2008 Horizon Report from the New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative Profiles Six Key Emerging Technologies

Today the New Media Consortium (NMC) and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) released the 2008 Horizon Report at the ELI Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas. The annual Horizon Report describes the continuing work of the NMC’s Horizon Project, a research-oriented effort that seeks to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have considerable impact on teaching, learning, and creative expression within higher education. The fifth edition in this annual series is again a collaboration between NMC and ELI.

Each year, the Horizon Report describes six areas of emerging technology that will have significant impact on higher education within three adoption horizons over the next one to five years. “Campus leaders and practitioners alike use the report as a springboard for discussion around emerging technology,” noted Larry Johnson, chief executive officer of the NMC. “As this is the fifth edition of the report, it also offers an opportunity to look back at the overarching trends over time. What we see is that there are several long-term, conceptual themes that have affected, and continue to affect, the practice of teaching and learning in profound ways.” More than 40,000 copies of the 2007 Horizon Report were distributed in print and electronically last year.

According to EDUCAUSE President Diana Oblinger, “The Horizon Report helps all of us put emerging technologies in perspective—what might be useful, what might be further in the future—and links it to learning. The examples illustrate that all this is very real. The report also raises important issues about the implications of technology—and perhaps some of our assumptions about learning.”

In defining the six selected areas for 2008—grassroots video, collaboration webs, mobile broadband, data mashups, collective intelligence, and social operating systems—the project draws on an ongoing discussion among knowledgeable individuals in business, industry, and education, as well as published resources, current research and practice, and the expertise of the NMC and ELI communities. The Horizon Project’s Advisory Board probes current trends and challenges in higher education, explores possible topics for the report, and ultimately selects the technologies to be profiled.

To create the 2008 Horizon Report, the 36 members of the 2008 Advisory Board engaged in a comprehensive review and analysis of research, articles, papers, and interviews; discussed existing applications and brainstormed new ones; and ultimately ranked the items on the list of more than 80 technologies that emerged for their potential relevance to teaching, learning, and creative expression. The 2008 Advisory Board included representatives from seven countries—the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, Australia, Japan, and China. Most of their work took place online over the fall of 2007. The board used a variety of collaboration tools, including a special wiki site dedicated to the project.

The 32-page 2008 Horizon Report is free and has been released with a Creative Commons license to facilitate its widespread use, easy duplication, and broad distribution. It can be accessed at www.nmc.org/pdf/2008-Horizon-Report.pdf [PDF 254 KB].

About EDUCAUSE

EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. The current membership comprises more than 2,200 colleges, universities, and educational organizations, including 250 corporations, with 17,000 active members. Learn more about EDUCAUSE at www.educause.edu.

About The New Media Consortium

The New Media Consortium (NMC) is an international 501(c)3 not-for-profit consortium of more than 250 learning-focused organizations dedicated to the exploration and use of new media and new technologies. Through its many projects, its comprehensive website, and its series of international conferences, the NMC stimulates dialogue and understanding through the exploration of promising ideas, technologies, and applications. For more information on the NMC, see www.nmc.org.

The NMC's Emerging Technologies Initiative focuses on expanding the boundaries of teaching, learning, and creative expression by creatively applying new tools in new contexts. The centerpiece of this initiative, the Horizon Project, charts the landscape of emerging technologies and produces the NMC’s annual Horizon Report. For more information on the NMC's Emerging Technologies Initiative, see www.nmc.org/horizon.