How Technology Will Shape Higher Education Learning

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This summary is from an older report from “The Economist Intelligent Unit” sponsored by New Media Consortium; the author was Marie Glenn and the editor was Debra D’Agostino.

A survey was sent out to 289 respondents; 100 from higher education and 189 from corporate.  This was an international survey with a little more than half (154) from the United States; with the remainder from Europe (69), Asia-Pacific (43) and the rest of the world (23). Much of this report’s prognosis has come to pass since its original release, and so I thought it would be good to go over the findings.

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Everyone assumes that technology is a part of our lives because we encounter it in almost every moment of our day.  We get up to a digital alarm clock; we listen to Sirius Radio on the way to work carrying our smart phones with us as we Tweet while waiting for the bus. Our days are filled with the back and forth of email, and our cars now have bigger computers in them than the NASA module that went to the moon.

But this report asked if education has kept up with this technological front? It has moved forward in some instances on some campuses, but not in and on others.

There are five key issues that learning in 2013 must follow and those in charge of it must employ:

1. The fact that technology does have a significant impact on higher education
2. Online learning is now a mandatory part of the education process for higher education
3.  Corporate-Academic partnerships are critical and key to the higher education mix
4. Technology has a positive impact on the marketing for prospective students
5. Higher Education is responding to globalization via technology (social media)

Online Education

Online education was once a niche channel for higher education, but now it definitely is part of the mix, or it has become a mainstream necessity. Sixty percent of respondents say that online education is changing the college campus in how programs are administering to the needs of students. Respondents are now saying how important social media communication has become a part of their course work, while building new types of recruiting and fundraising dynamics.

Online education has two main challenges: 1) constantly keeping up with the technological needs of the campus, and 2) the inherent cost ratio to do that.

The Classroom

Sixty percent of the survey respondents say professors will soon teach in more than one medium; with 52% stating online collaboration tools being the greatest contributor in terms of the educational mix and quality. Forty-eight percent point to dynamic delivery of content that supports individual-paced learning modules (either learning-management systems or video presentations).

Rewiring the Classroom

And while all of this is changing and evolving — two major areas of academia are being modified, slowly but surely.

1. The professor’s role in the educational process may be changing more from that of being an instructor to that of mentor.
2. Publishing will be changing or evolving from textbooks to “organized content” 

What these two major subjects are leading to is that the professor must keep in step with technology or be subjugated to the role of the 21^st century Luddite. There’s no looking back on this.  This has a forward momentum to it that is so strong that there will be no walking away from it.

Students that come to class in 2013 will be armed to the gill with technology.  Professors need to have their own website, with electronic versions of their materials and they should be using social media in the classroom to continue the conversation out of the classroom. Of course this means that there is a further commitment on the part of the instructor to do this, but this is now a part of the process, and is strongly expected by the student.

Many colleges and universities are using e-books to support their classroom activities and discussions.  Many instructors are using online resources to fashion the “text” for their courses. The advantage to this is that the information is current — for the most part “free,” and more available to most students (i.e. reading it on their smart phones or tablets).

The challenge for the aforementioned:

1)   Cost (70% of respondents cite this as their greatest concern)

2)   Culture (Entrenched organizational traditions may be yet another hurdle or the instructor’s reticence or inability to change may get in the way of progress)

3)   Management (Who is responsible to enact these changes and are they equipped to lead?)

Corporate-Academic Partnerships

One-fifth of respondents report that their campuses are quicker to develop and implement technological innovation than public or private institutions or corporations. That means 80% of college campuses are admitting deficiencies. Ninety-three percent of the private-sector say that universities’ technologies are a significant factor in their decision-making process with the end result stating that all classrooms should be “wired.”

Globalization and the “Professional Student”

Forty-six percent of respondents say that the United States is lagging behind other countries in the ability to produce high-quality professionals. “In fact, only about  40% of all survey respondents believe that current graduates are able to compete successfully in today’s global marketplace.” (The Future of Higher Education: How technology will shape learning, page 10). This may point to the lack of ubiquity of smart phones in the US as opposed to other countries where they are more significantly used. (Particularly in the UK, Japan and South Korea).

Part of the reasoning for the lack of high-quality professionalism is due to the current students’ reading comprehension levels being lower than past groups, and a certain lack of patience when it comes to understanding the business process. Additionally, the report stated that they have a more limited experience in independent thinking and decision-making.

Another flaw in the modern day student’s professional profile, and obvious to anyone who teaches, is that plagiarism is more prevalent. This truly may be due to experience and knowledge rather than dishonesty. All educational programs at every level should enforce:

§  intellectual property rights

§  online fact validation

§  document sourcing, and

§  attribution

On the positive side, students within this educational group are very open to collaboration, good at multitasking (which is very contentious for many instructors), and finally they are obviously experts at the use of new technologies.

“The Means May Sometimes Be the End…”

Marshall McLuhan, the late 60’s communication scholar and author, stated “the medium is the message.” What that may mean now to us is that the process may be just as important as the end result.

“As an agent of immense change, technology has heralded our present knowledge economy and given rise to a generation of students who have never known life without a computer.” (The Future, page 16)

It is a given that technology is entrenched in all levels of education, from daycare to higher education, and that the success of technological innovations such as MOOC’s (Massive Open Online Classrooms) is making every academic leader spend a great deal of time on the technological aspects of their programs.

“As a result, societies around the world will need to consider how to make the most of these new opportunities to ensure that they remain competitive in the global marketplace.” (The Future, page 16)

Keywords to follow-up on:

§  wikis

§  instant messaging in education

§  social networking

§  Google docs

§  Campfire

§  Dropbox

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www.nmc.org/pdf/Future-of-Higher-Ed-(NMC).pdf

Wikipedia contributors. "Luddite." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 6 Oct. 2012. Web. 15 Oct. 2012.