Current and emerging technologies.....

[sLiDeR]

'Current and emerging technologies in the area of desktop and application provisioning'!

Thats a presentation I need to give next week. Just been landed on my lap

Ok, so I'm wondering on ideas... I can talk about virtualisation mainly but does any of you have ur own ideas?

[SteveLaw]

Thin client? Not very emerging, but still more or less current?

Web-based applications? Web 2.0 / WebOS etc.

[tmcd35]

I've been looking into application streaming for a while.

VMWare ThinApp, Xenocode, M$ App-V (SoftGrid), InstallFree Bridge and Altaris SVS

That along with nComputing, Cranberry thin clients and VDI.

Then there is also SAAS (software as a service) Basically web page apps (google docs for example).

[CyberNerd]

Web-based technologies, ultra-mobile PC's, Software as a Service, thin client applications:
ie - the move from expensive windows based desktops, to applications that run in a browser from your vle.

[SteveBentley]

What is the audience for this presentation?

Does the person who dumped this on you actually have enough idea about IT to know what the title is supposed to mean? I have visions of that title being a Buzzword 2.0 compliant version of "Why should we upgrade to Vista and Office 2007"

[CyberNerd]

I think the basis of a presentation about emerging technology should focus on open standards such as those promoted by Becta.

The rational is that if the school adopts open standards or moves towards using only fileformats that can be used -cross platform- on multiple technologies then they will be flexible enough to fit in with any emerging technology. Interestingly, slashdot linked me to this article Most Popular Laptops for September 2008 that has 3 linux UMPC's in the top 10 selling computers. Clearly if a focus was on moving towards high end applications like autodesk,photoshop then this emerging tech is not compatible with school strategy. If the focus was on web-based technology and open file-formats such as ODF then it is a more inculsive approach and makes the school more compatible if students have a range of technology (apple,linux,vista,xp) at home.

[sLiDeR]

Cheers guys.

Im going to talk about

web 2.0
Open shared source content
Virtualisation
Hand Held device learning

Its just the structure now. No idea lol

Think i'll structure it something like,

Where we are now, up & coming trends with benefits & why?

Short conclusion.....what you think?

Ideas appreciated.

Its only a 10 min presentation, but that can seem like 10 hours!!!

[GrumbleDook]

With what you have so far you might want to consider a 'paths' approach. Take a scenario you want to explore (eg student engagement with ICT as a tool for learning) and follow the path from the user's point of view.

The device is the handheld / UMPC device, the delivery medium is the browser, the tools are web 2.0 tools (SaaS), the resources are the shared content ('Net hosted resources or SCORM content on your VLE) and the core technology has it's architecture via Virtualisation.

Points to emphasise are cost saving (cheap devices, sustainability of platforms, reduction in support requirement due to a 'more enabling architecture' which simply means that you don't have to employ 5 more people to look after it all and it is easier to expand when required rather than a redesign every year!), that a number of the tools are already available and used by students but need a core project to stitch them together in the same manner that a teacher will stitch together the various skills within their subject, any time / anywhere learning ... there are lots of buzzwords you can stick in but if you can then translate them to laymen's terms it works better.

Points to highlight are the restrictions and risks. The above will not easily deal with media intensive work. CAD/CAM, video / audio editing needs to use appropriate tools ... though you could look at some emerging tools such as photosynth from Microsoft Live Labs to show that this could change (hey ... these are emerging technologies) but to realy on things that *may* developed is a risk.

There are a couple of places you can look for supporting evidence including the Becta Research Network , Mirandanet and ICT Register.