2010 Horizon Report

My Thoughts on a Few Topics - I looked at a few of the topics for last year’s report and have picked out a couple of items to blog about that caught my interest. One is specific to an identified trend in using technology and the other is a key shift in the availability of educational resources using technology to distribute them. Enjoy!

Technology Trends 

One of the trends discussed in the 2010 Horizon Report identifies the relationship of the traditional education deliverer to that of certification bodies. It appears that certification bodies are beginning to provide credentials to professionals through a specific body of knowledge for career minded professionals that don’t have the time or necessarily want to plow through a degree program. As a professional in my career field, and a hiring manager in my company, I can agree that I look at specific certification criteria on a resume before I even look at the degrees that are held by the individual. The US Government looks at these similar credentials as well and implements policy affecting certification in the hiring process or in developing contracts that articulate qualified personnel that supply a service.

As an educator as well, I can see where traditional universities are beginning to roll certification courses into a degree program to make themselves more marketable. Those that are doing this in my opinion are smart and will set the standard of success for students trying to get ahead.

Education and Technology

In the technologies area of the 2010 Horizon Report, I was interested in the short discussion regarding the availability to more open source educational content. As a conservative person, I believe that everyone should earn or pay for the things that they want. When the topic turns to education, I am just the opposite. I believe that we have a moral responsibility as a human race to educate those that desire knowledge to make the world a better place.

Neither social nor economic status should drive the ability to reach available resources to educate the populace. The movement in the report describes a shift in the way universities are using technology to provide more access to open source educational materials which will not only provide a distributed capability for learning, but allow demographical contributions to bodies of knowledge that may be restricted by resources. If the open source availability of research and educational materials allows better collaboration between people, then eventually all that want to grow intellectually will be able to. The next challenge would be to figure out an effective way to provide e-access to everyone!

My Opinion, Just Saying...........