Lesson 12 - Emerging Technologies

2.1. The Challenge of Emerging Technologies

It is not uncommon for a school principal, a college VP Education, or a university president to go to a conference and come back thrilled about the potential of the latest technology for teaching and learning. They are victims of what the consulting firm Gartner calls the hype cycle.

A new technology triggers excitement, the media picks up on it, the technology reaches a peak of inflated expectations, it starts to get more widely applied, disillusionment sinks in when faced with the realities of implementation, then the technology starts to find its niche as better understanding of its strengths and weaknesses emerge, eventually reaching a plateau of productivity, where it works well within its limits. MOOCs are an excellent example of this, with most knowledgeable observers in 2019 placing them towards the top of the slope of enlightenment or just emerging on to the plateau of productivity (see, for instance, Web Courseworks, 2018).

New technologies that have educational applications are constantly emerging. For instance, in the first edition of this book (written in 2015) there was no extensive discussion of artificial intelligence, virtual reality or serious games, yet four years later they are now at the forefront of many discussions about the future of digital learning, which is why this section has been added. There are several other technologies that could be included, but many of these will be subsumed under artificial intelligence.

I will not be able to go into depth about any of these three technologies (each deserves its own book), but they are significant enough to bring them to your attention. Once again, I will focus on their potential affordances, although it must be recognized that with all emerging technology, it may take time to identify all their advantages and disadvantages.