Research Question Four

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STATUS: Work on this question was completed at the July 11 meeting in Melbourne. We are no longer soliciting entries on this question.

Research Question Four

'What trends -- social, technological, or economic -- do you expect will have a significant impact on the ways in which Australasian post-compulsory educational institutions will approach their missions during the next five years?

Worldwide production of over 1 billion mobile phoens per year is driving both innovation and adoption of ever more capable portable devices. These machines have the capacity to access the network, but they are not owned by the institution, a situation which is creating a policy/reality lag. In addition, this movement away from desktop computers and labs is shifting the locus of control over access to resources from central authorities to users, with a resulting shift in the ways learning spaces are conceptualized and designed

There is an increasingly important set of influences from the workplace that are impacting how learning is designed and conducted. This is pushing a greater awareness of the value of hands-on, purpose-driven, authentic, and other active learning approaches. Increasingly the efficacy of learning is being measured using concepts like engagement and time on task. The increased emphasis of the workplace on skills will fuel a greater focus on certifications, portfolios, and other ways that life experiences that can be documented.

The increasing connectedness of people around the globe has and continues to dramatically reduce the costs of collaboration. the decline in these costs is paralleled by tremendous growth in the sorts of free and/or very-low-cost tools available to bring people together in real time, to share assets and resources, and to communicate.

As both computers and the network increase in connectedness and capability, the set of technologies available to educators grows ever richer. The ubiquity of these tools has lowered the cost of entry to use them, and is in turn opening up a range of new opportunities for e-learning and other forms of technology-mediated learning.

The items below are the raw data for this research question, and were generated by the Advisory Board and then ranked at the meeting in Melbourne July, 11, 2008. A visual record was captured. -- See the results.

National curriculum at secondary school level flow through of those students to universities

Climate change impact on economy and investment in technology services access and equity

Undergraduate education is increasingly a part-time activity - students must work to participate in higher education - making them by necessity part-time students. The socialization function of university to educate a creative citizenry is changing. Students view university as a consumer transaction. What is the immediate personal benefit

Geo-political changes (rise of China, India etc) impacting on curriculum and multi-lingual resource requirements

Increased global collabroartion between institutions

Consumer technology continues to rapidly outpace enterprise applications/technologies user/learner expectations exceed the reality of higher ed (students are better equipped than the unis etc)

Lowering of prices and resulting increased accessibility by students/ learners

Increase in personal, portable ownership of technology - provides students a degree of independence and choice that allows for a new opportunities for scholarship, recreation and social interaction. This stands in contrast to former institutional obligation to provide technology on the students' behalf.

Learners bringing more of their own devices that they may want to connect to institutional networks or bypassing these' - Phones with Internet capability, laptops

Richer and more complex technologies/ e-learning opportunities

Increased mobility/portability and ubiquity of technologies

Availability of complex portable devices - portable devices capable of multiple functions

Mobile devices and the effect on communication (positive and negative connotations)

More personal computing - computing device required by students - increasing OS flavours (linux/unix back in)

Informal personally-driven networked learning orientation and capabilities - learning globally, anywhere, anytime, with anyone

Increased Personalisation - Shift in locus of control to the learner - reach out to create personalised information channels - filtering the information explosion by profile

Increased networking of people and knowledge is more significant that individual facts

Increasing amounts of data available and more globalised

possible shift back away from very simple easy to use/adopt/manage technologies - simple options for non-IT educators to more complex templated spaces ???

Pedagogy becoming more performative and exploratory

Recognition of the importance of learning and teaching - increased acceptance of the importance of pedagogy, scholarship of learning and teaching

Blurred work/life boundaries and associated technologies - multiple identities

The mergence of our different selves - academic with other social spaces

Slowing down/disconnecting

Students working and having complex lives - students will not be on campus for scheduled, one-off activities.

Acceptance of student expectations and demands - students as active partners in the educational process

Wider distribution of pervasive wireless - breaking the connection to the physical cable opens new possibilities for spaces, design, and the activities in which they engage

Focus increasingly on the consequences of sustainability - global warming will impact.... everything! Travel, distribution of goods and services over a distance, all will be radically effected by the new economics of energy. On the one hand, more pressures will emerge for virtual interaction and distributed engagement. On the other the carbon footprint of energy consumption and generation will pressure technology development in efficiency and design.

Growing acceptance of bespoke tools and integration of these and away from the 'do-it-all' LMS

Changing pedagogy to recognise the power of student engagement' - Authentic tasks, workplace experience (real or simulated), driven by student satisfaction surveys

Alternative models of teaching that allow larger cohorts with more student engagement"" - Eg. peer-to-peer

Changing nature of the teaching/learning transaction (more choice/flexibility about methododology)

Technology input move away from the keyboard /mouse interface - Interactive whiteboards, touch screens and pads, virtual classrooms - people acting like people

Increased requirement for workplace learning - ability of technology to facilitate work experience. Collecting evidence from work related activities for assessment.