Report: Game-based learning 2-3 years to mainstream adoption

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Press release: 2011 Horizon Report Identifies Six “Key Emerging Technologies” for Higher Education.

Today, the New Media Consortium (NMC) and EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) jointly released the 2011 Horizon Report. This eighth edition conveys annual findings from the NMC’s Horizon Project, an ongoing research project designed to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have an impact on learning, teaching and creative inquiry in higher education. Six emerging technologies are recognized across three adoption horizons over the next one to five years, giving campus leaders and practitioners a valuable guide for discussion and planning.

2011 Horizon Report cover
(Image courtesy New Media Consortium.)

This year’s Horizon Report identifies electronic books and mobiles as technologies expected to enter mainstream use in the first horizon of one year or less for adoption. Augmented reality and game-based learning comprise the second horizon of two to three years, and gesture-based computing and learning analytics round out the third horizon of four to five years.

The NMC’s Horizon Project identifies these six technologies, as well as key trends and critical challenges, through a research process designed and conducted by the NMC with the Horizon Project’s Advisory Board. This international body of experts in education, technology, business, and other fields, engaged in a discussion based on a set of research questions intended to surface significant trends and challenges and to identify a broad array of potential technologies. The 2011 Horizon Report details the areas in which these experts were in strong agreement.

Of the six technologies in the 2011 Horizon Report, four were also noted in the 2010 Horizon Report. Mobiles remain in the short-term horizon, while electronic books have moved up from the two to three year horizon. Augmented reality remains in the two to three year horizon, as does gesture-based computing in the four to five year horizon.

“This year is the sixth in which ELI has collaborated with the NMC to do the research behind the annual Horizon Report, and the partnership has benefited the field in many ways. Campus leaders and practitioners across the world use the report as a springboard for discussion around emerging technology,” notes Larry Johnson, chief executive officer of the NMC. “The report also offers an opportunity to think strategically about technology adoption.  Again this year, we see clear evidence of several long-term channels through which educational technology is evolving.”

The NMC’s 2011 Horizon Report is available for free online, and is released with a Creative Commons license to facilitate its widespread use, easy duplication, and broad distribution.

Access the 2011 Horizon Report here: http://www.nmc.org/publications/2011-horizon-report

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