Tony Bates reflects on 2009, noting positive developments and disappointments:
Then we look at the public sector, and in particular the big research universities, and what do we see? Clickers, lecture capture, multiple screens in the classroom, learning management systems with Powerpoint slides and pdf files loaded, and a total lack of recognition that the current formal higher education system is failing, and a total lack of vision of what is needed for the future, and the role that information and communications technologies can play in formal learning.
I think there is too much focus on trying to innovate within the system rather than innovating the system itself. The latter requires vision, leadership, and experimentation/failure.
4 Comments
So what innovative ideas do you have for innovating the entire university system?
Too true, but educational transformation is an experiment that affects a generation. I fully agree with your point about innovation, but is the fault perhaps with innovating technology rather than the way we think about education? That does not depend on budget, but on a collective shift.
I think the simple answer is that instructors can innovate within the system, while they rarely have power to have an effect on the entire system.
If, as you say, experimentation is a factor in innovating an entire system, and failure is a possible consequence, to have a system failure in education would be disastrous socially – and certainly not something most people who have the power to effect change would engage in.
I agree with you regarding the innovation at the same time one should have the real elearning standards http://blog.commlabindia.com/elearning/real-elearning-standards
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