2017 Horizon Report

 The 2017 Horizon Report is a publication that shares research findings from ongoing projects regarding the use of technology in education. The New Media Consortium (NMC) and the EDUCASE Learning Initiative (ELI) collaborated on this publication to influence education providers and improve learning materials, education technology, and institution curriculum (New Media Consortium [NMC] & EDUCASE Learning Initiative [ELI], 2017). 

Technology

In the Natural User Interfaces section, the report addresses how modern technology is enabling users to better interact with machines through services such as voice recognition, haptics, touchscreens, gesture and eye tracking, and brain-computer interfaces. This technology has been integrated into our daily lives for years, with devices such as smartphones possessing multiple forms of natural user interfaces (NUI). Today, the technology is being utilized in more creative ways such as haptic devices being used to simulate touch in virtual reality or medical training devices that use haptics to notify students of the impact of their actions during a mach-procedure. This section of the report also includes some interesting technology that is currently being researched, such as a touch screen display that is more fluid to simulate physical buttons or Braille for people with visual impairments. The future of NUI technology lies with brain-computer interfaces, but this technology faces many challenges such as our lack of understanding of the human brain and ethical concerns (NMC & ELI, 2017, pp. 48–49).

Trend

The Redesigning Learning Spaces section addresses the trend of educational institutes and making their spaces more accessible. Educators are restructuring their classrooms to include reconfigurable walls and furniture, multiple outlets, WiFi, cameras, projectors, and technology to enable remote learning. With the goal of providing high quality education to as many people as possible, accessibility and configurability of classrooms is a logical step forward. The Covid pandemic has encouraged this transition further, though many organizations were scrambling to develop configurable and remotely accessible learning spaces (NMC & ELI, 2017, pp. 16–17). While Covid has proven that accessible education and workplaces are possible and sustainable, many organizations want to return fully to in-person. Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix, stated that he “doesn’t see the positives” of working from home and that “not being able to get together in person, particularly internationally, is a pure negative.” (Hubble, 2022) Despite the facts supporting these remote environments, many organizations want to return to in-person settings. While these viewpoints won’t revert the trend, it may slow the transition remote and configurable learning environments.

Influencing Factors

For both the technology and trend I discussed, I believe personal beliefs will be detrimental to their development. The belief that older methods are inherently better, despite the proof that this is not the case, hinders the adoption of new technology and learning methodologies. With that being said, the opposite belief that new technology is inherently better can be beneficial to their implementation despite the fact that this viewpoint is just as flawed.

Equipment cost and implementation time are also factors that can influence their implementation. Buying new devices, funding research, or allocating time to implement changes may not be feasible for some organizations. Coupled with the potential belief that implementing new technology and methods will be a hindrance, cost and time barriers can lead to an unwillingness to attempt to change an organization’s methods and layout.

Below is a link to an associated image, as well as an extra image attached to this post.

https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/woman-at-standing-desk-home-office-talking-on-business-video-call-picture-id1383390107?s=2048x2048

References

Herd, C. [chris_herd]. (2022, March 8). [photo] [Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/chris_herd/status/1501165622197202947?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1501165622197202947%7Ctwgr%5E7ae31a1677336732aef647b840a0f3d4e0ab0919%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnbc.com%2F2022%2F03%2F18%2F50percent-of-companies-want-workers-back-in-office-5-days-a-week.html

Hubble. (2022, August 22). The Official List of Every Company’s Back-to-Office Strategy (updated weekly). https://hubblehq.com/blog/famous-companies-workplace-strategies

New Media Consortium & EDUCASE Learning Initiative. (2017). 2017 Horizon Report. The New Media Consortium. https://library.educause.edu/-/media/files/library/2017/2/2017horizonreporthe.pdf