ABSTRACT
The Horizon Report, an annual publication by the New Media Consortium and Educause, summarizes the trends that will shape the adoption of technology in education in the years to come. In a white paper about the future of higher education, Blackboard interviewed global leaders about their predictions. Several interviews echoed sentiments in the Horizon Report. This chapter discusses how people can work with whatever technologies provided to build effective online wisdom communities. It provides 10 specific design features for a learning platform built from scratch to facilitate learning in an online wisdom community. They are Integrated Needs Assessments, Co-Mentoring Integration, Collaborative Inquiry Cycle Integration, Multiple-Modal Inputs, Warnings/Reminders Accessibility Concerns, Transformative Learning Tracking, Well-Designed Communal Spaces, Strong Social Presence, Tools to Better Track Participation, and Dynamic Learner Support. By beginning and ending with the needs of learners, people can build communities that help everyone explore, collaborate, and grow.
