Current trends in ICT

The article that I found on current trends in ICT is found at the following website: http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Review/EDUCAUSEReviewMagazineVolume41/ManagingCoursesDefiningLearnin/158070.
It is entitled "Managing courses, defining learning: what faculty, students, and administrators want". It is written by 3 academics in the USA, who undertook a study to find out what faculty members, students and administrators liked and disliked about the technology they were currently using, and what they felt was needed in future technology.
Overall, a deep reliance on technology was identified, but many users were unhappy with various components of that usage, such as speed, efficiency and "intuitiveness" of the e-systems. It was also felt that many aspects of technology could be improved so as to make course management, such as reviewing assignments, entering grades, etc. much easier. Students identified the following needs: "interactivity, mobility, synchronous communications, and a faster, friendlier, and more locally controlled interface".
One point that resonated sharply with me as that students are looking for collaborative tools to use at university. Flickr, Facebook, MySpace, de.lic.ious, and wikis were a few such examples that were given. Synchronous communication tools (whiteboard, chat, group surfing) were not seen as efficient and useful communication tools, and were, on the whole, shunned by the students. The reason why this was the case was not well explained, other than to comment that these tools were "poorly implemented". I wondered whether that implementation was on the part of the lecturer, or on the part of the IT personnel. My attempt to get groups of students to discuss a particular issue online failed miserably. The students 'chatted' about where and when they were going to meet up, rather than discussing the topic in detail. Perhaps they found the experience of chatting in academic format too foreign. Would the use of MySpace format be more acceptable to them?
The use of ICT in future tertiary environments is going to increase exponentially, according to the authors. ICT will have to have all the "social tools, intuitive tools, smart agents, and interactive environments of Web 2.0", in order to be considered for use by academics and students alike. Besides being multi-modal, the ICT of the future will have to be mobile as well. Accessibility from PDAs and mobile phones will be the norm, and smart systems will be able to communicate directly with the student.
Technology is advancing at such an incredible rate, that I was overwhelmed reading this article. I could only identify some of the 'apps' that the article discussed. It made me consider what I would want from an ICT-rich university system. Some of my answers are the same as those in the article: efficiency (hold the clicks!), speed, and the ability to have improved collaboration and communication. I also liked the suggestion of archiving of courses/units, so that they are always available for students to refer to throughout their academic life.
ICT needs to become 'smarter' so that lifelong learning trends are encouraged in our students.