Look for a hot new trend

Look for a hot new trend on college campuses called Course casting. It involves recording a lecture for later playback on an MP3 player. Course casting makes it possible to listen to the lecture outside of the classroom.

The concept of course casting intrigues me. Not the lecture part, which is just a one-way method of communicating content. There are other ways to use this idea for different instructional purposes. For example, if I record a subject matter expert talking and presenting content, I will have a terrific resource for later listening and playback. Not only that, I can edit and re-use some of the content for inclusion in an e-learning program.

Most have seen an avatar on the computer screen - it's an image that represents an actual human being in cyberspace. Avatars are common in online role-playing games, where a player’s presence or location in the virtual reality environment is represented by an avatar character. Avatar technology is also well established in areas other than entertainment, including a variety of business, communication, and training applications.

New applications are emerging as avatar technology advances and avatars become more and more sophisticated. The use of avatars as learning agents is now considered a promising pedagogical approach for teaching and learning on-line. See my white paper on avatar technology for an overview of how avatars will facilitate e-learning in the 21st century.