From the Chronicle of Higher Education's Wired Campus Newsletter (12/17/07)
Colleges Are Reluctant to Adopt New Publication Venues
Academe has been slow to accept new forms of scholarship like blogs,
wikis, and video clips, according to a report released last week that
examines emerging technology trends in higher education. The Horizon Report 2007
predicts that in four to five years, academe will accept as scholarship
this kind of interactive online material and will develop methods for
evaluating it. The document notes that the change serves to encourage
the public to participate in the production of research and scholarly
works. An author who posts a draft of his or her book online, for
example, can receive immediate feedback on ways to improve the work,
the report states. The document was developed by Educause and the New
Media Consortium, two higher-education technology groups. The report
also concludes that within one year, social-networking sites will be
widely used in teaching and learning, and that mobile phones and
virtual worlds will be used in this way in two to three years.---Andrea L. Foster