Well, it is that time of the year when everyone would perhaps be reasonably interested in forecasting what the next year will bring. Here are my 2 cents:
-
PLEs will be shareable – tools shall arrive on the web that shall allow entire learning experiences to be sliced and shared between users. This shall be followed by ratings on which PLE slices are great. Any learner wanting to learn about a topic will take a PLE slice of a person who the community says has mastered it and follow the learning path.
-
Hybrid VLE + PLE systems – LMS/VLE enterprise systems shall incorporate many social constructivism inspired features and organizations will pick up this trend.
-
The first classification systems to manage and search the huge amount of tagging will start to surface. Folksonomies will start getting structured in some way.
-
The shift to rich Internet applications in e-learning using Flex and Silverlight among other tools, shall become a reality thus providing a boost to gaming and simulations for learning.
-
Learning process outsourcing will get established as a business model for small and medium companies.
Hopefully, all these will come true. We will check back at the end of next year, then, to see if these were any good! Meanwhile, all my best wishes for the new year!
Rethinking Education 
You must explain what a PLE is… sorry, too many acronyms in my world to keep ’em all straight. Also, I’m fascinated with the term “Folksonomies.” I looked it up in Wikipedia and now can add it to my vocabulary… thanks!
LikeLike
PLE is an acronym for a Personal Learning Environment. This is essentially a collection of links, articles, feeds, resources etc that form part of an individual’s knowledge base. For an example, please look at Ray Sims’ PLE at http://simslearningconnections.com/ple/ray_ple.html. You may also want to check out PLEX at http://www.reload.ac.uk/plex/. My belief if that in a socially networked world where the boundaries between teachers and learners blur, people who “know” will be able to share what they know with people who want to learn through shared PLEs. I am also hoping that across time, “teachers” may be encouraged to use instructional design principles when they create these shareable PLE’s. I am hoping that PLEs or slices of PLEs maybe tagged with folksonomies much the same way as SCORM or other standards tag educational content.
LikeLike