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Emerging Technology (ET) has become yet another buzz word of late in educational circles. But what are emerging technologies and  "what is the shelf-life of an emerging technology"? Most importantly for me is that "it may or may not be new technologies" and perhaps more troubling is that "its potential remains unfulfilled". But more on that later.

I recently submitted a survey form detailing my activities with technology and hope to be able to bring the results of this soon. Soon is here, so check out the slideshare on Emerging Technologies in Higher Education. The survey focused on current use of ET in SA and from what I could tell it delivered pretty interesting results. This post is prompted by the Weekend Argus article of 1 October as well as the following interview conducted with one of my colleagues http://education-portal.com/articles/Expanding_South_African_Education_Beyond_the_Privileged_Few.html entitled "Expanding South African Education Beyond the Privileged Few". Here is some more food for thought

I have recently read a newspaper report on the Governments Teacher Laptop Initiative (TLI) in the Weekend Argus which highlighted some of my personal concerns regarding the adoption and use of technology.  The Author of the TLI article laments the effectiveness of this programme and points out that though each teacher were given laptops that there was little evidence as to whether the intervention actually translated into better teaching or the appropriate use of the tool. ET such as FB, Twitter and Google+ etc face the same challenges and therefore education around the appropriate use of these technologies becomes important. The author closes saying that tablets are probably on its way in while laptops are outgoing. While this might be true one has to view this trend from the perspective as to whether the design of tablets are for the knowledge producer markets or for the knowledge consumer market. I also think that it is imperative that we have very sober notions as to the affordances of such ET's or risk being disappointed. The adoption rate S  curve (Hall, 2003),  or technology hype curve I think, is very important to determine exactly where along the curve we currently find ourselves.Institutionally, it might provide one with a good indicator as to the kinds of technology to adopt,  and when.

On the issue of whether ET's are addressing social inequalities there are still many which exist post 1994. There are those who argue that technology has the potential to address some of these inequalities and injustices in terms of education and indeed to some extent it has begun at least to improve communication across culturally diverse communities. Whether such interactions address social injustices in my view, depends on whether such communications translates into a change in face to face interactions. I am of the opinion though that while there is a big gap between the have's and the have- nots that simply throwing money at a problem that is systemic in nature will not make the problem go away. It will however highlight the fact that it will take much more to even out the proverbial playing fields as we begin to grapple with the legacy of an injust society.. Rightfully, more money and an iPad in everyone's hand has to coincide with proper support and training especially for teachers. will make access to learning opportunities possible one cannot tell whether it will actually translate into actual learning or that individuals would place that value on it. The current motivation for the switch to Blackberry I believe is driven by the answer to two questions namely, a) does it do what it I want it to and, b) is it free. We don't necessarily have to be seen to be using the same applications or hardware. The real issue is whether these software or hardware allows "cross-platform" communication.

For me there is a greater concern over the wastage caused by mismatch or misuse of the technology while we complain about limited access to adequate infrastructure. At a recent workshop I attended a colleague questioned the readiness of academics to fully capatilize on increased bandwidth to the university when they are not even making use of what is currently at hand. The prevailing pattern is that very few academics and students are even aware of all the software that is available to them on their personal computers or their cellphones for that matter. While we are always looking at what is next on the horizon technology-wise we might miss out on opportunities that is in hand. Perhaps this is human nature or a product of a capitalist society built on cosumerism. I can't help but wonder that in so-doing if we are not inadvertently shaping a society that is less content with what it is that they have in hand and more prone to lamenting what they do not have. I am not sure whether contentment (not complacency) should not perhaps be part of our graduate attributes especially in the midst of our current global economic crisis where will be forced to have to get by with less. We must get the balance right.