After compiling eLearn Magazine’s Predictions for 2009, I am suffering from economic crisis fatigue in a way I hadn’t during the height of the Bernie Madoff scandal. Many of the predictions I received use this as a launching point. This is not surprising given the far reaching implications of the financial state of the world on every aspect of our personal and professional lives. And many of these predictions showed the multitude of perspectives the contributors have on e-learning, and many are quite likely to come to fruition, I believe.
My first encounter with the term fatigue, in this context, was in a discussion about how AIDS fatigue had set in and fewer people were using precautions. The overexposure of anything in the media – the US presidential election, Steve Jobs’ health – can itself shape people’s reactions.
Instead of focusing on the implications of troubled financial times, let’s look at innovations. There seem to be more new websites than I can possibly check out, and the ones that I use frequently seem to be adding new features all the time. In fact, I recently played around with LinkedIn Groups, wanting to see how they differed from Yahoo Groups, ning, and the other ways to easily bring a group of people with shared interests together. I even tried something new for the predictions column, and solicited predictions in 2 of the learning groups in LinkedIn, with the promise of using the best ones in the column. In both groups I had excellent predictions and had a hard time deciding which to use!
Then there are the new phones (and iPhone apps), the Kindle, and the usual smaller, cheaper, more powerful assortment of devices that I more often observe others using than adopt for myself. They make my once-treasured TI calculator from college look like something that belongs in a museum.
I hope that innovation continues so that, a year from now, I can look back with awe at what happened in 2009. Here’s to a happy, healthy, and innovative New Year for all!