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Citation:
Abel, R. J. (2005). What’s Next in Learning Technology in Higher Education. A-HEC In-Depth 2 (2). October, 2005. from http://www.a-hec.org/research/in-depth_articles/whats_next1005/whats_next1005_toc.html
Introduction
The purpose of this executive briefing paper is to outline some of the future drivers behind learning technology in order to understand what may be coming next. This paper is limited to the field of higher education applications.
Historical Perspective
In the last seven years or so, since the emergence of the Internet as a mainstream technology, there have been extreme views about the role of technology in learning. One extreme view is that technology can have absolutely nothing to do with learning – it is just a tool. The other end of the spectrum is that technology is a panacea that will enable creation of “learning objects” that will revolutionize how education is delivered and received. What has really happened and was it foreseeable?
There are three elements of learning technology that have become mainstream in this time frame:
- First, classrooms and campuses have continued to incorporate more and more technical infrastructure in terms of networks, Internet connections, smart boards, etc.
- Second, course management systems (CMSs) have been widely adopted at an institutional level providing, for the most part, an online communications hub for posting of class materials, syllabi, etc.
- Third, for those institutions, or operating divisions within institutions that have a mission of outreach, there has been a rapidly growing number of online courses and programs that are taking the place of, but better than, older alternatives for distance learning.
Of course, many ideas and predictions have not become mainstream realities. Among these are:
- Students did not rush to consume new forms of online digital content for studying.
- Institutions did not jump on the bandwagon to allow commercial benefits (either to themselves or third party vendors) from student portals.
- The very large majority of faculty have not opted to become “course developers” and develop online courses using the CMS.
- Use of digital content and third-party digital courses by faculty has remained in a small minority.
- Portals attempting to aggregate courses from multiple institutions have mostly failed with a few limited exceptions.
- High production value courses, sometimes featuring leading authorities or fancy problem-based, interactive learning approaches, have seen several dramatic flops with only a few limited successes in niche areas, such as remedial math.
- While use of PowerPoint, and in some cases the Internet, has become mainstream, in general faculty don’t feel that all the technology in the smart classrooms has significantly improved the teaching or the learning experience.
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