Emerging Technologies in Distance Education

George Veletsianos, George Veletsianos

• Publisher: AU Press
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9781897425770
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Inclusive Education

A one-stop knowledge resource, Emerging Technologies in Distance Education showcases the international work of research scholars and innovative distance education practitioners who use emerging interactive technologies for teaching and learning at a distance.This widely anticipated book harnesses the dispersed knowledge of international experts who highlight pedagogical, organizational, cultural, social, and economic factors that influence the adoption and integration of emerging technologies in distance education. Emerging Technologies in Distance Education provides expert advice on how educators can launch effective and engaging distance education initiatives in response to technological advancements, changing mindsets, and economic and organizational pressures. The volume goes beyond the hype surrounding Web 2.0 technologies and highlights the important issues that researchers and educators need to consider to enhance educational practice.

Part 1
Foundations of Emerging Technologies in Distance Education

1
A DEFINITION OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES FOR EDUCATION

> George Veletsianos

Acknowledgements

This chapter benefited greatly from the contributions of numerous people, most of whom I have never met. I would like to thank George Siemens for posting my question on searching for a definition of emerging technologies on Twitter and on his blog. I am also deeply thankful to all the individuals who answered that question. I also want to recognize the contributions of a number of authors whose work appears in this edited collection: Elizabeth Wellburn, B.J. Eib, and Alec Couros, who encouraged me to explicitly state the implications of “context” on the proposed definitions; Hagit Meishar-Tal and Andrew Whitworth, who highlighted the sociological aspect of the proposed ideas; and Bob Heller, who encouraged me to think more broadly about these technologies. Thank you all for contributing to this definition.

Abstract

The term “emerging technologies” is often used without a clear meaning or definition. My aim in this chapter is to understand the meaning of the term while at the same time exploring what a clear understanding of emerging technologies means for technology-enhanced learning. Combining previous conceptualizations of the term, I propose that emerging technologies are tools, concepts, innovations, and advancements utilized in diverse educational settings to serve varied education-related purposes. Additionally, I propose that (“new” and “old”) emerging technologies are evolving organisms that experience hype cycles, while at the same time being potentially disruptive, not yet fully understood, and not yet fully researched. These ideas bring to the surface important issues relating to the use of technology in education.

Introduction

Technological innovation and advancements have brought about massive societal change. In comparison, technology’s impact on education, teaching, and learning has been rather limited (Bull, Knezek, Roblyer, Schrum, & Thompson, 2005). While expectations have run high about instructional radio, television, personal computers, computer-based instruction, the Internet, Web 2.0, e-learning, m-learning, the latest technological innovation of our times, and the impact of these tools and technologies, results have often been disappointing (see Cuban, 2001): “showcase” learning environments, disengaged students, and technology-enhanced instruction that merely replicates face-to-face teaching seem to be the norm and the standard to which we have become accustomed, rather than the exception.

As a field that seems to find joy in the development of acronyms, terms, and catchy descriptors (think i-learning, student 2.0, education 3.0) we seem to quickly traverse innovations in the hope that the next technological advancement will be our holy grail. The focus of this book, however, is not on all previously used educational acronyms. The focus is on the often-misused, haphazardly defined, ill-applied, and all-encompassing term of “emerging technologies” as used in educational contexts in general, and distance education in particular. Siemens (2008, ¶ 1) makes a similar argument when he states that “terms like ‘emergence,’ ‘adaptive systems,’ ‘self-organizing systems,’ and others are often tossed about with such casualness and authority as to suggest the speaker(s) fully understand what they mean.”

If you think that I am being unfair in my description of emerging technologies for education, ask your colleagues at your next conference gathering to describe (or dare I say, define) emerging technologies. The majority of your colleagues will agree that emerging technologies describe new tools with promising potential. If you feel brave, you might ask what new means, but let me warn you that you may find yourself faced with rolling eyes and questioning looks. In my questioning, I was not able to find an adequate definition of the term, or at least a description that differentiates between technologies as emerging or non-emerging (e.g., developed or established). Searching prior literature for a definition is the logical next step. Yet again, you will be quickly disappointed. Not only is the literature plagued with casual mentions of the term, it also spans multiple and divergent fields: educators from multiple academic disciplines employ the services of emerging technologies to pursue academic endeavours. Does one search the literature from all academic disciplines? Or does one focus on his/her own discipline? Do emerging technologies transcend academic foci? Do we just search the distance education and instructional design literature? Or do we examine individual content areas, such as nursing, art, and social science education?

In the sections that follow, I argue that the utilization of emerging technologies for education transcends academic disciplines. After discussing my attempts to locate a clear discussion/understanding of “emerging technologies,” I put forth my own definition of the term and conclude with thoughts on the implications of this definition.

Emerging Technologies: An Interdisciplinary Notion

The view espoused in this chapter (and in this collection) is that the term “emerging technologies” transcends academic disciplines and activities, and can be defined independently of its specific application to educational endeavours. While some innovations might be more appropriate for specific content areas than others (e.g., Geometer’s Sketchpad for mathematics-related disciplines), and technological affordances may render some tools more appropriate for certain purposes than others (e.g., wikis and blogs for community-focused and writing-intensive modules), on the whole, emerging technologies can be applied to diverse disciplines. A November 2008 search on the PsychInfo database, for example (for papers published from 2000 to 2008 that include the keywords “emerging technologies” and “education”), yielded 255 results. The diversity in these results is clear: emerging technologies are used in nearly every field imaginable, with teacher training, instructional design, language learning, distance education, e-learning, adult education, and medical education prominently appearing on the list. The accepted chapters and submissions to this edited volume also attest to this fact. For example, eleven proposals on virtual worlds, from authors spanning five different countries, were submitted for consideration for publication in this book. Of those, two focused on formal learning outcomes, seven focused on informal learning outcomes, and two investigated the use and meaning of avatars. These proposals were submitted by individuals working both in industry and academia, and the submissions from academics came from fields as diverse as instructional design, teacher education, distance education, nursing, art education, and mathematics. This diversity is not limited to virtual worlds: a similar phenomenon was observed for proposals investigating wiki-related topics and Web 2.0 technologies.

Following from the thesis that emerging technologies transcend academic disciplines, it seems worthwhile to put forth an education-specific definition to guide our thinking, research, and practice. Establishing a common understanding of a widely used term represents the first step towards meaningful conversations and inquiry.

What Are Emerging Technologies?

First, a personal story. In the summer of 2008, I received an e-mail that announced the release of an open-access e-book while also noting that the editor was “editing a new series of which this book is the first. The series is entitled Issues in Distance Education and we welcome submissions or letters of interest from authors wishing to publish with an Open Access, peer-reviewed license.” A few weeks later (and after contacting the series editor, press director, and lead editor), I was given permission to proceed with the edited volume that you are now reading. In the midst of completing my dissertation and moving to a different country for my first tenure-track appointment, I quickly found myself putting together a call for proposals (CFP) for an edited volume on the use of emerging technologies in distance education. In the next two months, I received more than sixty-five proposals. Emerging technologies in distance education seemed to be a “hot topic,” and it seemed that we had managed to solicit chapter proposals at an opportune time. After acceptance/rejection decisions were made, I began writing the introduction to this book and decided to begin by quickly defining the term “emerging technologies.” I scanned my personal bibliography. I typed the term in my favourite search engine. I searched the academic literature. To my amazement, a definition for the omnipresent term was elusive. I searched magazines, periodicals, and industry reports. I discovered a few descriptions, but no such thing as a formal, commonly accepted definition. I took it upon myself to define “emerging technologies” but quickly began doubting the absence of a definition. Could it be that a definition actually existed and I simply could not locate it?

I decided to ask my colleagues for assistance (Figure 1.1): I asked my Facebook friends; posted a working definition on my blog; e-mailed colleagues asking for the definition that they use, who in turn, posted the question on the online networks they frequent; and contacted all the authors whose papers appear in this volume. The answers I received were informative and shared some commonalities, but I could not find one single statement that uniformly explained the meaning of the term “emerging technologies.” The term that was central to the book I was editing had never been defined, or, if it had been defined, neither I nor my expert colleagues were able to locate that definition.

Figure 1.1 Asking colleagues to offer their definition of the term emerging technologies

This experience provided the impetus for converting the book’s short introduction into a chapter. How could a book on emerging technologies (in distance education or otherwise) exist without a shared understanding of what emerging technologies are?

At the same time, and since my initial search to discover a definition in the academic literature had proved futile, I focused on high-profile publications that specifically discussed emerging technologies for teaching and learning. The only explicit definition of emerging technologies I could locate in such publications came from a report commissioned for the Australian Capital Territory Department of Education and Training in which Miller, Green, and Putland (2005) state that

A technology is still emerging if it is not yet a “must-have.” For example, a few years ago email was an optional technology. In fact, it was limited in its effectiveness as a communication tool when only some people in an organization had regular access to it. Today, it is a must-have, must-use technology for most people in most organizations. In this sense a technology can be a standard expectation in the commercial or business world, while still being considered as “emerging” in the education sector. (p. 6)

Essentially, these authors note that any technology (defined as “infrastructures of various kinds, delivery devices, and classroom and teaching tools” on pp. 2 and 6) that is elective and not yet a requirement for educational organizations is considered to be an emerging technology. I find this definition to be an inadequate conceptualization of emerging technologies because it treats all technologies not currently used in educational institutions as emerging. While a number of technologies not currently in use in the education sector may be emerging, it is not necessarily true that all are emerging. Specifically, (a) organizations explore and adopt technologies even before they become “must-haves,” (b) the notion of following others that popularize technologies as “must-haves” is problematic in that it implies that learning-focused organizations constantly follow on the footsteps of others, and (c) it disregards the potential of the technology for educational purposes — while some technologies may be “must-haves” for industries outside the educational realm, it does not necessarily mean that these same technologies are must-haves for educational providers. Finally, the notion of the specific situation one is facing (e.g., in terms of students, learner characteristics, institution, local realities, etc) in influencing what can and cannot be classified as an emerging technology is an important factor in considering whether technologies are emerging or otherwise — I explore this issue in the Implications section of the chapter.

Another set of publications investigated were the Horizon Reports (http://www.nmc.org/horizon). Since 2004, the New Media Consortium (NMC) and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) have released their yearly Horizon Reports, which, in short, lay out adoption horizons for key emerging technologies likely to have an influence on education. The sections of these reports describing the concept of “emerging technologies” to date (2004–2008) are presented in Table 1.1. We can make three observations from these descriptions. First, the reports have consistently described emerging technologies as “likely to have a large impact … on teaching, learning, or creative expression … within three adoption horizons over the next one to five years” (2004–2008). Second, while the reports have focused on “higher education” for the period 2004–2007, the focus was broadened to “learning-focused organizations” in 2008. Third, the reports fluctuate as to the impact and expected magnitude of the impact that emerging technologies will/may have: emerging technologies are expected to become “very important” (2004), are expected to become “increasingly significant” (2005), will have “significant impact” (2006), will “impact” (2007), and will “enter mainstream use” (2008). While the descriptions of emerging technologies given in these reports are relatively stable across the project’s lifespan, the differences in the descriptions from year to year provide additional insight into emerging technologies. From these descriptions and their differences, it can be inferred that emerging technologies are technologies that have not yet been widely adopted and that are expected to influence a variety of educational organizations within a time span of one to five years. The differences between the descriptions of expected impact across 2004–2008 point to the uncertainty that exists with regards to (a) whether these technologies will actually have an impact, and (b) the magnitude and importance of the expected impact. These differences are important because as the next section describes, uncertainty is an important aspect of emerging technologies.

Table 1.1 “Emerging technologies” definitions as given in yearly Horizon Reports 2004–2008 (emphasis added)

Year	Definition
2008	“The annual Horizon Report describes the continuing work of the New Media Consortium (NMC)’s Horizon Project, a five-year qualitative research effort that seeks to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, or creative expression within learning-focused organizations… The main sections of the report describe six emerging technologies or practices that will likely enter mainstream use in learning-focused organizations within three adoption horizons over the next one to five years. Also highlighted are a set of challenges and trends that will influence our choices in the same time frames.” (2008, p. 3)
2007	“The annual Horizon Report describes the continuing work of the NMC’s Horizon Project, a r...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Editor Acknowledgements
• Contents
• Part 1 Foundations of Emerging Technologies in Distance Education
• Part 2 Learning Designs for Emerging Technologies
• Part 3 Social, Organizational, and Contextual Factors in Emerging Technologies Implementations
• Part 4 Learner-Learner, Learner-Content, and Learner-Instructor Interaction and Communication with Emerging Technologies
• Conclusion
• Contributors
• Index