MICROSOFT co-founder Bill Gates recently described universities as an endangered species. The university's traditional role as creator, curator and distributor of knowledge is under direct threat from the internet, he said.
The digital revolution is transforming almost every aspect of human existence.
Will the internet kill universities?
We're living through one of the most extraordinary transformations in human history. More recent digital innovations are unleashing possibilities of interactivity, collaboration and creativity that were previously unimaginable.
E-learning 2.0 involves fundamentally different forms of teaching and learning: collaborative, interactive, and creative. Blogs, wikis and podcasts are changing the nature of the interaction. Where once the student learned from the teacher, now the student learns with the teacher and other students.
Curtin University is moving to all online assessment delivery: students won't be able to hand in paper assignments any more. The University of New England puts all its courses online. Monash University uses its Malaysian campus to do tropical terrestrial biology teaching in Melbourne. Swinburne University has commenced a joint venture with Seek to develop new e-learning products. Melbourne University is developing haptic technologies that allow students to learn surgery online.
Yet if e-learning means more inquiry-based, self-directed and peer-based learning based on collaboration and interactivity, we haven't really progressed very far. The highlights might look great, but that's all they are: highlights.
There's been an awful lot about "e" and not much about "learning". Plenty of tech, very little ped.
New technologies don't just change how we do things. They change what we do. Satisfying our collective needs and desires involves an intricate web of countless tiny choices. When the means of pursuing our aims changes, so does the calculus underpinning these choices. And that means we change.
Universities perform several functions: they teach, research, credential and socialise. Alternative ways of doing these things are emerging, and they don't necessarily involve universities. The digital revolution doesn't just demand that we change our delivery systems: it's forcing us to rethink teaching and learning, too.
A recent Victoria University review of e-learning technologies observes: "If the new VU eLearning Environment is merely a technically superior version of what it replaces, it will have failed . . . technical support must be complemented by pedagogical support that challenges the taken-for-granted and encourages new pedagogical practices that can take advantage of the technically improved environment".
Academics won't devour new technologies like kids opening Christmas presents. Why should they? Some will feel threatened. Until recently, universities did very little to train academics how to teach. Some academics will resist having their lectures recorded. Many will regard engagement with new e-learning tools as just another burden they're not rewarded for undertaking. Some will worry about intellectual property rights in course materials.
But Australian higher education is about to be hit by some big structural forces that will turbocharge digital change. The first is the national broadband network. Swinburne University deputy vice-chancellor Shirley Leitch, who is responsible for the university's e-learning strategy, says the NBN rollout will lead to a "learning explosion".
The second is the shift to a demand-driven higher education system. No one quite knows how this change will unfold, nor indeed how it will be funded. Enrolment numbers are increasing dramatically as universities battle for market share. Overall enrolments have increased by 16 per cent over the past three years.
The third challenge is more speculative. I think we're about to see a new kind of customer in higher education; one who's less tolerant and more demanding. The students of tomorrow will be born digital: they'll have known nothing else but the web 2.0 world. They'll want to be entertained as they learn. They'll demand instant feedback. They'll compare learning experiences with digital games and social networking sites.
Put these three trends together and the implications are clear. More demanding customers in a more demand-driven system largely liberated from previous technological constraints. If ever there was a prescription for fundamental change in higher education, this is it.
There are some sobering contemporary examples we can look to for guidance. Bookshops. Newspapers. Recorded music. Movies. Travel agents. Department stores. All intermediaries one way or another involved in the information business. All experiencing wrenching change.
Universities are knowledge department stores. They're sustained by scale, by brand power, by information asymmetries, and by government subsidy. Digital technologies are eating away at such bastions of intermediation everywhere.
Australian universities face intensified competitive threats in their home markets. The regional university model is likely to be transformed. Sandstone universities will continue to surf on brand power for a while, but even they are at risk of being overwhelmed by global digital competition.
It's now possible to study a Yale or MIT course online without enrolling or paying for it. If you visit the MIT website, you'll see that it even tells you what online interactivity options are available in each course. You pay only to be assessed and credentialed.
Interactive three-dimensional online technologies are changing education options. It won't just be pilots flying in simulators and surgeons using haptic scalpels: we'll soon be teaching hairdressers wielding digital scissors and chefs using online frying pans.
Universities will routinely use online technologies to collaborate with each other across the world. Star academics can use online options to leverage their brands into much more remunerative work, putting huge pressure on established pay scales. These trends are profoundly disruptive. They could promote further casualisation, undermine collegiality, broaden pay differentials, erode the nexus between research and teaching, and allow academics to promote their own courses in virtual global markets.
E-learning is not a cost solution. While the benefits of scale and reduced pressure on physical resources are potentially enormous, there are also major indirect costs. Bandwidth isn't free, and the most innovative applications use lots of it.
More collaboration and interactivity means more teacher time, some of it in unsocial hours, which means more cost.
Universities need an overarching e-learning strategy based on a common vision, governing principles, compelling content, staff support and good technology. E-learning isn't just a neatly packaged little piece of the university's future: it is the future.
In fact, the term "e-learning" is probably bound to disappear shortly after we hear the last of "distance education". The university of tomorrow is going to look very different from today's model. If we don't set about building it now, the university of tomorrow may not be a university at all.
Lindsay Tanner is a vice-chancellor's fellow at Victoria University. This is an excerpt from his chancellor's lecture delivered last night.
This is a profound challenge for an institution that pre-dates almost all others in western civilisation.
Will the internet kill universities?
We're living through one of the most extraordinary transformations in human history. More recent digital innovations are unleashing possibilities of interactivity, collaboration and creativity that were previously unimaginable.
E-learning 2.0 involves fundamentally different forms of teaching and learning: collaborative, interactive, and creative. Blogs, wikis and podcasts are changing the nature of the interaction. Where once the student learned from the teacher, now the student learns with the teacher and other students.
Curtin University is moving to all online assessment delivery: students won't be able to hand in paper assignments any more. The University of New England puts all its courses online. Monash University uses its Malaysian campus to do tropical terrestrial biology teaching in Melbourne. Swinburne University has commenced a joint venture with Seek to develop new e-learning products. Melbourne University is developing haptic technologies that allow students to learn surgery online.
Yet if e-learning means more inquiry-based, self-directed and peer-based learning based on collaboration and interactivity, we haven't really progressed very far. The highlights might look great, but that's all they are: highlights.
There's been an awful lot about "e" and not much about "learning". Plenty of tech, very little ped.
New technologies don't just change how we do things. They change what we do. Satisfying our collective needs and desires involves an intricate web of countless tiny choices. When the means of pursuing our aims changes, so does the calculus underpinning these choices. And that means we change.
Universities perform several functions: they teach, research, credential and socialise. Alternative ways of doing these things are emerging, and they don't necessarily involve universities. The digital revolution doesn't just demand that we change our delivery systems: it's forcing us to rethink teaching and learning, too.
A recent Victoria University review of e-learning technologies observes: "If the new VU eLearning Environment is merely a technically superior version of what it replaces, it will have failed . . . technical support must be complemented by pedagogical support that challenges the taken-for-granted and encourages new pedagogical practices that can take advantage of the technically improved environment".
Academics won't devour new technologies like kids opening Christmas presents. Why should they? Some will feel threatened. Until recently, universities did very little to train academics how to teach. Some academics will resist having their lectures recorded. Many will regard engagement with new e-learning tools as just another burden they're not rewarded for undertaking. Some will worry about intellectual property rights in course materials.
But Australian higher education is about to be hit by some big structural forces that will turbocharge digital change. The first is the national broadband network. Swinburne University deputy vice-chancellor Shirley Leitch, who is responsible for the university's e-learning strategy, says the NBN rollout will lead to a "learning explosion".
The second is the shift to a demand-driven higher education system. No one quite knows how this change will unfold, nor indeed how it will be funded. Enrolment numbers are increasing dramatically as universities battle for market share. Overall enrolments have increased by 16 per cent over the past three years.
The third challenge is more speculative. I think we're about to see a new kind of customer in higher education; one who's less tolerant and more demanding. The students of tomorrow will be born digital: they'll have known nothing else but the web 2.0 world. They'll want to be entertained as they learn. They'll demand instant feedback. They'll compare learning experiences with digital games and social networking sites.
Put these three trends together and the implications are clear. More demanding customers in a more demand-driven system largely liberated from previous technological constraints. If ever there was a prescription for fundamental change in higher education, this is it.
There are some sobering contemporary examples we can look to for guidance. Bookshops. Newspapers. Recorded music. Movies. Travel agents. Department stores. All intermediaries one way or another involved in the information business. All experiencing wrenching change.
Universities are knowledge department stores. They're sustained by scale, by brand power, by information asymmetries, and by government subsidy. Digital technologies are eating away at such bastions of intermediation everywhere.
Australian universities face intensified competitive threats in their home markets. The regional university model is likely to be transformed. Sandstone universities will continue to surf on brand power for a while, but even they are at risk of being overwhelmed by global digital competition.
It's now possible to study a Yale or MIT course online without enrolling or paying for it. If you visit the MIT website, you'll see that it even tells you what online interactivity options are available in each course. You pay only to be assessed and credentialed.
Interactive three-dimensional online technologies are changing education options. It won't just be pilots flying in simulators and surgeons using haptic scalpels: we'll soon be teaching hairdressers wielding digital scissors and chefs using online frying pans.
Universities will routinely use online technologies to collaborate with each other across the world. Star academics can use online options to leverage their brands into much more remunerative work, putting huge pressure on established pay scales. These trends are profoundly disruptive. They could promote further casualisation, undermine collegiality, broaden pay differentials, erode the nexus between research and teaching, and allow academics to promote their own courses in virtual global markets.
E-learning is not a cost solution. While the benefits of scale and reduced pressure on physical resources are potentially enormous, there are also major indirect costs. Bandwidth isn't free, and the most innovative applications use lots of it.
More collaboration and interactivity means more teacher time, some of it in unsocial hours, which means more cost.
Universities need an overarching e-learning strategy based on a common vision, governing principles, compelling content, staff support and good technology. E-learning isn't just a neatly packaged little piece of the university's future: it is the future.
In fact, the term "e-learning" is probably bound to disappear shortly after we hear the last of "distance education". The university of tomorrow is going to look very different from today's model. If we don't set about building it now, the university of tomorrow may not be a university at all.
Lindsay Tanner is a vice-chancellor's fellow at Victoria University. This is an excerpt from his chancellor's lecture delivered last night.
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