January signals the time of year to look forward across the expanse of what’s to come. I’m no futurist but I’m fascinated by those who are willing and eager to make predictions for the near and far future.

Of the ten predictions for 2008 from the eLearning Technology blog, these stood out for me:

  • #2. Second Life Lite —“A medium size Virtual Classroom / Meeting Tool will announce features in 2008 that are not 3D immersive, but that are more like Mii characters in a 2.5D world.” (Me and my mii are curious to see what this environment looks like.)
  • #5. Mobile Learning —“large adoption of mobile as THE learning platform still won’t be there.” (This sparked the most comments.)
  • #8. Serious Games —“Likely YOU will get to attend a session on them. But YOU won’t get to build one, or buy one, or participate in one.” (Not even Guitar Hero?)
  • #10. Knowledge Worker Skills —“The discussion of knowledge work skills is going to be BIG … We won’t hear much this year, but in 2009, this will be something you’ll hear in a big way.” (Library and information science for the masses?)

The Mobile Technology in TAFE blog chose to identify five challenges for the coming year:

  • #2. Firewalls —“Inability to access web sites will continue to frustrate educators.” (and learners.)
  • #3. Bandwidth —“…lack of bandwidth will drive [educators] insane.” (and learners.)
  • #5. Mobile Devices —“… most educators will continue to be prevented from accessing their educational potential due to school or Government policies.” (A different take on the topic; this blog is from Australia.)

This is just a sampling from a heap of predictions. What do you see in the new year?

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