WSJ's Mossberg Predictions for 2013

Of the several 2013 prediction lists about which I've posted, the one from The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg in his All Things D(igital) column/blog is the most apt one concerning personal technology.

2013: Talk Gets Cheaper, TV Gets Smarter

JANUARY 1, 2013 AT 6:32 PM PT

Personal technology never stops changing. Some new products and services are game changers, like Apple’s iPhone and iPad. Others are clever twists or refinements, like each successive version of Google’s Android platform, which gets better and better. Others are bold gambles, like Microsoft’s new Windows 8, which hopes to combine both a tablet experience and a traditional PC environment in one operating system. But there’s always something new, from large companies and small ones.

So here are a few things consumers will likely see in technology in 2013. Many of these began to take shape in the past year, but will be stronger trends in the new year.

Mossberg sees

• Tablets trending over laptops. 
• Integration of hardware and software -- not just Apple as a long-time practitioner of this, but now Microsoft and Google, as well. 
• "Network TVs." 
• Cheaper smartphones. 
• More choice of music players. 
• Fitness and health monitors. 
• Internet-controlled home devices.  

See the link for the full story. 

Forrester Predictions for 2013 (and Counterpoint)

If Gartner is the leading IT consultancy, Forrester is #2 or 3. (See this comparison of several of the consultancies.)

Forrester likewise identifies technology trends and predictions for 2013. The full report of same, like Gartner'sown research, costs money (check to see if your library/institution has a subscription). This piece -- "Forrester's top 15 emerging technologies to watch" --  in ZDNet summarizes the repor and outlines how the firm categorizes fourteen technologies as 1) end-user computing technologies, 2) sensors and remote computing, 3) process data management, and 4) infrastructure and application platforms. 

(The graphics in the ZDNet piece aren't rendered well)

The counterpoint comes from the iconoclastic tech curmudgeon John Dvorak in PCMag.com -- "Forrester's Top Tech Trends Point to Stagnation" -- 

The research firm has identified 15 top technology trends to watch, but they are all completely bogus. 

As my regular readers know, I love a good list of things to ridicule. Generally speaking, these lists show up in December and January, and they tend either to predict the coming year or lament about the past year.

These sorts of lists are decided differently than all the bogus lists of top 100 executives, which tend to be pure speculation dreamed up by editors over lunch.

So, I was pleasantly surprised to see a list in February that I could comment on: Forrester's top 15 emerging technologies to watch. With a list this long, in an era where there are probably only two or three technologies to watch, I figured this would be worthwhile to tear apart.

Let's begin.

See the link for his article. 

Gartner Predictions for 2013

Gartner is arguably the leading IT consultancy. It has collocated all its prediction lists -- dozens -- here. The lists are categorized as Topics, Industries, and Markets. Note that "Access to research documents may vary based on your subscription" -- check with your insitution/library to see if it has a license. 

Higher Ed Tech Trends

"6 Higher Ed Tech Trends To Watch in 2013," by Bridget McCrea in Campus Technology -- 

Here are six areas that every IT pro in higher education should keep an eye on during the coming year.

With every corner of the higher education space impacted by technology in one way or another, keeping up with the latest and greatest products, tools, applications, and equipment is no easy feat. To help, Campus Technology picked the brains of several university CIOs to get their take on the key IT trends that will take hold in higher education during the coming year. Here are six important areas that IT professionals in the space should keep an eye on in 2013. 

See the link for details -- the six trends are  

1. More sophisticated use of big data. 
2. More agile change via technology -- for example, more real-time curricular change based on student performance. 
3. BYOD killing campus networks. Everyone has multiple gadgets, and they're all using the network. 
4. Device-agnostic campus computing -- for example, deploy virtual desktops. 
5. Mobile apps. 
6. Social media. 

Compliments to this piece at the "Future" tag. 

NMC Horizon Report 2013

The publication of this report is an important event every year. It's a must-read for anyone even remotely connected to education and IT.

NMC = New Media Consortium. The NMC Horizon Report is a product of a collaboration between NMC and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative. 

From the executive summary of the full report: 

Welcome to the NMC Horizon Report, a series of publications designed to help education leaders, policy makers, and faculty understand new and emerging technologies, and their potential impact on teaching, learning, and research. This specific volume, the NMC Horizon Report: 2013 Higher Education Edition, is framed specifically around the unique needs and circumstances of higher education institutions, and looks at that landscape with a global lens over the next five years.

The internationally recognized NMC Horizon Report series and regional NMC Technology Outlooks are part of the NMC Horizon Project, a comprehensive research venture established in 2002 that identifies and describes emerging technologies likely to have a large impact over the coming five years in education around the globe. Since 2005, this particular edition has been produced via a collaborative effort with the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, and examines emerging technologies for their potential impact on teaching, learning, and creative inquiry within the higher education environment.

To create the report, an international body of experts in education, technology, and other fields was convened as an advisory board. The group engaged in discussions around a set of research questions intended to surface significant trends and challenges and to identify a wide array of potential technologies for the report. This dialog was enriched by an extensive range of resources, current research, and practice that drew on the expertise of both the NMC community and the communities of the members of the advisory board. These interactions among the advisory board are the focus of the NMC Horizon Report research, and this report details the areas in which these experts were in strong agreement.

The report opens with a discussion of the trends and challenges identified by the advisory board as most important for the next five years. The main section highlights six promising technological areas and their practical, real-world applications in higher education settings. Each section is introduced with an overview that defines the topic, followed by a discussion of the particular relevance of the topic to teaching, learning, and creative inquiry in higher education. Next, several concrete examples are provided that demonstrate how the technology is being used. Finally, each section closes with an annotated list of suggested readings that expand on the discussion in the report. 

I encourage you to read the full report -- or at least its executive summary (five pages) and the preview. 

• Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less 
  • Massively Open Online Courses
  • Tablet Computing
• Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years
  • Big Data and Learning Analytics
  • Game-Based Learning
• Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Four to Five Years
  • 3D Printing
  • Wearable Technology

Update on Tuesday, February 5, 2013 at 04:37PM by williamgarrity

Here's an extended review of the report in Campus Technology -- "6 Technologies That Will Impact Higher Ed."