Abstract:

The ‘Emerging Educational Institutional Decision-making matrix’ is developed to allow educational institutions to adopt a rigorous and consistent methodology of determining which of the myriad of emerging educational technologies will be the most compelling for the institution, particularly ensuring that it is the educational or pedagogical and not the technological imperative that drives the technology integration agenda.

The Matrix is designed to be used after some initial research into an emerging technology. Once a technology is put through the matrix, a number of options are available:

1 Shelve the technology
2 Put the research on the technology matures in the market (watching brief)
3 Research the product further

After further research the technology can be tested as a pilot to determine how well or otherwise, the technology works within the institution.

Should an emerging technology have more than one product associated with it a second and third step in the Matrix has been developed, the second step assigns a rating to each of the categories within the matrix.

With many products containing similar features a third step has been developed to compare products on a features level.

Keywords:

collaborative technology assessment, emergent educational technology.