I finally got round to watching this talk recorded on Elluminate at ALt C 2009 that I attended 1 month ago but could not attend this session. Here are some notes. Martin Bean OU VC Designate (at the time, now in post) talked about the links between technology and learning and recognising how powerful that relationship is. You can watch the keynote and get more details on the ALT C 2009 website.
The macroeconomics principles that are impacting on HE are
- Globalisation – competition in HE is now global, more students studying outside their home country. Education is no longer a once in a lifetime experience but people keep coming back to education to top up and change their skills and knowledge. Lifetime employment is replaced by lifetime employability.
- Massification – the world cannot supply enough HE places for the demand if we stick with the bricks and mortar environment. We need to keep pace with demand and retool and rethink the ways that we provide HE.
- Privatisation – private sector HE is growing fast and their motivation is share holder returns, therefore they have a lot of investment in service quality.
Collective challenges to HE
- UK and US overshadowed by India and China’s investment in R&D in education. In the top ranking research institutions we’ll see a shift in that direction in the next 20 years. Students used to come from there to the USA for their education and then stay there to work, now they go home again.
- We need to educate people for new types of work, skills agenda making sure students are equipped wit the right skills for out economy.
- STEM (Science, technology, engineering and maths) is key for a competitive workforce. STEM is critical because it fuels innovation and the future of economies depends on innovation.
- Increasing the importance of sustainability.
- Transforming information into meaningful knowledge. The days of memorising rote are over. Students should be learning 21st century skills and be tested in 21st century ways.
Student expectations
- Changing values – autonomy, authenticity, connecting, sharing, individuality, constant stimulation. Priorities – realtime interaction, self presentation.
- Our challenge is to be more relevant, blend digital lifestyles and digital work styles. Aging student body. Learning in the workplace becoming integral. Can’t stop your lives to top up education. Bring education to where they are. HE must remove artificial barriers (informal/formal learning). HE needs to revolve around the learner. Pushing globs of information at learners is not an education. Content and pedagogy, services, support revolves around the students.
The opportunities for technology are
- Extending the reach of high quality education to all.
- Nurturing powerful communities of learning – formally and informally, move from sage of the stage. Allowing communities to spring up and figure out how we can assess that.
- enabling relevant, personalised, engaging learning – classic text book model is over.
- giving educators better insight and more time.
- agile, efficient and connected learning systems – systems that give us access to the information we need as and when we need it.
The key considerations about the application of technology are more about people and processes than about the technology. Technology fails 9/10 cos we spend all our time thinking about the technology and not about the brain.
The OU is using SocialLearn to connect social Web 2.0 uses to learning uses as shown below:
Beyond Social Networking tuned in for learning…
People like me TO People who challenge me
Friends TO Learning Peers/Mentors
Informal Chat TO Learning conversations
Quick facts/Info exchange TO Learning journeys/depth
Simplistic Numeric Ratings TO Endorsements and Critiques
Tag Clouds TO Connected Ideas
Shopping Recommendations TO Learning Recommendations
