Research Question Four

From Horizon Project

Jump to: navigation, search

Horizon Project » Research Question One Two Three Four Five

PROCESS: Please enter your responses to the research question in the space below.

You may list as many items as you wish (and we hope you will!), but please list each item separately -- that is, if you say wish to list challenge1, challenge2, and challenge3 as important, please list each item as a separate bullet point (asterisk), as we will be rank ordering these later. Do not list them as a single paragraph, as that will hamper the process.

Please also add your name or initials after each item so that we can follow up with you if we need additional information or leads to examples, as I have done here [Larry]

If an item on your list is already listed here, just add your comment to the end of it, with your initials.


[edit] Research Question Four - Challenges

What do you see as the key challenge(s) related to teaching, learning, or creative expression that learning-focused institutions will face during the next 5 years?

  • Students are different, but a lot of educational material isn't. Schools are still using materials developed to teach the students of decades ago, but today's students are actually different in the way they think and work. [RSS - I need to find the citation, I'll add it when I find it]. See "21st Century Skills, Education & Competitiveness Report." The article "Why We Need to Teach 21st Century Skills- And How to Do It" has related discussion and examples. http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/documents/21st_century_skills_education_and_competitiveness_guide.pdf http://www.mmischools.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=13809 [BC] I Would add that not only the material has not changed, but the institutions themselves have not changed and adadpted to current times and needs. Education carries a heavy baggage and needs to freshen up and try identifying new learning models that are engaging to newer generations and times [EDL]Another static aspect of education has been assessment.The basic principles of assessment may still apply but if we change the way in which we teach and learn, it follows that the form which assessment takes and the tools that support the process should also change. I aslo think that there is still debate abouit how different students are (e.g. the concept of 21st century learners being able to multi-task and learn) I need to find some references that state both sides of the debate. I try to separate content, from skills and tools. The new tools are sometimes most effective because they are increasing the effectiveness of an already proven pedagogy. At other times, the technologies introduce learning strategies that were not previously possible. [JG]
  • There are significant shifts taking place in the ways scholarship & research are conducted, and a need for innovation and leadership at all levels of the academy. Academic review and faculty rewards are increasingly out of sync. CreateChangeCanada is a good resource related to how scholarship can be transformed http://www.createchangecanada.ca/scholarship/index.shtml (LJ) [BC] We need clear practices for assessing emerging forms of scholarly practice for tenure and promotion. [HW] For students who are living and learning with technologies that generate dynamic forms of content, the current formalism and structure of scholarship and research may seem static and 'dead' as a way of collecting, analyzing and sharing results to these future scholars.(I am paraphrasing a sentiment expressed by a faculty member in our information science program) [JG] Also agree, collective intel, collaborative scholarship, open systems, "Wikinomic" sharing principles, require new metrics or weight of in evaluation of authorship for rapid acceleration of vital, dynamic research output. The legacy, codified, "analog" methods of scholarly evaluation has become a drag on research productivity. [MAS]
  • There is a growing need for formal instruction in 21st-century literacies, including information literacy, visual literacy, and technological literacy (LJ - from 2008 short list). The world of college-level writing instruction is vastly different from the traditional courses offered even a few years ago. http://news.duke.edu/2007/09/hammer_oped.html [BD] Technological rationality is built on operative efficacy which tries to answer - what is it for and not "what is it" or " why" ? Technological proficiency is replacing fundamental skills like logic and analysis at every level of the education system http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/is-stupid-making-us-google. Need to educate people not only to use technology but also collaboration etiquette http://www.businessweek.com/technology/ceo_tipsheet/2007_3.htm and cultural differences ..the world is NOT flat: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5719.html [BD] Agree! [SM] 21st century literacies also include code literacy, and the ability to understand basic code functioning; design literacy, and the ability to control the relationship between for and content with an understanding of the affordances of a particular tool or platform; and perhaps relational thinking, and the ability to understand the impact of computing algorithms and databases. [HW] Questions of assessment and support of new literacies across the curriculum continue to surface.[BS]
  • Higher education is facing a growing expectation to deliver services, content and media to mobile and personal devices (LJ - from 2008 short list) The United States economy is an ever increasing Services Economy with over 80% of the GDP in Services. Our teachers and professors were not properly trained to understand a Services Economy in which we need social, economic and technical skills. Acquiring and balancing these skills is a challenge for students and ... for the instructional staff (JPJ) Fully agree [EDL]Major challenges with delivering to these devices and developing applications that will run on them are interoperability and integration [JG]
  • Faculty Development initiatives that drive towards greater adoption for teaching and learning with technology. Currently our early adopter faculty participate, but with the growing generational gap between educators and students, it will be more critical than ever to adopt agile faculty development plans that can keep pace with youth culture. In addition to getting the not-so-eager facutly to adopt, there is also getting buy-in from core administration (deans, chairs, provost) [CWC] [BC] Meeting the needs of the "first gen" of Net Gen faculty - those who have "grown" up with technologies during their UG and Grad experiences and expect certain tools to be available for their teaching (and research) practice. [JKL] Even though newer faculty may have "grown up" with technology, we have to be careful not to assume they have experienced instructional technology or have been trained how to use it themselves. Most faculty come through Research 1 institutions and earn a Ph.D. for content knowledge in their discipline. This often involves a significant amount of research, to prove their ability to be a content expert and contributor to the field. However, unless their advanced degree happens to be in Education or Educational Technology, they typically receive little-to-no pedagogical theory or practice, let alone with technology. [BC] How this issue gets framed is significant: is it a matter of literacy and the basic ability to communicate? Or is it a matter of pedagogy? Obviously it's both, but how it's framed for faculty makes a difference. [HW] I would go beyond technology needs, communication or pedagogy needs and into participation needs. Current generations have access to all content, freely, what they need are mentors, people they admire and respect to guide them, support them, to revive engagement levels that are now unsatisfactory by today's current student population that desire getting the accreditation but do not necessarily enjoy the current learning process. [EDL]I second that last comment - Student engagement is key to learning. Courses that create projects and assignments that somehow connect with and have an impact on the "real world" draw a lot of positive feedback from students. Other than the incentive of achieving a grade - which is not necessarily an indication of skill mastery - students do not invest in assignments that are only going to be seen by their faculty or T.A.s. This may also be relevant to academic integrity in that students may be more inclined to "cheat" if the assignment is seen as "busy work."[JG]
  • Accessibility will increasingly be an issue for campuses as more states adopt federal laws into their practice. In addition, we face a significant influx of disabled postsecondary students due to the war in Iraq. The California State University, a system of 23 campuses and 40,000 students, has implemented an Accessible Technology Initiative, with the goal of all instructional resources to be accessible by 2012. Core to accessibility is a significant paradigm shift that involves moving away from a reactive, back-end, accommodations-based model to a proactive, front-end, accessibility model. The latter involves designing things universally up front rather than referring disabled students to a third party for educational assistance or hoping that assistive technology will somehow process the resources in an acceptable manner for students with disabilities. As technology continues to make exciting advances, there needs to be continual consideration as to how new tools and interfaces can be as accessible as possible. http://www.section508.gov/ http://www.calstate.edu/accessibility/ [BC] Moreover, disabilities are not only permanent but are often temporary (such as when driving a car the student cannot read). Integrating accessibility technologies into the development of all technologies will provide impacting solutions and options to all, and not just to a specific group of individuals. [EDL] With an increase in the use of virtual environments and gaming, there is are some barriers to accessibility that have not been fully resolved. Second Life, which is critically dependent on visual references for navigation, (http://www.it-analysis.com/blogs/Abrahams_Accessibility/2006/11/second_life_class_action.html ). There are efforts being taken to resolve this issue (http://www.blindsecondlife.blogspot.com/), however as new immersive experiences continue to be developed, and as more video and other visual content is deployed on the Web, the ability to provide the appropriate metadata and means to allow fully accessibility will need to be maintained. [DD] Apple has just announced (Sep 29, 2008) that iTunes8 and the 4th generation Nano are now accessible (e.g., spoken menus, larger font, higher contrast, screen-reader compatible). http://www.apple.com/accessibility/itunes/vision.html [BC]
  • Meeting Expectations of Non-Educational Online Experiences The online experience provided by commercial and social environments have conditioned learners with specific expectations from their online experience. Educators are often thrust into a reactive role to accommodate and adapt pedagogy to a familiar and self-guided learning experience. It is a positive to re-examine and adopt new teaching practices. However, we are challenged to be original and proactive in designing and presenting strenuous content for optimum learning. We comply with expectations of non-educational presentations designed for ease, expediency, and commerce. Design for optimum depth, contemplation, reflection and understanding are often a lower priority. [MAS]
  • Budget (isn't that always on the list?) Ensuring a place for T&L and CE expenditures - not only to re-engineer curricula (active learning, critical thinking, 21st C literacies), operationalizing technologies so they are more widely available for producing content, but the ensure a place for experimentation as new technologies push the boundaries of what is and what might be effective T, L, and CE. [JKL]There will be little new money and much work to be done on reallocating from within.[SM] The current global financial situation which may well last for 3-5 years could have large scale impact in all sorts of interconnected ways. Maybe this point should be in Q5 Trends. [NN]
  • Value Proposition for Higher Education - closely related to budget, but not exactly the same thing in my opinion. As higher education inflation continues to be higher than the overall rate of inflation - and as seismic shifts in the economy reduce disposable income for large segments of the population - the notion that we can continue to charge any rate we like and still attract students will collapse. This will happen first in the private sector, but pubic institutions face similar challenges usually framed as "budgets" or "accountability". If the non-profit sector fails to adopt new models that offer significant improvements in efficiency, the private sector will do it. I'd rather these changes driven from the values of the non-profit sector, than see non-profit higher ed make itself irrelevant and the innovative edge ceded to for-profit education. [AMB]
  • Skills gap Some faculty have sophisticated skills working with information technology, but many (particularly in the humanities) feel overwhelmed by the shift to digital. Likewise, some students are much more savvy when working with technology than others. How can this skills gap be addressed? (LMS) True for students too - so how can HEI's leverage those that do have the skills to help/support those that don't? [NN]
  • Assessment and AccountabilityMore than ever, we will be expected to measure and prove though formal assessment that our students are learning. Data collection, mining, and displaying from our SIS and other apps will be paramount for accreditation and survey purveyors. [SM]
  • IP Issues-- Illegal downloading/PiracyThe entertainment, music, movie, publishing industries and slow to change (and see no need to)so the onus is going to be more on us to come up with ways of curbing bad behaviors. [SM] Lots of reasons for fears: APA Google suit, and Zotero's challenge. [BNA]
  • Workload and Burn Out Faculty need ways to manage the additional workload associated with media, whether in creating media-rich presentations, incorporating media tools into their teaching or grading multimedia projects; it's daunting, and frequently exhausting. They also need ways to balance their frustration with the frequent instability of applications with the excitement new tools offer. [HW]
  • Clarity and Consensus Faculty and students alike need clarity and consensus around key issues, such as fair use and copyright; the lack of clarity causes confusion and delays in adoption. We also need basic best practices regarding fundamental scholarly practices, whether in media citation in a scholarly context or parameters for digital dissertations. [HW]
  • Overcoming some of the barriers for Innovation The four pillars of Innovation are: collaboration, interdisciplinarity, openess and globalization. Academic environment, including faculty promotion, does dot favor collaboration and interdisciplinarity. Colleges and universities tend to be silos with few bridges between them. (JPJ)
  • Internet infrastructure - bandwidth I know this is old but with a lot of what is being discussed in early questions, this would seem likely to rear its head again.[NN]
  • Social Network Fatigue the reluctance to join another social network just because someone sent you a link. See Steven Levy "How Many Friends Is Too Many? One MySpace exec has even surprised himself by friending a potato. This particular russet has 2,965 friends." http://www.newsweek.com/id/137512 [AL] YASN = Yet Another Social Network. [BNA]
  • Generalized vs specialized education - The future will require an appropriate mix of generalists and specialists. The challenge will be to determine the right mix and how best to educate and train each class. Given the exponentially increasing volume of data, information and knowledge, this will be a continuing challenge. We may never again have a Da Vinci who is an expert in multiple disciplines. [EFL]
  • Economic crisis - many challenges based on the finance catastrophe: budget shortfalls, increased intensity to arguments about value. [BNA]
  • not enough Educational content with heart - students who are not excited by the content in their degree may leave to find more meaning outside of the academy. Content should move, challenge and align with themes students are passionate about. 'Heart' could come from community service learning & global citizenship [CPL]
  • insufficient levels of literacy with new media - use of new media for expression and communication may become more commonplace but conventions for determining plagiarism, originality, and reference with these communication forms will need to be developed / taught to / implemented by faculty & students. (e.g. How would you critique my photocollection using no written words?) http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/mit5/papers/pettitt_plenary_gutenberg.pdf [CPL]
  • Plagiarism Plagiarism and the overabundance of digitally available information, accompanied by the reported entitlement “millenials” are said to feel toward success and ownership. The combination can easily lead to an environment in which students confuse parroting brilliant ideas with actual thinking. [IBM]
  • Next generation teachers There are professors out there who have been teaching since the … well, let’s just say they’ve been teaching for a long, long time. If they’re still photocopying syllabi and lecturing from behind a podium, are they really offering their students as much as they could be? How do we keep the people with the most experience active AND give students what they feel they deserve? [IBM]


  • Edit this page to add a challenge [LJ]


[edit] Formatting for wiki entry

For adding new web resources to this page, use this format below. The asterisk makes it a bulleted list item, and the three quotes make text bold. Note that everything must be in a single paragraph with only a single carriage return at the end. 

* '''Response Title''' a sentence or two of description [your name or initials]
Retrieved from "http://horizon.nmc.org/wiki/Research_Question_Four"
Personal tools