WOW! I didn’t know you could do this. Perhaps, we have brighter future with respect to energy then we may realize. Looking forward to seeing how this will develop.
I have to thank my colleague from Concordia, Bob Thompson, for sending a link to Sinek’s Tedx Talk from 2009. Sinek has an informative website www.startwithwhy.com that provides links to additional videos, his book and to useful free information about the Golden Circle and Sinek’s principles. You will also find a link to Sinek’s blog Re:Focus and an wonderful post about Left-Siders who are the very small minority of people who see the world differently and who may be the visionaries that we will need to lead us into a better future.
Jason Hiner of Tech Republic offers his take on Gartner analyst David Cleary’s predictions on the technology trends for 2012. The first 5 items on the list are all aspects of mobile computing:
- Media tablets and beyond
- Mobile-centric applications and interfaces
- Contextual and social user experience
- Internet of Things
- App stores and marketplaces
There should be no surprise that mobile computing and all that it entails is at the top of the technology trend. We are living in a mobile world and as the technology gets better and better we will focus less on the technology and more on what it enable us to do.
While Hiner was surprised by cloud computing’s drop from number one in 2011 to tenth in 2012 I simply see this as the logical progression in a technology implementation that is successful. The cloud is necessary to make mobile computing work and as we focus more on the things we need to do with mobile technology cloud services are there to make things work but we no longer are making a bid deal over this development. Some would argue that the cloud’s drop in significance is due to the fact that there are still too many advantages to running enterprise systems like ERP and the like over a closed network. This is a fair assessment for now but if businesses wish to remain competitive in the global market they will have to embrace mobility and the cloud sooner than later.
Some of us have been using mobile technologies as early as the late eighties or early nineties so while this current emphasis on mobility may be appear to be the “flavor of the day” to skeptics, it is an overnight success that was in the making for the past 25 years. We are finally getting to the point where an average user is able to use an iPhone, Android or tablet to not only access the conveniences of life but to help them do their work.
Case in point–I am writing this post on my MacBook Air at the airport waiting for my connecting flight. I am also using my iPhone to check the status change for my flight on Tripit. When I get to my destination I will be using the Map app to help me navigate to my hotel which was booked on my iPhone.
I have been waiting for this official announcement for many months. While I was still at Abilene Christian University (ACU) early this past year I learned about this new system when ACU was informed that Perason and Google were combining forces and ACU was chosen to be a test site. At the time of this early trial the system that is now called OpenClass didn’t even have a name. Now that my colleagues at ACU are no longer bound by a non disclosure agreement I look forward to quizzing them about their experience with this new system.
Having another option to Blackboard and Moodle means we can perhaps see some true innovation in the course/learning management space. If OpenClass works as well as the rest of the Google Apps for Education suite we are all winners because the more competition there is to Blackboard (who controls over 80% of the course management space) the more choice and flexibility educators will have.
The only downside to this is the fact that OpenClass will more than likely have an initial impact on Moodle which is a free open source platform many institutions are using rather than Blackboard. While Moodle is free it really doesn’t offer much of an alternative to Blackboard because it simply mirrors Blackboards functionality and it requires a significant amount of time, effort and resources to maintain. With Google hosting OpenClass the maintenance and support issues of hosting an CMS/LMS go away.
Time will tell if OpenClass will the same postive impact on Higher Ed that Google Apps for Education have had. I know we (Concordia) will be exploring this options as soon as we can.
