborative games are an emerging                              Carolina State University, provides an avenue for
                                                                 students who do not have access to a microscopy
category of games that seems                                     lab to learn the parts of a compound microscope.
                                                                 Students interact with the 3D model of a compound
especially appropriate for higher                                microscope by clicking (web) or touching (mobile),
                                                                 zoom into detailed views of the parts, and open
education.                                                       menu items and descriptions with photograph and
                                                                 video examples. go.nmc.org/kwgmb
  content so that it looks and feels a natural part of
  playing the game. Faculty members may nd it di cult          Game-Based Learning in Practice
  to make pronounced connections between speci c               The following links provide examples of game-based
  course content and the gaming objectives. What is            learning in use in higher education settings:
  known, however, is that these games spark interest in
  students to expand their learning outside of the game.       3D GameLab
  Constance Steinkuehler, for example, founding fellow         go.nmc.org/vedmb
  of the Games+Learning+Society Initiative, found that         Developed by Boise State University, 3D GameLab is
  the average MMO gamer spends 10-15 hours per week            a unique quest-based learning platform that can turn
  conducting online research related to the game. Digital      any classroom into a living game. 3D GameLab helps
  and communication literacy goes hand in hand with            teachers tie innovative learning activities to standards,
  game play, which is why it continues to be of great          providing learners choice while they game their way
  interest to educators.                                       through a competency-based curriculum.

  A sampling of applications of game-based learning            Cycles of Your Cognitive Learning, Expectations,
  across disciplines includes the following:                   and Schema
                                                               go.nmc.org/gcogy
  > Music. In McGill University’s “Open Orchestra”             A University at Albany research team is developing a
    simulation game, a workstation uses high de nition         video game that will show people negative aspects of
    panoramic video and surround sound to provide              their own decision-making processes, speci cally when
    musicians with the experience of playing in an             they are confronted with incomplete information and
    orchestra or singing in an opera. A touchscreen in the     operating under time pressure.
    music stand displays an electronic version of the score
    and the system controls, as well as a visualization that
Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years                                                                         21




GAMeS Lab at Radford University                              to successfully incorporate gaming into university and
go.nmc.org/qlohz                                             college curriculum, underscoring that game-based
The purpose of the Games, Animation, Modeling and            learning is not a solution for all subjects and that games
Simulation (GAMeS) Lab at Radford University is to           are no quick x, but take research and classroom testing
design interactive mobile games and study their impact       by the educator to ascertain their success.
on student engagement and learning. The GAMeS Lab
has designed iPod Touch and iPad games for schools in        Games and Learning: Teaching as Designing
rural, southwestern Virginia, and is collaborating with      go.nmc.org/cooat
the participating educators to determine how best to         (James Gee, The Hu ngton Post, 21 April 2011.) James
integrate these games within the existing curricula.         Gee builds a case for games as catalysts for more
                                                             interaction, creativity, and critical thinking in learning.
Meet the Earthwork Builders                                  He likens gamers to designers as they must understand
go.nmc.org/cyaow                                             the “rule system” to be successful.
Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities,
a team of content specialists and game developers is         Games in the Library
making a video game prototype about the Newark               go.nmc.org/fmtam
Earthworks, an ancient lunar observatory in Newark,          (Anastasia Salter, The Chronicle of Higher Education,
Ohio. Through the game, players will learn about the         13 December 2011.) This article takes a logistical
lunar observatory and gain a more global understanding       perspective to game-based learning, focusing on the
of di erent cultures.                                        di culty of disseminating a gaming experience to a
                                                             large classroom of varying students, and proposing that
SciEthics Interactive                                        a game library is a good option to provide access and
go.nmc.org/khreb                                             information as well as to track inventory.
This project, funded by HP and the National Science
Foundation, is designed to create virtual simulations with   A Neurologist Makes the Case for the Video Game
a science and ethics focus. Upper level undergraduate        Model as a Learning Tool
and graduate students can experience real world              go.nmc.org/rqvxp
situations in the safety of a virtual environment.           (Judy Willis, Edutopia, 14 April 2011.) The neurologist
                                                             behind this article equates the success of game-based
simSchool                                                    learning with the release of dopamine, a physiological
go.nmc.org/dkbbl                                             response to a prosperous choice or action, and outlines
A ight simulator for teachers, simSchool provides            the phases of this natural learning process.
challenging teaching scenarios that develop the
knowledge and skills needed for classroom success.           What Does Game-Based Learning O er Higher
Research has indicated that training time on the             Education?
simulator makes a signi cant di erence in a teacher’s        go.nmc.org/qcuno
self-e cacy and sense of the focus of control.               (Justin Marquis, OnlineUniversities.com, 14 October
                                                             2011.) This article explores the bene ts of gaming at
For Further Reading                                          the university level by breaking down a hypothesis
The following articles and resources are recommended         by game designer, Jane McGonigal, which recognizes
for those who wish to learn more about game-based            speci c positive attributes of gamers that can translate
learning:                                                    to productivity in the classroom and beyond.

5 Teaching Tips for Professors — From Video Games
go.nmc.org/lssnv
(Je rey R. Young, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 24
January 2010.) This article shares best practices on how
22                                                                  NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition




Learning Analytics
Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years




L
       earning analytics refers to the interpretation of      Learning analytics was featured in the NMC Horizon
       a wide range of data produced by and gathered          Report: 2011 Higher Education Edition on the far-term
       on behalf of students in order to assess academic      horizon. This year, largely because of a major initiative
       progress, predict future performance, and spot         focused on its re nement, the topic has been moved
       potential issues. Data are collected from explicit     to the mid-term horizon, and is poised to make the
student actions, such as completing assignments and           transition from concept to practice. In 2010, EDUCAUSE
taking exams, and from tacit actions, including online        announced a major program in partnership with the
social interactions, extracurricular activities, posts on     Gates Foundation under the Next Generation Learning
discussion forums, and other activities that are not          Initiative that identi ed learning analytics as one of
directly assessed as part of the student’s educational          ve key areas for development. That same year, the HP
progress. The goal of learning analytics is to enable         Catalyst Initiative established the Measuring Learning
teachers and schools to tailor educational opportunities      Consortium, led by Carnegie Mellon University, in which
to each student’s level of need and ability in close-to-      several large-scale international learning analytics
real time. Learning analytics promises to harness the         projects are working towards common solutions. These
power of advances in data mining, interpretation,             projects, and others located at a number of higher
and modeling to improve understandings of teaching            education institutions, are driving not only the science
and learning, and to tailor education to individual           behind learning analytics, but also interest. As the
students more e ectively. Still in its early stages,          science and technical aspects of learning analytics are
learning analytics responds to calls for accountability       solved, one can expect to see signi cant development
on campuses and aims to leverage the vast amount of           activity as campuses begin to implement learning
data produced by students in academic activities.             analytics strategies.

Overview                                                      This interest has not escaped large publishers, such as
At its heart, learning analytics is about analyzing the       McGraw Hill (“Connect”) and Pearson (“MyLabs”), who
wealth of information about students in a way that            have begun to establish their own learning analytics
would allow schools to make informed adjustments              solutions and have hired dedicated employees whose
to a student’s learning experience, drawing on new            job is to provide learning analytics expertise as the
ways of observing patterns in complex data. This              emerging technology evolves. The initial focus of
sort of intervention is not new — school counselors           these e orts is on integration with existing learning
and student services professionals have long used             management systems (LMS). Several researchers
information such as student attendance records, grades,       feel that this is a necessary part of a comprehensive
teacher observations, test scores, and the like to identify   solution, but is insu cient. To move learning analytics
at-risk students. Learning analytics builds on this           forward, many would argue that analytics must include
heritage, but aims to go much further than these tried        more than LMS data. Other factors, such as the impact
and true strategies, merging information from disparate       of the learning environment (especially online, but
sources to create a far more robust and nuanced picture       also physical environments), knowledge gained via
of learning as it happens that can be used to improve         informal learning, and metrics on skills including
both teaching and learning environments.                      creativity, leadership, and innovation are seen as
2012 horizon-report-he
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2012 horizon-report-he

  • 1. NMC Horizon Report > 2012 Higher Education Edition
  • 2. Join the conversation. Join the community. Join the NMC. NMC
  • 3. The NMC (New Media Consortium) is an international community of experts in educational technology — from the practitioners who work with new technologies on campuses everyday; to the visionaries who are shaping the future of learning at think tanks, labs, and research centers; to its sta and board of directors; to the advisory boards and others helping the NMC conduct cutting edge research. > The NMC helps its members stay at the leading edge of emerging technology. > The key interest of the NMC community is in technologies and applications that make learning more relevant and more engaging. > As a community, we engage in research that catalyzes discussion, we convene people around new ideas, and we build communities and networks that encourage exploration and experimentation. We help our hundreds of member universities, colleges, schools, museums, and organizations drive innovation across their campuses. > Find out how you can join the NMC at go.nmc.org/join > Learn more about the NMC here
  • 4. The internationally recognized NMC Horizon Report series and regional NMC Technology Outlooks are part of the NMC Horizon Project, a comprehensive research venture established in 2002 that identi es and describes emerging technologies likely to have a large impact over the coming ve years in education around the globe.
  • 5. 1 Contents > Click on a topic or page number to jump to that page. Executive Summary 3 Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less > Mobile Apps 10 > Tablet Computing 14 Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years > Game-Based Learning 18 > Learning Analytics 22 Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Four to Five Years > Gesture-Based Computing 26 > Internet of Things 30 Methodology 34 The NMC Horizon Project: 2012 Higher Education Advisory Board 36 Interested in these emerging technology topics? Learn more about them and other edtech insights by “liking” us on Facebook at facebook.com/newmediaconsortium and following us on Twitter at twitter.com/nmcorg.
  • 6. NMC The NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition is a collaboration between the New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, an EDUCAUSE Program. The research behind the NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education The NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition is jointly conducted by the New Media Consortium (NMC) and Edition is made possible via a grant from HP. the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI), an EDUCAUSE Program. The ELI’s critical participation in the production of this report and their strong HP creates innovative technology solutions that bene t individuals, support for the NMC Horizon Project is gratefully acknowledged. To businesses, governments and society. HP’s O ce for Global Social learn more about ELI, visit www.educause.edu/eli; to learn more about Innovation applies HP’s global reach, broad portfolio of products and the NMC, visit www.nmc.org. services, and the expertise of its employees to support initiatives in education, healthcare and communities around the world. As the © 2012, The New Media Consortium. world’s largest technology company, HP brings together a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services, and IT ISBN 978-0-9846601-3-1 infrastructure to solve customer problems. More information about HP is available at www.hp.com. Permission is granted under a Creative Commons Attribution License to replicate, copy, distribute, transmit, or adapt this report freely provided Cover photograph that attribution is provided as illustrated in the citation below. To view By Kate Morgan, Director of University Relations at Penn State Lehigh a copy of this license, visit creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ or Valley. As part of the University’s Mobile Media pilot, two honors biology send a letter to Creative Commons, 559 Nathan Abbott Way, Stanford, students at Penn State Lehigh Valley document, edit, and upload lab California 94305, USA. procedures for Bio 110 students to reference, using only iPod Touch 4Gs. http://mediacommons.psu.edu/mobilemedia. Citation Johnson, L., Adams, S., and Cummins, M. (2012). Inside Front Cover Photograph The NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition. Austin, Texas: © Ohmega1982/Shutterstock The New Media Consortium. Inside Back Cover Photograph © Jordan Rose Grulke Design by emgusa.com
  • 7. 3 Executive Summary T he internationally recognized NMC Horizon topics that appear here in the NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Report series and regional NMC Technology Higher Education Edition. The examples and readings Outlooks are part of the NMC Horizon Project, under each topic area are meant to provide practical a comprehensive research venture established models as well as access to more detailed information. in 2002 that identi es and describes emerging The precise research methodology employed is detailed technologies likely to have a large impact over the in the closing section of this report. coming ve years in education around the globe. This volume, the NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education The report’s format is consistent from year to year and Edition, was again produced in a collaborative e ort edition to edition, and opens with a discussion of the with the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, an EDUCAUSE trends and challenges identi ed by the advisory board Program, and examines emerging technologies for their potential impact on teaching, learning, and creative inquiry within the higher education environment. The technologies featured in each To create the report, an international body of experts in education, technology, and other elds was convened edition of the NMC Horizon Report are as an advisory board. The group engaged in discussions around a set of research questions intended to surface embedded within a contemporary signi cant trends and challenges and to identify a wide array of potential technologies for the report. This dialog context that reflects the realities of was enriched by a wide range of resources, current research, and practice that drew on the expertise of the time, both in the sphere of higher both the NMC community and the communities of the members of the advisory board. These interactions education and in the world at large. among the advisory board are the focus of the NMC as most important for the next ve years. The format Horizon Report research, and this report details the areas of the main section of this edition closely re ects the in which these experts were in strong agreement. focus of the NMC Horizon Project itself, centering on the applications of emerging technologies — in Each of the three global editions of the NMC Horizon this case for higher education settings. Each section Report — higher education, primary and secondary is introduced with an overview that describes what education, and museum education — highlights six the topic is, followed by a discussion of the particular emerging technologies or practices that are likely to relevance of the topic to teaching, learning, and creative enter mainstream use with their focus sectors within inquiry in higher education. Several concrete examples three adoption horizons over the next ve years. Key of how the technology is being used are given. Finally, trends and challenges that will a ect current practice each section closes with an annotated list of suggested over the same period frame these discussions. Over readings and additional examples that expand on the the course of just a few weeks in the late fall of 2011, discussion in the report. These resources, along with the advisory board came to a consensus about the six countless other helpful projects and readings, can all
  • 8. 4 NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition be found in the project’s open content database — the adoption of cloud-based applications and services NMC Horizon Project Navigator (navigator.nmc.org) All is changing not only the ways we con gure and use the ephemera of the NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher software and le storage, but also how we conceptualize Education Edition, including the research data, the those functions. It does not matter where our work is interim results, the topic preview, and this publication, stored; what matters is that our information is accessible can be downloaded for free on iTunes U (go.nmc.org/ no matter where we are or what device we choose itunes-u). to use. Globally, in huge numbers, we are growing accustomed to a model of browser-based software Key Trends that is device independent. While some challenges The technologies featured in each edition of the NMC still remain, speci cally with notions of privacy and Horizon Report are embedded within a contemporary sovereignty, the promise of signi cant cost savings is an context that re ects the realities of the time, both in the important driver in the search for solutions. sphere of higher education and in the world at large. To ensure this context was well understood, the advisory board engaged in an extensive review of current articles, interviews, papers, and new research to identify 3  The world of work is increasingly collaborative, driving changes in the way student projects are structured. Because employers value collaboration as and rank trends that are currently a ecting teaching, a critical skill, silos both in the workplace and at school learning, and creative inquiry in higher education. Once are being abandoned in favor of collective intelligence. detailed, the list of trends was then ranked according To facilitate more teamwork and group communication, to how signi cant each was likely to be for higher projects rely on tools such as wikis, Google Docs, Skype, education in the next ve years. The highest ranked and easily shared le-storage sites including Dropbox. of those trends had signi cant agreement among the Students are increasingly evaluated not just on the advisory board members, who considered them to be overall outcome, but also on the success of the group key drivers of educational technology adoptions for the dynamic. In many cases, the way an online collaboration period 2012 through 2017. They are listed here in the tool is used is an equally important outcome. Like the order in which the advisory board ranked them. wiki used to create this report, such sites preserve the process and the multiple perspectives that lead to the 1  People expect to be able to work, learn, and study whenever and wherever they want to. Life in an end results. increasingly busy world where learners must balance demands from home, work, school, and family poses a host of logistical challenges with which today’s ever 4  The abundance of resources and relationships made easily accessible via the Internet is increasingly challenging us to revisit our roles as more mobile students must cope. Work and learning educators. Institutions must consider the unique are often two sides of the same coin, and people want value that each adds to a world in which information easy and timely access not only to the information on is everywhere. In such a world, sense-making and the network, but also to tools, resources, and up-to-the- the ability to assess the credibility of information are moment analysis and commentary. These needs, as well paramount. Mentoring and preparing students for as the increasingly essential access to social media and the world in which they will live and work is again at networks, have risen to the level of expectations. The the forefront. Universities have always been seen as opportunities for informal learning in the modern world the gold standard for educational credentialing, but are abundant and diverse, and greatly expand on earlier emerging certi cation programs from other sources are notions like “just-in-time” or “found” learning. eroding the value of that mission daily. 2  The technologies we use are increasingly cloud-based, and our notions of IT support are decentralized. The continuing acceptance and 5 Education paradigms are shifting to include online learning, hybrid learning and collaborative models. Budget cuts have forced institutions to re-
  • 9. Executive Summary 5 evaluate their education strategies and nd alternatives factors in any decision to adopt — or not to adopt — a to the exclusive face-to-face learning models. Students given technology. already spend much of their free time on the Internet, learning and exchanging new information — often via Even institutions that are eager to adopt new their social networks. Institutions that embrace face-to- technologies may be critically constrained by the face/online hybrid learning models have the potential lack of necessary human resources and the nancial to leverage the online skills learners have already wherewithal to realize their ideas. Still others are developed independent of academia. We are beginning located within buildings that simply were not designed to see developments in online learning that o er to provide the radio frequency transparency that di erent a ordances than physical campuses, including wireless technologies require, and thus nd themselves opportunities for increased collaboration while shut out of many potential technology options. While equipping students with stronger digital skills. Hybrid acknowledging that local barriers to technology models, when designed and implemented successfully, adoptions are many and signi cant, the advisory board enable students to travel to campus for some activities, focused its discussions on challenges that are common while using the network for others, taking advantage of to the higher education community as a whole. The the best of both environments. highest ranked challenges they identi ed are listed here, in the order in which the advisory board ranked 6  There is a new emphasis in the classroom on more challenge-based and active learning. them. Challenge-based learning and similar methods foster more active learning experiences, both inside and outside the classroom. As technologies such as tablets 1  Economic pressures and new models of education are bringing unprecedented competition to the traditional models of higher education. Across the and smartphones now have proven applications in board, institutions are looking for ways to control costs higher education institutions, educators are leveraging while still providing a high quality of service. Institutions these tools, which students already use, to connect are challenged by the need to support a steady — or the curriculum with real life issues. The active learning growing — number of students with fewer resources approaches are decidedly more student-centered, and sta than before. As a result, creative institutions allowing them to take control of how they engage with are developing new models to serve students, such as a subject and to brainstorm and implement solutions to streaming introductory courses over the network. As pressing local and global problems. The hope is that if these pressures continue, other models may emerge learners can connect the course material with their own that diverge from traditional ones. Simply capitalizing lives, their surrounding communities, and the world as a on new technology, however, is not enough; the new whole, then they will become more excited to learn and models must use these tools and services to engage immerse themselves in the subject matter. students on a deeper level. Signi cant Challenges Any discussion of technology adoption must also consider important constraints and challenges, and the 2  Appropriate metrics of evaluation lag the emergence of new scholarly forms of authoring, publishing, and researching. Traditional approaches to advisory board drew deeply from a careful analysis of scholarly evaluation, such as citation-based metrics, are current events, papers, articles, and similar sources, as often hard to apply to research that is disseminated or well as from personal experience, in detailing a long conducted via social media. New forms of peer review list of challenges higher education institutions face and approval, such as reader ratings, inclusion in and in adopting any new technology. Several important mention by in uential blogs, tagging, incoming links, challenges are detailed below, but it was clear that and re-tweeting, are arising from the natural actions of behind them all was a pervasive sense that individual the global community of educators, with increasingly organizational constraints are likely the most important relevant and interesting results. These forms of scholarly
  • 10. 6 NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition corroboration are not yet well understood by mainstream nature of the way we communicate, access information, faculty and academic decision-makers, creating a gap connect with peers and colleagues, learn, and even between what is possible and what is acceptable. socialize. Taken together, they provided the advisory board a frame through which to consider the potential 3  Digital media literacy continues its rise in importance as a key skill in every discipline and profession. Despite the widespread agreement impacts of nearly 50 emerging technologies and related practices that were analyzed and discussed for possible inclusion in this edition of the NMC Horizon Report series. on the importance of digital media literacy, training in Six of those were chosen through successive rounds of the supporting skills and techniques is rare in teacher ranking; they are summarized below and detailed in the education and non-existent in the preparation of most main body of the report. university faculty. As lecturers and professors begin to realize that they are limiting their students by not Technologies to Watch helping them to develop and use digital media literacy The six technologies featured in the NMC Horizon skills across the curriculum, the lack of formal training Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition are placed along is being o set through professional development or three adoption horizons that indicate likely timeframes informal learning, but we are far from seeing digital for their entrance into mainstream use for teaching, media literacy as an expected norm for academic learning, and creative inquiry. The near-term horizon professionals, nor as a key part of degree programs. assumes the likelihood of entry into the mainstream for higher education institutions within the next twelve 4  Institutional barriers present formidable challenges to moving forward in a constructive way with emerging technologies. Too often it is months; the mid-term horizon, within two to three years; and the far-term, within four to ve years. It should be noted at the outset that the NMC Horizon Report is not a education’s own processes and practices that limit predictive tool. It is meant, rather, to highlight emerging broader uptake of new technologies. Much resistance technologies with considerable potential for our focus to change is simply comfort with the status quo, but in areas of education and interpretation. Each of the six other cases, such as in promotion and tenure reviews, is already the target of work at a number of innovative experimentation with or adoptions of clearly innovative organizations around the world, and the projects we applications of technologies is often seen as outside the showcase here reveal the promise of a wider impact. role of researcher or scientist. Near-term Horizon 5  New modes of scholarship are presenting signi cant challenges for libraries and university collections, how scholarship is documented, and the On the near-term horizon — that is, within the next 12 months — are mobile apps and tablets. These two topics have become pervasive in everyday life, at least business models to support these activities. While the in the developed world, and students at universities and university library has traditionally housed collections of colleges have ever-increasing expectations of being scholarly resources, social networks and new publishing able to learn on these devices whenever and wherever paradigms, such as open content, are challenging the they may be. This year tablets have been separated from library’s role as curator. Students and educators are mobiles as a distinct category, preserving mobiles as a increasingly able to access important, historic research descriptor used for typical hand-held devices designed in web browsers on devices of their choosing. As such, to make calls. libraries are under tremendous pressure to evolve new ways of supporting and curating scholarship. > Mobile apps are the fastest growing dimension of the mobile space in higher education right now, with These trends and challenges are a re ection of the impacts on virtually every aspect of informal life, impact of technology that is occurring in almost every and increasingly, every discipline in the university. aspect of our lives. They are indicative of the changing Always-connected Internet devices using 3G
  • 11. Executive Summary 7 and similar cellular networks, imbedded sensors, > Game-based learning has grown in recent years as cameras, and GPS have proved to be a feature set research continues to demonstrate its e ectiveness with hundreds of thousands of applications. Apps for learning. Games for education span the range that take advantage of recent developments in these from single-player or small-group card and board tools, along with advances in electronic publishing games all the way to massively multiplayer online and the convergence of search technology and games and alternate reality games. Those at the location awareness, made this category of software enormously interesting in a higher education context. Higher education institutions are now designing apps The NMC Horizon Report is not a tailored to educational and research needs across the curriculum. predictive tool. It is meant, rather, > Tablet computing presents new opportunities to enhance learning experiences in ways simply not to highlight emerging technologies possible with other devices. High-resolution screens allow users of tablets, such as the iPad, to easily share with considerable potential for content with each other and pore over images and videos on the screen. As people tend to use tablets to our focus areas of education and supplement and not replace smartphones, they are viewed as less disruptive tools (no phone ringing and interpretation. no incoming text messages), which makes them ideal rst end of the spectrum are easy to integrate into tools for learning opportunities. Because tablets are the curriculum, and have long been an option in able to tap into all the advantages that mobile apps many higher education institutions; but the greatest bring to smaller devices, but in a larger format, higher potential of games for learning lies in their ability to education institutions are seeing them not just as an foster collaboration and engage students deeply in a ordable solution for one-to-one learning, but also the process of learning. Once educational gaming as a feature-rich tool for eld and lab work, often providers can match the volume and quality of their times replacing far more expensive and cumbersome consumer-driven counterparts, games will garner devices and equipment. more attention. Mid-term Horizon > Learning analytics loosely joins a variety of data- The second adoption horizon, two to three years out, gathering tools and analytic techniques to study is where we will begin to see widespread adoptions student engagement, performance, and progress of two technologies that are experiencing growing in practice, with the goal of using what is learned interest within higher education: game-based learning to revise curricula, teaching, and assessment in real and learning analytics. Educational gaming brings time. Building on the kinds of information generated an increasingly credible promise to make learning by Google Analytics and other similar tools, learning experiences more engaging for students, while at analytics aims to mobilize the power of data-mining the same time improving important skills, such as tools in the service of learning, and embrace the collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking. Over complexity, diversity, and abundance of information the past year, learning analytics has garnered a lot of that dynamic learning environments can generate. attention. The ability to synthesize data in real-time is exciting because it changes the structure of the Far-term Horizon learning dynamic — educators can use the data to On the far-term horizon, set at four to ve years away from make adjustments to their teaching style that better widespread adoption, are gesture-based computing caters to student needs. and the Internet of Things. Gesture-based technology
  • 12. 8 NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition has enabled students to learn by doing. Interfaces that environmental data such as temperature or humidity react to touch, movement, voice, and facial expression (and much more) attached to it; and then communicate allow more freedom in how we interact with our the status of that information on demand, whether devices. The Internet of Things, a notion rst outlined by optically or via electromagnetic frequencies. With Vint Cerf as one of the many reasons to move to IPv6 to the advent of the new internet Protocol, version six, expand the address space of the Internet, is converging those objects can now have an IP address, enabling with smart objects, and fueling considerable innovation their information store to be accessed in the same in how these devices communicate with each other and way a webcam might be, allowing real-time access with us. Smart objects are already well established in to that information from anywhere. At the same time, new wireless communication strategies, such as near eld communication, are making it easier for smart Interfaces that react to touch, objects to connect to networks. The implications are not yet clear, but it is evident that hundreds of movement, voice, and facial billions of devices — from delicate lab equipment to refrigerators to next-generation home security expression allow more freedom in systems — will soon be designed to take advantage of such connections. how we interact with our devices. Each of these technologies is described in detail in the the commercial sector and range along a continuum main body of the report, where a discussion of what from RFID sensors to near eld communication (NFC). the technology is and why it is relevant to teaching, These technology topics do not yet have an abundance learning, or creative inquiry may also be found. Given of well-documented project examples in higher the practical focus of the report, a listing of examples education, but the high level of interest found in both of the technology in use, especially in higher education, areas indicates that they are worth following closely. is a key component of each of the six main topics. Our research indicates that all six of these technologies, taken > Gesture-based computing moves the control together, will have a signi cant impact on learning- of computers from a mouse and keyboard to focused organizations within the next ve years. the motions of the body, facial expressions, and voice recognition via new input devices. It makes The NMC Horizon Project interactions with computational devices far more This report is part of a longitudinal research study of intuitive and embodied. From the touchscreens on emerging technologies that began in March 2002. Since smartphones to the gesture and voice interpretation that time, under the banner of the Horizon Project, the of the latest gaming systems (Xbox Kinect and NMC and its research partners have held an ongoing Nintendo Wii) and virtual assistants, gesture-based series of conversations and dialogs with its advisory computing enables users to learn by doing and boards — now more than 450 technology professionals, facilitates the convergence of a user’s thoughts with campus technologists, faculty leaders from colleges and their movements. Large multi-touch displays support universities, museum professionals, teachers and other collaborative work, allowing multiple users to interact school professionals, and representatives of leading with content simultaneously. corporations from more than thirty countries. For more than a decade, these conversations have been mined to > The Internet of Things is the latest turn in the provide the insights on emerging technology that are evolution of smart objects — a category of small published annually in the NMC Horizon Report series. devices or methods that enable an object to be assigned a unique identi er; contain small bits of This report, the NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher information, such as the object’s age, shelf life, and Education Edition, kicks o the tenth year of the
  • 13. Executive Summary 9 series, which is dedicated to charting the landscape fuel the work of the NMC Horizon Project throughout of emerging technologies for teaching, learning, and 2012. For those wanting to know more about the creative inquiry in higher education globally. In 2008, processes used to generate the NMC Horizon Report the NMC added to the three main NMC Horizon Reports series, many of which are ongoing and extend the work a new series of regional and sector-based studies, called in the reports, we refer you to the report’s nal section the NMC Technology Outlooks, with the dual goals of on the research methodology. understanding how technology is being absorbed using a smaller lens, and also noting the contrasts between technology use in one area compared to another. To date, the NMC has conducted studies of technology uptake in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and Iberoamerica, and has plans in place to expand that The 47 members of this year’s research to Central Europe, India, Singapore, and Africa. This report, the agship publication of the NMC Horizon Project, is translated into multiple languages every advisory board were purposely year. Over all editions, the readership of the reports is estimated at more than one million worldwide, with chosen to represent a broad readers in some 100 countries. spectrum of the higher education The 47 members of this year’s advisory board were purposely chosen to represent a broad spectrum of sector; key writers, thinkers, the higher education sector; key writers, thinkers, technologists, and futurists from education, business, technologists, and futurists from and industry rounded out the group. They engaged in a comprehensive review and analysis of research, education, business, and industry articles, papers, blogs, and interviews; discussed existing applications, and brainstormed new ones; and rounded out the group. ultimately ranked the items on the list of candidate technologies for their potential relevance to teaching, learning, or creative inquiry. This work took place entirely online and may be reviewed on the project wiki at horizon.wiki.nmc.org. The e ort to produce the NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition began in November 2011, and concluded when the report was released in February 2012, a period of just over three months. The six technologies and applications that emerged at the top of the nal rankings — two per adoption horizon — are detailed in the chapters that follow. Each of those chapters includes detailed descriptions, links to active demonstration projects, and a wide array of additional resources related to the six pro led technologies. Those pro les are the heart of the NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition, and will
  • 14. 10 NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition Mobile Apps Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less T here is a revolution that is taking place in collections of apps, and adding to your set is as simple software development that parallels the as it is inexpensive. changes in recent years in the music, publishing, and retail industries. Mass market is giving The app software model is clearly working: ABI research way to niche market, and with it, the era of shows that over 18 billion apps had been downloaded highly priced large suites of integrated software is in the Apple marketplace by October 2011, and over ten giving way to a new view of what software should be. billion in the Android marketplace by December the Smartphones including the iPhone and Android have same year. Those numbers just scratch the surface of rede ned what we mean by mobile computing, and in the anticipated growth of mobile apps. A recent study the past three to four years, the small, often simple, by Distimo predicted that 44 billions apps will have low cost software extensions to these devices — apps been downloaded by 2016 — or, around seven apps per — have become a hotbed of development. New tools person across the entire population of the earth. are free or sell for as little as 99 cents, and anyone can be a developer. A popular app can see millions of The assortment of available apps is wide-ranging, from downloads in a short time, and that potential market those that extend the camera or sensors on the device has spawned a ood of creativity that is instantly (“Siesmometer”, “Hipstamatic,” and “360”); to new forms apparent in the extensive collections available in the of newspapers and magazines (“McSweeny’s”); to games app stores — themselves a new way of delivering that make use of gestures in clever ways (“Angry Birds”); software that reduces distribution and marketing to new forms of mapping tools (“StarWalk”); to apps costs signi cantly. Apple’s app store opened in July that make restaurant recommendations based on the 2008; Google’s followed in October of that year. Since user’s location (“Urbanspoon”). What makes apps as a then, simple but useful apps have found their way into category interesting are two key factors: the rst is that almost every form of human endeavor. there are so many to choose from — one can nd an app to support almost any interest or endeavor, and the Overview possibilities expand every day. The second is that they With the advent of mobile apps, the way we think about are inexpensive — rare is an app on someone’s mobile software itself is changing, and whole industries are that costs more than $1.99. Taken together, the result adjusting to a new world in which sophisticated but is that it is both easy and economical to completely simple tools routinely sell for 99 cents. In contrast with customize a device to suit one’s own interests. the model for desktop applications that stack feature upon feature in a one-size- ts-all approach, mobile The best apps are tightly integrated with the capabilities apps are small, simple, and elegant. They generally of the device itself, using location data, motion do one thing, or a small list of tightly related things, detection, gestures, access to social networks, and web extraordinarily well. They cost so little, trial versions are search, to seamlessly create a full-featured experience. unnecessary, and it is simple to out t a tablet or mobile As just one example, users are now able to not only phone with exactly the feature set you want for far read an article foregrounded because of its relation to less than you would pay for typical desktop software. the user’s location, but also to share it with their social Both Apple and Google have developed extensive networks, make comments, swipe over an image to see
  • 15. Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less 11 more, and store speci c content to read at a later date video, audio, and imaging. Mobile apps encompass — all within a typical newspaper app. it all, and innovation in mobile device development continues at an unprecedented pace. In the last year, new additions to mobile operating systems have made it easier for newspapers, periodicals, The potential of mobile computing is already being and other subscription-based publications to migrate demonstrated in hundreds of projects at higher to mobile devices. Print and online publications, such education institutions. Since 2009, Abilene Christian as Time, Wired, or Mashable, provide users with new University has provided each student with an iPhone material on a regular basis, sometimes sending the or iPod Touch, in addition to o ering professors user alerts when there is a new edition, breaking news, or a story that is relevant to the user’s interests. Mobile apps designed for tablets have given many traditional print-based publications a new life, and new tools, such The mobile app marketplace reflects as iBook Author, are making it very easy for anyone to create and publish media-rich interactive pieces. an expanding world of resources that The newest version of iBook is optimized for viewing interactive textbooks, and it seems that the e-readers fits into the palm of a hand. for the Kindle and Android platforms are heading the mobile training and support. The institution has been same direction. developing apps to extend learning outside of the classroom and documenting the results along the way The mobile app marketplace re ects an expanding in an annual mobile learning study. At the most basic world of resources that ts into the palm of a hand. level, many universities and colleges have developed While the adoption of apps has been especially map and directory apps for current students to navigate apparent in the consumer sector, there has also been a campuses and for prospective students to take virtual great interest in apps that illustrate scienti c and related tours or to enhance physical tours. concepts via tools that also have practical application. Apps that support learning are commonplace. Fun, As institutions begin to understand the potential of easy-to-use tools can be found for budding chefs, apps, they have built in features for students to check astronomers, physicists, artists, musicians, book lovers, their grades, or to update them with sports scores or and writers — and all of them are designed to go with breaking campus news. Ohio State University’s mobile you anywhere and to be available with a tap on a screen. app includes a campus directory, plus library resources The higher education sector is beginning to capitalize and personal information that is tied to each student’s on this by integrating mobile apps into the curriculum ID. Higher education institutions have also been and designing their own to encompass course materials designing apps that enhance the classroom learning and campus maps. experience. The University of Warwick in the UK created an app that quizzes medical students on the human Relevance for Teaching, Learning, or anatomy and various laboratory scenarios using video Creative Inquiry and audio clips. Mobile apps embody the convergence of several technologies that lend themselves to educational use, While institutions are rapidly developing their own apps, including annotation tools, applications for creation they are also making use of external ones. Popular apps and composition, and social networking tools. GPS include those that help students and educators stay and compasses allow sophisticated location and organized and exchange their ndings and ideas with positioning, accelerometers and motion sensors enable peers. Many apps, when coupled with digital textbooks, the apps to be designed and used in completely new ease the transition for students who are accustomed ways, digital capture and editing bring rich tools for to print books. For example, “Good Reader” is an app
  • 16. 12 NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition that enables users to highlight, annotate, sketch, and organized outlines in addition to attaching notes add footnotes to e-books — just as they would in the to speci c topics or automatically arranging them print version. “JotNot Pro” is another app that allows based on common themes. The app has built in social professors to digitally distribute course documents and features that allow students to share their project students to instantly scan printed documents and store plans with each other. go.nmc.org/qnquw them on their device. > University Services. Professor Catheryn Cheal at As mobile apps become an important xture in the Oakland University, Michigan sends her students to business world, many universities and colleges have ve speci c campus locations with the “SCVNGR” app deployed special courses and programs to teach on their smartphones. They answer questions about student entrepreneurs how to design, develop, and visual rhetorical space into their phone at each site. market them. Vanderbilt University founded the Once back in the classroom, they have the background Vanderbilt Mobile Application Team in 2009 to prepare to write their essays in a learning management system. their students for high technology jobs. Since the group go.nmc.org/hochw was founded, participating students have developed three award-winning apps. All of their work is open Mobile Apps in Practice source, and can be used as a learning model at other The following links provide examples of mobile apps in institutions. At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a use in higher education settings: faculty associate in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication has incorporated app development Berkley Mobile International Collaborative into her magazine publishing class, recognizing that go.nmc.org/pramk mobile devices are taking on a prominent role in the In the Berkeley Mobile International Collaborative, magazine industry. student-created mobile apps will be judged based on business model and utility, with ten nalist university The increasing availability of network access means teams competing in Barcelona. that the growing capabilities of mobiles are available to more students in more locations each year. Educational The Cleveland Historical App institutions around the world are investing in the go.nmc.org/aeeue infrastructure that supports mobile access, sponsoring “Cleveland Historical” is an interactive and GPS-enabled programs that provide devices to students who do not app, providing historical information on speci c sites already have them, and commissioning custom mobile within the city in the form of images, audio, and video applications to serve their communities. clips. “Cleveland Historical” is curated by the Center for Public History and Digital Humanities with stories A sampling of applications of mobile apps across contributed from community members, teachers, disciplines includes the following: professors, and students. > Multimedia Production. Students in the iPrinceton Instructional Systems program at Penn State go.nmc.org/oadcp University are developing a mobile video app for Princeton University’s free “iPrinceton” app enables users video ethnographers to record and annotate video in to catch up on athletic and academic news, browse a the eld. The app allows users to add, edit, and delete full library catalog, and connect to the university’s social text annotations displayed alongside the video media pages. The app also connects with Blackboard for footage. go.nmc.org/waxvi direct course support at any point. > Project Management. Using the mobile app “MindJet,” students can create mind maps and
  • 17. Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less 13 Stanford University’s iPhone and iPad Apps Course How to Build a University Mobile Application: Best go.nmc.org/tvlvs Practice and Insight Lectures and slides from Stanford’s iPhone and iPad go.nmc.org/qnbcv application development course can now be freely (Karen Eustice, The Guardian, 8 December 2011.) This accessed online through iTunes U. The appearance article compares the di erent avenues universities of the course material made iTunes history with one are taking in creating and updating their mobile apps, million downloads by the seventh week. showing the e ciency and reasoning behind each option from the developer’s perspective. The University of Michigan’s Mobile Apps Center go.nmc.org/sewzg Smartphones on Campus: the Search for ‘Killer’ Apps University of Michigan’s Mobile Apps Center brings go.nmc.org/wskke together instruction and app building resources to (Je rey R. Young, The Chronicle of Higher Education, allow students and faculty to create and distribute 8 May 2011.) There is no one size ts all app because useful apps to the U-M community. diversity in professors and courses leads to mobile apps being used in varying degrees and manners. This University of Virginia iPhone and Android Apps article explores di erent examples of apps bene ting go.nmc.org/xaess professors and students, and how they are providing The University of Virginia has developed its campus app links from the classroom to the community. through WillowTree apps. Augmented reality features allow users to personalize their maps. The app has many Taking Mobile Applications Into the Cloud components useful for alumni too, allowing them to go.nmc.org/zzrut follow sporting events live and easily connect with UVA (Mary Grush, Campus Technology, 31 August 2011.) clubs and contacts. Because mobile devices are limited in their capabilities, researchers are looking to resource-rich cloud-based For Further Reading services that, when integrated with mobile apps, will The following articles and resources are recommended expand the depth of information mobile phones can for those who wish to learn more about mobile apps: access and the range of their function. 7 Things You Should Know about Mobile App University Leverages Mobile App to Keep Students Development Connected go.nmc.org/velrd go.nmc.org/ehjiw (EDUCAUSE, 19 April 2011.) This guide provides (Je Goldman, Mobile Enterprise, 17 October 11.) This higher education institutions with helpful information article on Indiana State University’s mobile app powered to take into consideration when building an app, by Pryxis Mobile describes the challenges and decisions including accessibility standards and enterprise system that were a part of the app building process, as well as integration opportunities. marketing and monitoring the nished product. Can the iPhone Save Higher Education? go.nmc.org/abuoc (John Cox, NetworkWorld, 23 March 2010.) Exploring the e ect of digital devices for teaching and learning, Abilene Christian University has focused on mobile phones and how they are changing the classroom. The lecturer to student model is becoming a more collaborative and interactive model, now that instructors and students have ubiquitous and equal access to information.
  • 18. 14 NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition Tablet Computing Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less I n the past year, advances in tablet computers have Immensely portable, tablets are already a signi cant captured the imagination of educators around the distribution element for magazines and e-books. iOS world. Led by the incredible success of the iPad, 5 even includes a newsstand that allows quick and which in the fourth quarter of 2011 was selling easy access to newspapers and magazines and new at the rate of more than 3 million units a month, subscriptions — with a mere touch. Even without other similar devices such as the Samsung Galaxy and extending their functionality via the full range of Sony’s Tablet S have also begun to enter this rapidly mobile apps, tablets serve as nicely sized video players growing new market. In the process, tablets (a form with instant access to an enormous library of content; that is distinct from tablet PCs) have come to be viewed digital readers for books, magazines, and newspapers; as not just a new category of mobile devices, but real-time two-way video phones; easily sharable photo indeed a new technology in its own right — one that viewers and even cameras; fast, easy email and web blends features of laptops, smartphones, and earlier browsers; and rich, full-featured game platforms — tablet computers with always-connected Internet, all in a slim, lightweight, portable package that ts in and thousands of apps with which to personalize a purse or briefcase — but which signi cantly omits the experience. As these new devices have become a traditional keyboard. That design choice, and the more used and understood, it is clear that they are implications it brings for interacting with the device, is a independent and distinct from other mobile devices key reason that tablets are not a new kind of lightweight such as smartphones, e-readers, or tablet PCs. With laptop, but rather a completely new computing device. signi cantly larger screens and richer gestured-based interfaces than their smartphone predecessors, they When the iPad was introduced, it was described as a “lean are ideal tools for sharing content, videos, images, back” experience as contrasted to the “lean forward” and presentations because they are easy for anyone experience of typical computers. While second market to use, visually compelling, and highly portable. and wireless keyboards are available for tablets, the real innovation in these devices is in how they are used. A Overview swipe, a tap, or a pinch allows the user to interact with Led by the category-de ning phenomenon that is the the device in completely new ways that are so intuitive Apple iPad, tablets have earned their own listing in the and simple they require no manuals or instructions. The NMC Horizon Report this year, completely distinct from device itself encourages exploration of its capabilities, mobiles. According to a recent study from comScore, something easily demonstrated by simply placing the the iPad now accounts for 97% of all tablet-based device in the hands of a small child. For times when a web tra c in the U.S. and 46.8% of all mobile web keyboard is needed, a custom-con gured software tra c. Similar statistics show tablets are increasingly keyboard appears, but the best-designed apps make the device of choice not just for web browsing, but little or no use of it. also social networking and reading news. Competing models, including Motorola’s Xoom and Samsung’s Screen technology has advanced to the point that Galaxy Tab have not yet enjoyed the success of the iPad, tablets are exceptionally e ective at displaying visual but together, these companies have solidi ed tablets as content, such as photographs, books, and video; similar the new family of devices to watch. advances in gesture-based computing have moved
  • 19. Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less 15 tablets far beyond the point and click capabilities of More and more institutions are providing their students touchscreens, and tablets are engaging and intuitive with iPad devices that come pre-loaded with course devices to use. These combinations of features are materials, digital textbooks, and other helpful resources. especially enticing to educational institutions at all Under the Gri n Technology Advantage at Seton Hill levels, and many K-12 institutions are considering University, for example, all full-time students receive an tablets as a cost-e ective alternative to the netbook iPad 2. Similarly, the University of Southern Mississippi when planning a one-to-one deployment. In these is piloting up to 1,000 Galaxy Tab 10.1 devices that and other group settings, their large screens — and will be issued to students, loaded with Blackboard the ease with which the image automatically adjusts Mobile™ Learn. Students and professors, sharing the its orientation to the viewer — make it easy to share same hardware and software, will experience and share content. audio, video, and other learning materials. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of tablets is that Because these types of tablet programs are relatively they owe their heritage not to the desktop, but to the new, many universities and colleges are conducting mobile phone. Both iOS and Android-based tablets in depth studies to measure their outcomes. Studies are designed with the app model rmly in mind, and including those at Abilene Christian University, hundreds of thousands of specialized apps are available Oberlin College, the Missouri University of Science and to extend the functionality of tablets. Apps for tablets Technology, and many others have generally found have many features in common with mobile apps, such as seamless use of location awareness, network connections, and other built-in sensors, but the larger screen real estate allows for more detailed interfaces Because of their portability, large or viewing area. Also similar to smartphone apps, apps for tablets are inexpensive and very easy to add to the display, and touchscreen, tablets device, using the same tools and online stores. are ideal devices for one-to-one Relevance for Teaching, Learning, or learning, as well as fieldwork. Creative Inquiry Because of their portability, large display, and that integrating tablets into the curriculum has led to touchscreen, tablets are ideal devices for one-to-one increased student engagement and has enhanced learning, as well as eldwork. Many institutions are learning experiences. However, higher education beginning to rely on them in place of cumbersome institutions are just beginning to delve into more laboratory equipment, video equipment, and various research surrounding some of the many potential uses other expensive tools that are not nearly as portable or of tablets, including the replacement of print textbooks as inexpensive to replace. with e-books, the wide use of specialized apps, the expanded use of the devices’ built-in sensors, GPS, For example, the iPad has become an integral instrument gesture interface, cameras, video and audio tools, and in the cadaver laboratories at the University of California, more. Irvine. Images of body structures and radiographic lms can be easily explored and manipulated on-screen, and With their growing number of features, tablets give apps such as “Epocrates Essentials” provide a mobile traction to other educational technologies — from drug and disease reference at students’ ngertips (go. facilitating the real-time data mining needed to support nmc.org/epeif ). Similarly, Duke University has been learning analytics to o ering a plethora of game-based exploring the use of the iPad as an e cient way to learning apps. What makes tablets so powerful is that collect global health research (go.nmc.org/fqxpm). students already use these or very similar devices outside the classroom to download apps, connect
  • 20. 16 NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition to their social networks, and immerse themselves in iPad Makes Wall Street Debut informal learning experiences. As such, students are go.nmc.org/swnbt already quite comfortable using them in both academic During Drew University’s Wall Street Semester program, and social settings. students will be equipped with an iPad and apps that access and interpret nancial information. Conveniently, A sampling of tablet computing applications across students can read course materials on their iPads instead disciplines includes the following: of carrying books, and digitally compose documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. > Chemistry. In organic chemistry laboratories at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, wall- The iPad Replaces University Textbooks mounted iPads are equipped with a kiosk app to go.nmc.org/vblpb deliver video reviews of the lab techniques most The University of Adelaide will replace textbooks needed by the students. Students also use the with Apple iPads for rst year students in its Science iPads throughout the chemistry courses to clarify program. The University sees this as a way to allow the experiment set-up and answer other procedural evolution of student learning environments to augment questions. go.nmc.org/hjjvi individual student growth. > Lecture Capture. Tablet apps, such as McGraw Hill’s Solar-Powered iPad Devices “Tegrity,” are used by the University of Colorado, go.nmc.org/ctjzq Georgia Tech University, Fordham Law School, and In partnership with Apple, the Zimbabwe government is many others as a campus-wide solution for recording bringing solar-powered iPad devices to rural institutions and deploying class lectures. go.nmc.org/zmgnp across Africa that have not had consistent — or any — computer access in the past due to lack of electricity. > Mathematics. As a collaborative project between the math support centers at three universities — University of Dayton Undergraduate Viewbook Swinburne in Australia, Limerick in Ireland, and go.nmc.org/wdcwm Loughborough in the UK — “MathsCasts” are videos The free University of Dayton Viewbook app gives of mathematical explanations recorded by writing on potential undergraduate students a virtual orientation a tablet. They cover topics with which undergraduate to the school using video content, slideshows, and students typically struggle. All “MathsCasts” carry a interactive feeds to explore academic facilities, Creative Commons license and are available for free programs, opportunities and student life. on the Swinburne website and on iTunes U. go.nmc. org/igmlf Valparaiso College of Engineering Releases iPad App go.nmc.org/yqqhw > Writing. Designed and developed by the University Recent Valparaiso University graduates have developed of Queensland, UQMarkup is an iPad app developed a new interactive digital magazine for the iPad that to facilitate the integration of contextualized audio incorporates videos and photo galleries into stories so and written feedback in student writing assessments. that students, faculty, alumni and anyone interested can The feedback from the app is personalized, and the connect to news and happenings within the College of responses are provided in a short, xed and easily Engineering. understood format. go.nmc.org/hwzcu For Further Reading Tablet Computing in Practice The following articles and resources are recommended The following links provide examples of tablet for those who wish to learn more about tablet computing in use in higher education settings: computing:
  • 21. Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less 17 6 Reasons Tablets are Ready for the Classroom Kindle Fire: Changing the Game in Higher Education? go.nmc.org/lcrin go.nmc.org/hdoru (Vineet Madan, Mashable, 16 May 2011.) This article (Vineet Madan, Geek Wire, 15 November 2011.) This explores the applications of tablet computers in higher article measures the new Kindle Fire to its competitor, education, based on reports from classrooms that have the iPad, citing that the smaller screen of the Kindle Fire participated in pilot studies, citing that iPads t with is the main shortcoming of the device for educational students’ current lifestyles. purposes, since students are looking to use the device to read and access multimedia, such as images and The B-School Case Study Gets a Digital Makeover videos. go.nmc.org/delwj (Erin Zlomek, Bloomberg Business Week, 25 July 2011.) This article demonstrates how tablets allow students a Tablets have come to be viewed convenient way to access and interact with the many business case studies that are a core part of business school curriculum. as not just a new category of Campus Tour Now Comes with an iPad mobile devices, but indeed a new go.nmc.org/hszrt (Jody S. Cohen, Chicago Tribune, 9 October 2011.) technology in its own right — one Bradley University is now distributing iPads during campus tours so that when prospective students are that blends features of laptops, shown areas of the campus, they can also watch videos of events that have taken place there throughout the smartphones, and earlier tablet year. Seeing laboratories and lecture halls in use gives students an understanding of what busy campus computers with always-connected life will be like, even when touring during holidays or summer months. Internet, and thousands of apps with Educators Evaluate Learning Bene ts of iPad which to personalize the experience. go.nmc.org/whlnr (Ian Quillen, Education Week, 15 June 2011.) This article discusses the use of iPad devices as learning tools, and delves into the ongoing discourse about whether they are more viable for one-to-one solutions or as part of a group of shared devices. An iPad University: Giving It the Old College Try go.nmc.org/zxqiy (Lena Groeger, Wired, 22 July 2011.) The University of Southern California has teamed up with TouchAppMedia and 2tor, Inc. to create an online distance learning experience fully accessible with an iPad or mobile device, featuring social integrations like video chat with classmates and sharing notes and ideas on course walls and forums.
  • 22. 18 NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition Game-Based Learning Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years G ame-based learning has gained considerable and appealing to players of various ages and of both traction since 2003, when James Gee began to genders: the feeling of working toward a goal; the describe the impact of game play on cognitive possibility of attaining spectacular successes; the ability development. Since then, research, and interest to problem solve, collaborate with others, and socialize; in, the potential of gaming on learning has an interesting story line; and other characteristics. These exploded, as has the diversity of games themselves, qualities are replicable for educational content, though with the emergence of serious games as a genre, the they can be di cult to design well. This challenge is proliferation of gaming platforms, and the evolution of one reason why game-based learning continues to be games on mobile devices. Developers and researchers placed on the mid-term horizon. are working in every area of game-based learning, including games that are goal-oriented; social game In the most recent National Education Technology Plan, environments; non-digital games that are easy to gaming was named as an ideal method of assessing construct and play; games developed expressly for student knowledge comprehension, citing the ability education; and commercial games that lend themselves of games to provide immediate performance feedback to re ning team and group skills. Role-playing, to the players. Students are engaged because they collaborative problem solving, and other forms of are motivated to do better, get to the next level, and simulated experiences are recognized for having broad succeed. Proponents also underscore the productive applicability across a wide range of disciplines. role of play, which allows for experimentation, the exploration of identities, and even failure. Overview According to Trip Wire Magazine, 61.9 million people In recent years, the Serious Games movement has participated in online social games in 2011, up nearly focused on uniting signi cant educational content 9 million people from 2010. Forty percent of these with play. The games within this genre layer social gamers are between the ages of 20 and 34. The average issues or problems with game play, helping players age of the American gamer is now 35-years-old, which gain a new perspective through active engagement. correlates with the early 1980s timeline in which the rst Research shows that players readily connect with digital games appeared with the rst home computers. learning material when doing so will help them achieve Ten years later, the web was born, and games began to personally meaningful goals. Purdue University’s be delivered over the Internet. The three most recent Serious Games Center is just one of the many programs cohorts of children — those born in the early 1980s, dedicated to conducting research and nding new the early 1990s, and the early 2000s — have grown up means of collaboration with Serious Games in virtual in a world where digital games have always been an environments. important part of their lives, and entered or graduated from higher education institutions with hundreds of Another area of gaming that is increasingly interesting hours of gaming experience. for higher education institutions is simulation-based games. Militaries worldwide have adopted games and Early studies of consumer games helped to identify the simulations across the entire range of skills training aspects of games that make them especially engaging they provide, and the game-design insights from that
  • 23. Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years 19 tremendous body of work are beginning to inform solutions. The ideas players have proposed have simulations designed for graduate students studying earned them opportunities to put their proposals into and training in speci c subjects including medicine. practice through internships with social innovators and “Emergency Room: Code Red” is one such popular business leaders around the world, and scholarships game. or funding for their own ventures. Stanford University created “Septris,” an HTML5 mobile simulation game The 2011 edition of this report viewed massively that teaches practicing physicians and nurses about multiplayer online (MMO) games as still a few years Sepsis (blood poisoning) identi cation, triage, and further out for learning, but increasingly interesting. management. Learners play the part of a physician This year, there has been more traction surrounding this genre of gaming. Online games including “Minecraft” and “World of Warcraft” have been integrated into Proponents underscore the course curriculum, with educators and educational technology writers frequently documenting their stories and outcomes. This type of game brings many productive role of play, which allows players together to work on activities that require collaborative problem solving. They are complex, and for experimentation, the exploration include solo and group content, as well as goals that tie to a storyline or theme. Their link to education exists of identities, and even failure. in the highest levels of interaction in which game-play managing patients as their health deteriorates. Learners requires teamwork, leadership, and discovery. read history, order labs, and assign treatments to multiple patients at a time. Relevance for Teaching, Learning, or Creative Inquiry The browser-based game “Ikariam” simulates life in Game-based learning re ects a number of important ancient civilizations, and players learn about economics skills higher education institutions strive for their and civic responsibility by building up the economy and students to acquire: collaboration, problem solving, caring for the residents on virtual islands. Some higher communication, critical thinking, and digital literacy. education institutions are taking the incorporation What makes educational gaming appealing today is of socially aware games a step further and designing the plethora of genres and applications associated with entire courses around them. St. Edward’s University it. From role-playing games to online social games to recently launched a pilot section of a required Cultural entire courses created around teaching better game Foundations course with an emphasis on the use of design, aspects of game mechanics are well integrated social media and experiential learning approaches. in higher education curriculum. Their “Global Social Problems” course was designed using “heroic gaming” strategies. All course activities Games related speci cally to course content help were rooted in a common set of heroic values and were students gain a fresh perspective on material and represented as “character traits” on each student’s pro le. can potentially engage them in that content in more complex and nuanced ways. Alternate reality games Open-ended, challenge-based, truly collaborative (ARGs), in which players nd clues and solve puzzles games are an emerging category of games that seems in experiences that blur the boundary between the especially appropriate for higher education. Games like game and real life, o er a clear example in which course these, which occur in both online and non-digital forms, content and game play can overlap. Recent examples can draw on skills for research, writing, collaboration, of large-scale ARGs include Jane McGonigal’s “EVOKE,” problem solving, public speaking, leadership, digital a social networking game that simulates real global literacy, and media-making. When embedded in the issues to empower people to nd new and innovative curriculum, they o er a path into the material that allows
  • 24. 20 NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition the student to learn how to learn along with mastering compares the student’s performance to that of a the subject matter. These games lend themselves to professional musician. go.nmc.org/udrgw curricular content, requiring students to discover and construct knowledge in order to solve problems. They > Online Learning. Students in an Adult Education are challenging to design well, but the results can be undergraduate online course at the University of transformative. British Columbia are participating in a role-playing game, in which they are reporters who are writing The challenge that persists with educational games articles for an imaginary journal called Adult Educator — a good indicator of why they still reside on the mid- Weekly. They also post comments as “readers” and term horizon — is embedding traditional educational vote for the best article. The results showed that the students posted more in the journal than they used to in LMS discussion forums. go.nmc.org/yvrzz Open-ended, challenge-based, truly > Science. “MicroExplorer3D,” developed by North collaborative games are an emerging Carolina State University, provides an avenue for students who do not have access to a microscopy category of games that seems lab to learn the parts of a compound microscope. Students interact with the 3D model of a compound especially appropriate for higher microscope by clicking (web) or touching (mobile), zoom into detailed views of the parts, and open education. menu items and descriptions with photograph and video examples. go.nmc.org/kwgmb content so that it looks and feels a natural part of playing the game. Faculty members may nd it di cult Game-Based Learning in Practice to make pronounced connections between speci c The following links provide examples of game-based course content and the gaming objectives. What is learning in use in higher education settings: known, however, is that these games spark interest in students to expand their learning outside of the game. 3D GameLab Constance Steinkuehler, for example, founding fellow go.nmc.org/vedmb of the Games+Learning+Society Initiative, found that Developed by Boise State University, 3D GameLab is the average MMO gamer spends 10-15 hours per week a unique quest-based learning platform that can turn conducting online research related to the game. Digital any classroom into a living game. 3D GameLab helps and communication literacy goes hand in hand with teachers tie innovative learning activities to standards, game play, which is why it continues to be of great providing learners choice while they game their way interest to educators. through a competency-based curriculum. A sampling of applications of game-based learning Cycles of Your Cognitive Learning, Expectations, across disciplines includes the following: and Schema go.nmc.org/gcogy > Music. In McGill University’s “Open Orchestra” A University at Albany research team is developing a simulation game, a workstation uses high de nition video game that will show people negative aspects of panoramic video and surround sound to provide their own decision-making processes, speci cally when musicians with the experience of playing in an they are confronted with incomplete information and orchestra or singing in an opera. A touchscreen in the operating under time pressure. music stand displays an electronic version of the score and the system controls, as well as a visualization that
  • 25. Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years 21 GAMeS Lab at Radford University to successfully incorporate gaming into university and go.nmc.org/qlohz college curriculum, underscoring that game-based The purpose of the Games, Animation, Modeling and learning is not a solution for all subjects and that games Simulation (GAMeS) Lab at Radford University is to are no quick x, but take research and classroom testing design interactive mobile games and study their impact by the educator to ascertain their success. on student engagement and learning. The GAMeS Lab has designed iPod Touch and iPad games for schools in Games and Learning: Teaching as Designing rural, southwestern Virginia, and is collaborating with go.nmc.org/cooat the participating educators to determine how best to (James Gee, The Hu ngton Post, 21 April 2011.) James integrate these games within the existing curricula. Gee builds a case for games as catalysts for more interaction, creativity, and critical thinking in learning. Meet the Earthwork Builders He likens gamers to designers as they must understand go.nmc.org/cyaow the “rule system” to be successful. Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, a team of content specialists and game developers is Games in the Library making a video game prototype about the Newark go.nmc.org/fmtam Earthworks, an ancient lunar observatory in Newark, (Anastasia Salter, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Ohio. Through the game, players will learn about the 13 December 2011.) This article takes a logistical lunar observatory and gain a more global understanding perspective to game-based learning, focusing on the of di erent cultures. di culty of disseminating a gaming experience to a large classroom of varying students, and proposing that SciEthics Interactive a game library is a good option to provide access and go.nmc.org/khreb information as well as to track inventory. This project, funded by HP and the National Science Foundation, is designed to create virtual simulations with A Neurologist Makes the Case for the Video Game a science and ethics focus. Upper level undergraduate Model as a Learning Tool and graduate students can experience real world go.nmc.org/rqvxp situations in the safety of a virtual environment. (Judy Willis, Edutopia, 14 April 2011.) The neurologist behind this article equates the success of game-based simSchool learning with the release of dopamine, a physiological go.nmc.org/dkbbl response to a prosperous choice or action, and outlines A ight simulator for teachers, simSchool provides the phases of this natural learning process. challenging teaching scenarios that develop the knowledge and skills needed for classroom success. What Does Game-Based Learning O er Higher Research has indicated that training time on the Education? simulator makes a signi cant di erence in a teacher’s go.nmc.org/qcuno self-e cacy and sense of the focus of control. (Justin Marquis, OnlineUniversities.com, 14 October 2011.) This article explores the bene ts of gaming at For Further Reading the university level by breaking down a hypothesis The following articles and resources are recommended by game designer, Jane McGonigal, which recognizes for those who wish to learn more about game-based speci c positive attributes of gamers that can translate learning: to productivity in the classroom and beyond. 5 Teaching Tips for Professors — From Video Games go.nmc.org/lssnv (Je rey R. Young, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 24 January 2010.) This article shares best practices on how
  • 26. 22 NMC Horizon Report: 2012 Higher Education Edition Learning Analytics Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years L earning analytics refers to the interpretation of Learning analytics was featured in the NMC Horizon a wide range of data produced by and gathered Report: 2011 Higher Education Edition on the far-term on behalf of students in order to assess academic horizon. This year, largely because of a major initiative progress, predict future performance, and spot focused on its re nement, the topic has been moved potential issues. Data are collected from explicit to the mid-term horizon, and is poised to make the student actions, such as completing assignments and transition from concept to practice. In 2010, EDUCAUSE taking exams, and from tacit actions, including online announced a major program in partnership with the social interactions, extracurricular activities, posts on Gates Foundation under the Next Generation Learning discussion forums, and other activities that are not Initiative that identi ed learning analytics as one of directly assessed as part of the student’s educational ve key areas for development. That same year, the HP progress. The goal of learning analytics is to enable Catalyst Initiative established the Measuring Learning teachers and schools to tailor educational opportunities Consortium, led by Carnegie Mellon University, in which to each student’s level of need and ability in close-to- several large-scale international learning analytics real time. Learning analytics promises to harness the projects are working towards common solutions. These power of advances in data mining, interpretation, projects, and others located at a number of higher and modeling to improve understandings of teaching education institutions, are driving not only the science and learning, and to tailor education to individual behind learning analytics, but also interest. As the students more e ectively. Still in its early stages, science and technical aspects of learning analytics are learning analytics responds to calls for accountability solved, one can expect to see signi cant development on campuses and aims to leverage the vast amount of activity as campuses begin to implement learning data produced by students in academic activities. analytics strategies. Overview This interest has not escaped large publishers, such as At its heart, learning analytics is about analyzing the McGraw Hill (“Connect”) and Pearson (“MyLabs”), who wealth of information about students in a way that have begun to establish their own learning analytics would allow schools to make informed adjustments solutions and have hired dedicated employees whose to a student’s learning experience, drawing on new job is to provide learning analytics expertise as the ways of observing patterns in complex data. This emerging technology evolves. The initial focus of sort of intervention is not new — school counselors these e orts is on integration with existing learning and student services professionals have long used management systems (LMS). Several researchers information such as student attendance records, grades, feel that this is a necessary part of a comprehensive teacher observations, test scores, and the like to identify solution, but is insu cient. To move learning analytics at-risk students. Learning analytics builds on this forward, many would argue that analytics must include heritage, but aims to go much further than these tried more than LMS data. Other factors, such as the impact and true strategies, merging information from disparate of the learning environment (especially online, but sources to create a far more robust and nuanced picture also physical environments), knowledge gained via of learning as it happens that can be used to improve informal learning, and metrics on skills including both teaching and learning environments. creativity, leadership, and innovation are seen as