Read the article at Campus Technology.

Looking into 2012 – what’s hot, what’s not

 “2011 will be the Year of the Tablet, but schools still will not know what to do with them.” Yup. That’s pretty much how it went.

1.    “Ac­cel­er­at­ing adop­tion of iPads, iPhones and other mo­bile tech­nolo­gies into so­cial and cul­tural frame­works is trans­form­ing com­put­ing into an am­bi­ent ex­pe­ri­ence — that is, im­me­di­ate and pur­po­sive ac­cess to ICTs is avail­able any­where and any­time.” The trend in this di­rec­tion con­tin­ues, and will likely be­come more ap­par­ent when Ap­ple (and oth­ers) make strong pushes into our liv­ing rooms (i.e., an Ap­ple tele­vi­sion).

2.    “The New Nor­mal: The re­ces­sion is of­fi­cially over, but many peo­ple are left un­em­ployed or sig­nif­i­cantly un­der­em­ployed.” In­deed, we now have a hu­man cap­i­tal cri­sis where tal­ents that used to sup­port a mid­dle class lifestyle are now ob­so­lete. Our ed­u­ca­tion sys­tems need to lead the way in nav­i­gat­ing this “new nor­mal.”

3.    “We are slowly rec­og­niz­ing that the only con­stant is change, and many in­dus­tries will ex­pe­ri­ence in­creas­ingly rapid cy­cles of trans­for­ma­tion — for hu­mans that are ill-pre­pared for change, this could mean more so­cioe­co­nomic tur­moil and un­em­ploy­ment. 2011 will give us a taste of what’s to come.” Up­grade your­self or buckle in. 2012 could be rough.

4.    “Peo­ple are mo­bile, too. Rapid de­vel­op­ments in mo­bile tech­nolo­gies also en­able so­ci­ety to be­come much more mo­bile, and we will see this re­flected in the work­force, of which the lead­ing edges will ex­hibit Knowmadic qualities .” Vivek Wad­hwa, Tom Fried­man, and oth­ers have been outspoken on the need to re­tain skilled knowl­edge work­ers (in the United States). So far, I can’t tell if any­body’s been lis­ten­ing…