eLearning Magazine’s 2009 predictions are now up, including those of yours truly. It’s a fascinating look of optimism, pessimism, and viewpoints from a lot of different perspectives. It’s also an impressive array of thinkers (myself excluded), many are folks I follow through blogs and/or tweets. It’s a thought-provoking list and I recommend give it a look.
By my (informal) count, one of the major predictions is the rise of social networking. I think that’s a no brainer, as I’ve been going off on this quite a bit recently. The reasons mimic what you might think: big benefits, but also because it’s low cost. It’s also strategic: covering more of learners’ needs. The economic climate is definitely a factor in many of the comments.
Consequently another common theme is an increase in online learning, as a cost effective method, although there is some differences of opinion on whether the quality will rise or fall. Certainly we have more powerful tools, but I continue to be amazed at how little of good design seems to be known.
The predictions go off in more directions from there. Some are focused on the cloud, some on open learning and open software. There are recommendations as well, such as governments would do well to sponsor more elearning, and that universities need to focus more on what’s important. There is also a heartening focus beyond corporate and higher ed, focusing into the developing world.
There are only a few comments on mobile, interestingly, and a few on the semantic web. Which isn’t surprising, really, as they’re still a bit out of the mainstream, and in tough times the fringes tend to get neglected. (Speaking of mobile, BTW, the Palm Pre’ is truly exciting if only for seeming to get almost everything right.)
Whether or not any of the predictions come to pass, it’s a broad view of what could be, and particularly the optimistic views provide some insight into what’s coming sooner or later. It’s some great thinking, and we all can use that as a spark from time to time. Check it out!
Interesting predictions. I wonder whether they aren’t too conservative though. I suppose for the mainstream they’re accurate, as big companies are slow to adapt, but I think that we’ll see the seeds of some really revolutionary ideas get planted. I don’t think they’ll blossom until later, but in internet years we’re due for another overturn in our way of thinking/learning/interacting.