4 Higher Ed Trends To Watch in 2011 by Steve Cunningham
1/4/2011
The weather’s turned cold,
and I’m still grading as I
write this. In between
reading yet another set
of term papers, I’ve perused a few current
articles in education publications
wherein higher-ed pundits pontificate
on trends to watch in 2011. I find these
articles highly amusing. What comes to
my imagination is a panel of graybeards
in tweed jackets (with regulation elbow
patches, of course), opining on how
“wireless networking will continue to
proliferate,” etc. I’d like to award each of
these pundits a tee shirt emblazoned
with a large letter “O”, the official logo
of Captain Obvious.
SMARTPHONE,
BAD IDEA
You see, this past
semester I have spent
significant class time
working to be more
engaging than a laptop
or cell phone. I’ve had
more than one student
answer one of my rhetorical
questions by reading verbatim
a page from Wikipedia
as shown on his smartphone. I’ve
learned how to “win” those battles,
but it’s still a challenge, one which does
not involve banning the wretched devices.
NOW TO THE PUNDITRY
The least I can do is put on
my tweed jacket and personal
Captain Obvious shirt
and make my own predictions
for trends in 2011.
Consider this a list of the
least obvious tech ideas that
might catch on in the next
twelve months. Or not.
1 Because we will run out
of 16-bit IVP4 addresses
sometime this coming
summer, we will be forced
to begin the long and arduous
changeover to 128-bit
IVp6 addresses. The wiz
kid who can figure out how to make a
cheap box that does that translation in
real time will become very rich someday.
2 The use of smartphones in class will
continue but will stabilize as more of the
devices become a target of hackers and are
seen as insecure. (Actually they are only
somewhat secure even today, because the
the encryption used for HDMA service
was created back in the mid-1990’s—no
chance that has been cracked, right?)
There is no question but that cell phone
technologies represent a target-rich environment
for hacking, particularly with
more people doing their banking via
smartphone (an incredibly bad idea).
3 Digital signage players could replace projectors and
screens in small- to mid-sized classrooms. Projectors are
great for presenting in large spaces, but they can be
expensive with their consumable lamps and user-serviceable
filters. On the other hand. large flat-panel displays,
be they plasma, LED, or even LCD, are relatively
cheap and getting still cheaper, although they seemed to
hit a price plateau last summer. They have the advantages
of portability and of visibility under a wide variety
of lighting circumstances. In addition, they can be
either ganged to make a larger display, or placed at
strategic locations within a classroom. Snuffing out the
room lights could be forever unnecessary.
Digital signage players are inexpensive, small, and
most are capable of pulling content for playback over
Ethernet. Given that some young software wizard is able
to figure out a simple way to generate .svg (Scalable
Vector Graphics) files from a standard Powerpoint or
Keynote presentation, and can make the results of that
conversion interactive like Powerpoint, then that person
will have a highly saleable product.
4 Among educators, the holdouts will finally learn how
to use their content management systems for more than
a place to post grades. In my shop the percentage of professors
who can’t or won’t use our current CMS is stunning
given that 2010 is in the rearview mirror. Last summer
the provost decreed that our CMS has become an
integral part of our disaster preparedness strategy, and
therefore everything will be available online. Meanwhile,
those of us who have used the CMS to its so-called
potential and have done so for awhile, are so appalled at
the state of the latest version that they are willing to do
without. I’m still hating on our CMS system and I’ve
been complaining about it to whomever I could get to
listen over the past year. So far it appears to have fallen
on deaf ears, despite the fact the the Engineering School
developed their own which looks like it works just fine.
Meanwhile, I still hope that Santa brings me an iPad,
just because they’re cool...for educational research purposes,
of course.
Steve Cunnigham is an assistant professor of
practice at USC’s Thorton School of Music.