Top 5 Trends - Where Technology Will Take E-learning in 5 Years

   1. Technology Will Drive Collaborative Learning

Collaboration is no longer a hyped-up buzz word; it’s everywhere. It’s being fostered in the workplace because sometimes the best ideas come from just having conversations with others. Facebook, Google, Yahoo – the biggest and brightest are all following this model – and it’s bound to be the next step for e-learning. As one respondent wrote “I hope that technology will enable all participants to contribute to the learning experience. Learning will become a collaborative experience not led by a traditional 'facilitator' pushing content out to consumers, but will result in shared knowledge, experiences and opinions from all to create the 'content'."

 

2. E-learning & M-learning Will Be In Constant Regeneration
While we can see how technology can enable a collaborative elearning system, what if in unison, the Internet is also part of the equation? Imagine your elearning module automatically picking up brand new images via tags, categories, and systematically updating your module with new content. Think about it this way: new laws or regulations are put in place and your old compliance module is void null; the Internet, which is the first medium to pick up this news, will update any content on your module that needs to be fixed. “Once a course is created the information is redundant. The next logical step would be to allow the content to change automatically through sources on the Internet (pictures, content, etc.)” 

 

3. Augmented Realities Will Be The Norm
If Google glasses are already a reality, what’s next? “Learning will become highly augmented…learning about architecture whilst standing at the opera house, looking at what you discussed. This followed by holographic teachers who can stand beside you and help you physically. Finally virtual classrooms through a projected self-meaning you can attend a lecture or tutorial in person even though you’re kicking back with Richard B on his island ;)” 

 

4. Technology Used To Fulfil User’s Needs – Not To Impress Them
Just because it’s cool, doesn’t mean it’s going to help learners. We all know what happens with trends; they hit a peak and then slowly fade away. Technology is not something that should hinder the learning experience because of the cool factor; rather it should effectively foster the user and heighten their knowledge and skillset. “Technology is just another means to deliver the learning of new knowledge, skills and attitudes - we need to ensure we don't add the bells and the whistles for the sake of it. It's like they say on Masterchef, sometimes the best food consists of three well-balanced, quality ingredients. If the technology is poorly used, we'll be faced by another cohort of learners screaming: "Not another elearning course!

 

5. Creating Better Blends
On the other hand, maybe technology will drive users back into the classroom. “I'd like to see technology drive e-learning back into the classroom . . . within reason! It would be great to see technology developments that enable much better integration of online content within traditional classroom environments. Often this is attempted, but it's not often not seamless for participants - technology that better enables in classroom connection of content with facilitators with real participants would be great.”

10 Interesting and rarely known Internet and Technology facts !

1. Amazon, originally was a printed book seller company, now it sells more e-books than printed books.

2. The first banner advertisement on Website was introduced in the year 1994.

3. Facebook reports over 1 billion registered users. Were it a country, it would have had 3rd largest population in the World.

4. During 1980s, an IBM computer was not considered to be 100% compatible if it could not run Microsoft Flight Simulator.

5. Did you know that Email was already around before the World Wide Web came?

6. Every month, domain names are being registered at a rate of more than two million!

7. At the end of year 2012, there were total approximately 17 billion devices (which includes computers, tablets and mobile) connected to the Internet.

8. About 1.8 billion people connect to the Internet, only 450 million of them speak English.

9. Did you know how was Bill Gates's house was designed? Using a Macintosh computer.

10. Microsoft Windows tutorial’s another name is ‘Crash Course’.

Why every education leader must be a tech visionary

Education, like many industries before it, is now having its internet moment.There are two great phases unfolding. The first is the shift to digital materials for use either in blended learning courses or as a replacement for the printed textbook. This shift is now well underway in the U.S. Before long, there will be no more printed textbooks.The second phase is the shift of part of every student’s coursework to purely online formats.There are so many implications of all these changes that one can be forgiven for thinking it is hopeless to make sense of them. But the alternative — not worrying about it at all — probably isn’t the right answer either.

Leadership positions in education, whether at universities or learning companies, have recently undergone a crucial change (though not everyone has realized it yet). Namely, every education leadership position must now include as part of its skill-set the role of “tech visionary.”By “tech visionary,” It doesn’t mean that education leaders must dream up their own new tech-enabled products. Far from it. But it is absolutely critical that a leader in education has a strong, informed opinion about where technology will lead the industry in the next few years, and that he or she plans accordingly.

Another big change: as education content migrates from printed textbooks to tablets and smartphones, the efficacy of any particular set of education materials will become accurately measurable for each student. Gone are the days when education courses and products of middling quality could be compensated for with stronger execution in sales and marketing. In an industry as high stakes as education, transparent outcomes will create intense competitive pressure on product quality.

The education ecosystem is just beginning to be transformed by this new wave of digital technologies. Education leadership today tends to be strong in areas like campus management, fund-raising, brand management, textbook sales, etc. These men and women are good at running huge, asset- and Human-Resources-intensive operations. These are extremely valuable abilities to be sure, but these leaders must now add technology vision to that mix.

Having a technology vision is tough, but it’s possible. Managing to that vision is even harder. You have to be smart and fearless. It takes years to know for absolute certain whether a major tech bet — a university’s course delivery ecosystem, a publisher’s platform, a company’s training tools — was the right one. You have to have a strong opinion today about where the world is headed, make your bets accordingly, and live with them until past the point where success or failure is predetermined.

That  takes real vision

Are Ghosts Real? Science Says

If you believe in ghosts, you're not alone: A 2005 Gallup poll found that 37 percent of Americans believe in haunted houses, and about one-third believe in ghosts. Tens of thousands of people around the world actively search for ghosts as a hobby. Researcher Sharon Hill of the Doubtful News blog counted about 2,000 active amateur ghost-hunting groups in America.
Ghosts have been a popular subject for millennia, appearing in countless stories, from "Macbeth" to the Bible, and even spawning their own folklore genre: ghost stories. Ghosts are perhaps the most common paranormal belief in the world. Part of the reason is that belief in ghosts is part of a larger web of related paranormal beliefs, including near-death experience, life after death, and spirit communication.
The idea that the dead remain with us in spirit is an ancient one, and one that offers many people comfort; who doesn't want to believe that our beloved but deceased family members aren't looking out for us, or with us in our times of need? Most people believe in ghosts because of personal experience; they have seen or sensed some unexplained presence.

 Why many believe
Many people believe that support for the existence of ghosts can be found in no less a hard science than modern physics. It is widely claimed that Albert Einstein suggested a scientific basis for the reality of ghosts; if energy cannot be created or destroyed but only change form, what happens to our body's energy when we die? Could that somehow be manifested as a ghost?

It seems like a reasonable assumption — unless you understand basic physics. The answer is very simple, and not at all mysterious. After a person dies, the energy in his or her body goes where all organisms' energy goes after death: into the environment. The energy is released in the form of heat, and transferred into the animals that eat us (i.e., wild animals if we are left unburied, or worms and bacteria if we are interred), and the plants that absorb us. There is no bodily "energy" that survives death to be detected with popular ghost-hunting devices.

While most ghost hunters engage in harmless (and fruitless) fun, there can be a darker side. In the wake of popular ghost-hunting TV shows, police across the country have seen a surge in people being arrested, injured, and even killed while looking for ghosts. In 2010, a man died while ghost-hunting with a group of friends hoping to see the ghost of a train that crashed years earlier. The ghost train did not appear — but a real train came around a bend and killed one man.

The evidence for ghosts is no better today than it was a year ago, a decade ago, or a century ago. There are two possible reasons for the failure of ghost hunters to find good evidence. The first is that ghosts don't exist, and that reports of ghosts can be explained by psychology,misperceptions, mistakes and hoaxes. The second option is that ghosts do exist, but that ghost hunters are simply incompetent. Ultimately, ghost hunting is not about the evidence (if it was, the search would have been abandoned long ago). Instead, it's about having fun with friends, telling stories, and the enjoyment of pretending they are searching the edge of the unknown. After all, everyone loves a good ghost story.
 

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