Social and learning technologies, now and in the future

Some students are very technically able and can provide you with an array of technologies that they use on a daily basis. Mauro, a student from the University of Southampton describes on YouTube how he uses a collection of tools to collaborate and organise his time on his Acoustical Engineering course.In the document about Mauro’s use of technology he mentions six technologies that can be used for collaboration amongst other tools:

1. Facebook: group messaging
2. WhatsApp: group messaging
3. Google G Suite: Now, Calendar, Drive: organisation and productivity support
4. YouTube: video uploading and sharing
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   Trello: an organisational tool for groups
6. Slack: project management tool for group communication and collaboration.

The NMC Horizon 2017 Higher Education report (which is available to download in PDF format) talks about Adaptive Learning Technologies (page 38) and the future of Natural User Interfaces (page 48) and how these tools can offer a personalised learning experience that suits a wide range of students including those with disabilities. The report mentions many aspects of technology use that can enhance disabled students access to learning and teaching. However, for every well designed piece of technology we still find one that causes barriers.Following on from this report the Educause Learning Initiative review for 2018 has produced an infographic for the ‘2018 Key Issues in Teaching and Learning’ and second on the list is Accessibility and Universal Design for Learning linked an article about ‘The Elegant Design Imperative’ with a section on ‘Changing Paths, Changing Minds’.

What are your thoughts about ‘Changing Paths, Changing Minds’, when thinking about the barriers poor design causes?

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