Learning Innovation

Some possibilities for 2012's best gadget might include: Google's $250 Samsung Chromebook, the Nest Learning Thermostat, the iPhone 5, the FitBit One, the Microsoft Surface, the iPad Mini, the Starbucks Verismo, the Nexus 7, and the Wii U. What else?

Say you are about to initiate a new edtech project. Maybe you have been asked by your leadership to roll out a new service, say a MOOC, a lecture capture rollout, a media management project, or a new help desk, or a new blended learning program. Or perhaps you are initiating and leading a project, and you need a way to communicate the rationale and frame the resources needed to your end users and stakeholders.

Hotels share some things in common with higher ed. They are both bundled businesses, combining a range of functions and services at one location. They are both high fixed cost industries, where the economics only work if the high costs of the physical structures and staffing expenses must be distributed across many customers. They both offer differentiated services by price, with both luxury and no-frills brands competing in the same marketplace.

Planning on taking some time off between Christmas and New Year's? Looking for some fiction that will accomplish the twin goals of keeping your brain engaged with technology trends while giving yourself a break? I have 4 suggestions.

Audrey Watters has a great piece this week in her Hack (Higher) Education column Top Ed-Tech Trends of 2012: The Business of Ed-Tech What resonated most with me is her assertion that: "…for all the finger-pointing about the flaws in the business models of higher education, it's not clear that the business models of many education companies, particularly startups, will fare that much better."

Sweet Tooth is my favorite novel of 2012. Ian McEwan's story of literature meets spies is at once completely original and totally engrossing.

Is the Google Drive app an iTunes U app killer? Can the Google Drive ecosystem (web and apps) replace the Apple course content delivery ecosystem (Course Manager and the iTunes U app)?

Aaron Bady's excellent critique of Clay Shirky's thought provoking post "Napster, Udacity, and the Academy" provides a powerful window into our most important debates about how higher ed will evolve over the next few years. The comments to Bady's article, and Shirky's response to his critique, provide strong evidence of the power of an open exchange of ideas and views within an informed community.