Masie
Uit de nieuwsbrief van Masie Center:
“Report from CES – Smaller, Faster, Cheaper, Brighter & Mobile: As promised last week, we had several “scouts” at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Their reports where quite different, looking at diverse aspects of the gadgets, technology, trends and marketplace. Here are a few summary comments and then some perspectives on things to keep an eye on in 2005 and 2006.


“The emphasis was on smaller, faster, brighter, more mobile and cheaper.
There were not any really revolutionary new technologies. However, the batteries were WAY LONGER LASTING, the chips were faster, the devices were smaller, the screens were brighter and there was a clear movement towards more standards and globalization.”
“The continued emergence of the DEVICE as the key technology rather than software or even traditional hardware was evident. We were surprised that there still was not a lot of focus on Workplace electronics. But, there was a lot of emphasis on the home office.”
Here are a few of the applications to learning and the workforce that I can make from the CES announcements and scouting reports:
* How Portable Media Players Can Include Learning Video Content: Microsoft and others rolled out new portable media players, which take the IPOD concept and extend it to high quality video. We can imagine a way in which an employee can receive a download of learning and training content
to their portable media players that they can take on the road and can re-direct the playback to any display device, including a hotel TV. Watch for meta-data on media usage to be developed and leveraged that would provide tracking feedback to a LMS like device.
* The Growth of SMS Text Messages Capacity for Learning: Outside of the U.S., SMS is a highly and widely used feature of mobile phones. People can use their phones as network devices to be notified of restaurant reservations, pharmaceutical reminders, just in time content notifications and other elements. Watch for SMS to extend to a wider set of self-service transactions for workers and consumers. Hopefully, the U.S. will catch up.
* Collaboration Technology: Video Conferencing & IP Video – We are about to see expanded use of VOIP, Voice over the Internet, as a real competitor to home and office based telephony. For example, all international calls from The MASIE Center are now made on Vonage. Watch for the extension to
device based video and video collaboration. We are talking quality way above current webcams. On-going video over IP will be rolling out in 2005 and 2006 and will push the collaboration.
* Visual Search Capabilities – Next Generation: Watch for Google, Yahoo
and Microsoft to roll out new search capabilities that are visual in nature. Search your hard disk for all pictures and have the program organize all the pictures that have your dog in the frame. Search the
internet for a person who is in this picture. Display search results in a much more visual and dynamic nature than current search engines.
* Gaming Evolution and Convergence: CES was loaded with ever increasing mobile and more dynamic gaming functionality. We will report on this in a larger edition focused on The MASIE Center’s new xLearn Lab, which will be tracking gaming, simulation and other forms of EXTREME learning.