Presented at EDUCAUSE Annual Conferences, Networking and Emerging Technologies, and Technology Selection

Given the unrelenting pace of technology innovation, keeping up with developments is often a daunting challenge. What methods do you use to learn about new and emerging technologies? How do you identify the promising ones that you might pursue later? Join us to share insights and tips from colleagues.

Clickers. Podcasting. Second Life. How does a university choose which emerging technologies to pursue? This session will share Ohio State University's structured process for evaluating e-learning projects, the emerging technologies assessment (ETA), which has been tested in numerous projects. Through collaboration and role-play, participants will conduct a case study assessment of an emerging technology using the ETA toolkit.

The five-stage process is organized around a flowchart that details steps for taking an emerging technology from the idea stage through the information-gathering stage to planning and executing a pilot. It specifies stakeholder involvement and includes multiple checkpoints that permit early termination where appropriate. The end result is a recommendation to administrative leadership about whether to adopt the technology. The materials for this session will include documentation, examples, and forms that outline the goals, inputs, and outputs for each stage of the process. Participants will leave with a model they can adapt to their own institutions.