digital higher education and its potential for the innovation of european higher education systems

Digital Higher Education

and its Potential for the Innovation

of European Higher Education Systems

24th October 2014

Director, National Institute for Digital Learning

Dublin City University

Keynote: Professor Mark Brown

Digital Higher Education

and its Potential for the Innovation

of European Higher Education Systems

24th October 2014

Director, National Institute for Digital Learning

Dublin City University

Keynote: Professor Mark Brown

What type of higher

education system do we

want the innovative use of

digital technology to serve?

The real question….

“…We risk being left

behind as other parts of

the world act more nimbly

in garnering the benefits

of technology” (p.6).

Outline…

1. Numbers

1. Narratives

3. Nomenclature

1. What do the numbers tell us?

1. What narratives are being told?

3. Why is nomenclature important?

Outline…

“Who controls the past commands the future.

Who commands the future conquers the past.”

(George Orwell)

1. What do the numbers tell us?

1. What do the numbers tell us?

Three

Paradoxes

1. What do the numbers tell us?

Paradox 1

Blended, On-line and Digital (BOLD)

education is booming but the level

of concern is growing throughout the

world

Growth in US Enrolments…

1. What do the numbers tell us?

Allan, I., & Seaman, J. (2014). Grade Change: Tracking Online Education in the United States. Babson

Survey Research Group and Quahog Research Group, LLC.

1. What do the numbers tell us?

http://www.openeducationeuropa.eu/sites/default/files/scoreboard_september2014.pdf

2014

1. What do the numbers tell us?

Allan, I., & Seaman, J. (2014). Grade Change: Tracking Online Education in the United States. Babson

Survey Research Group and Quahog Research Group, LLC.

66%

1. What do the numbers tell us?

Education at a Glance…

Type A

OECD

Average 70%

1. What do the numbers tell us?

Guiney, P. (2014). Extramural students’ participation and achievement: Trends, patterns, highlights.

New Zealand Ministry of Education. Wellington

1. What do the numbers tell us?

1. What do the numbers tell us?

Paradox 2

The public and private benefits of

higher education are clear to all but

there is a growing risk of social and

economic exclusion

1. What do the numbers tell us?

Ireland

1. What do the numbers tell us?

Poland

NZ

1. What do the numbers tell us?

1. What do the numbers tell us?

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ll G

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al M

on

ito

rin

g R

ep

ort

. P

aris.

1. What do the numbers tell us?

Almost 13 million people have been unemployed for more than one year

EU Unemployment Rate

1. What do the numbers tell us?

1. What do the numbers tell us?

Ireland

1. What do the numbers tell us?

Paradox 3

While the benefits of higher

education have been quantified we

know very little about the tangible

return on investment for the

subset of off-campus online /

distance learners

“There is also almost no understanding of

the private and social benefits of distance

and online education in comparison with

those of face-to-face education” (Rumble, 2014,

p.208).

1. What do the numbers tell us?

Recommendation

6. “National funding frameworks should create

incentives, especially in the context of new

forms of performance-based funding, for

higher education institutions to open up

education, to develop more flexible

modes of delivery and to diversify their

student population.”

1. What do the numbers tell us?

Is the money on the mission?

1. What do the numbers tell us?

2.7%

2. What narratives are being told?

2. What narratives are being told?

Competing

Stories

2. What narratives are being told?

“An avalanche is coming. It’s hard of course, to

say exactly when. It may be sooner than we think.

Certainly there is no better time than now to seek

to understand what lies ahead for higher education

– and to prepare” (p.8)

Barber, M., Donnelly, K., & Rizvi, S. (2013). An avalanche is coming: Higher education

and the revolution ahead. Institute for Public Policy Research. London.

2. What narratives are being told?

“An educational change is neither natural nor

normal, constant nor common as it involves a

deeper struggle over who will win control of

the curriculum” (Evans, 1996, p.25).

2. What narratives are being told?

Selwyn, N., & Bulfin, S. (2014). The discursive construction of MOOCs as educational opportunty and educational

threat. Monash University.

2. What narratives are being told?

Knowledge Economy

Learning Society

2. What narratives are being told?

• Open learning

• Online learning

• Anytime, anywhere learning

E-learning •

Digital learning •

Technology-enhanced learning •

Learning Society

Knowledge Economy

2. What narratives are being told?

• Open learning

• Online learning

• Anytime, anywhere learning

E-learning •

Digital learning •

Technology-enhanced learning •

Different interest groups and stakeholders borrow the

same ‘language of persuasion’ to legitimize their own transformative agenda

Learning Society

Knowledge Economy

2. What narratives are being told?

Reproduction

• Open learning

• Online learning

• Anytime, anywhere learning

E-learning •

Digital learning •

Technology-enhanced learning •

• Mass education

• Quality standards

• Education as commodity

• Increased market competition

Competing Digital Discourses

Learning Society

Knowledge Economy

2. What narratives are being told?

Reschooling

• Open learning

• Online learning

• Anytime, anywhere learning

E-learning •

Digital learning •

Technology-enhanced learning •

Reproduction

• xMOOCs

• Learning for all

• Global curriculum

• Education in change

Competing Digital Discourses

• Mass education

• Quality standards

• Education as commodity

• Increased market competition

Learning Society

Knowledge Economy

2. What narratives are being told?

Deschooling

• Open learning

• Online learning

• Anytime, anywhere learning

E-learning •

Digital learning •

Technology-enhanced learning •

Reschooling Reproduction

• xMOOCs

• Learning for all

• Global curriculum

• Education in change

• OERu

• Un-curriculum

• Opening access

• Unbundling learning

Competing Digital Discourses

• Mass education

• Quality standards

• Education as commodity

• Increased market competition

Learning Society

Knowledge Economy

2. What narratives are being told?

Reconceptualist

• Open learning

• Online learning

• Anytime, anywhere learning

Competing Digital Discourses

E-learning •

Digital learning •

Technology-enhanced learning •

Deschooling

Reschooling Reproduction

• xMOOCs

• Learning for all

• Global curriculum

• Education in change

• OpenUpEd

• Digital citizenship

• Socially just society

• Education for change

• Mass education

• Quality standards

• Education as commodity

• Increased market competition

• OERu

• Un-curriculum

• Opening access

• Unbundling learning

Learning Society

Knowledge Economy

2. What narratives are being told?

2. What narratives are being told?

Learning to change and transform

Learning to live together

Learning to do

Learning to know

Learning

to be

Digital

Inclusion

Digital Citizenship

Digital

Identity

(Delors Report, 1972)

2. What narratives are being told?

How well

is Europe

doing?

3. Why is nomenclature important?

3. Why is nomenclature important?

Rooted

in Identity

3. Why is nomenclature important?

3. Why is nomenclature important?

www.dcu.ie/connected

3. Why is nomenclature important?

3. Why is nomenclature important?

Conclusion

Conclusion

What type of higher

education system do we

want the innovative use of

digital technology to serve?

Off Campus

in Class

Off Campus

out of Class

On Campus

in Class

Acquisition

Participation

On Campus

out of Class

Synchronous Asynchronous

A more inclusive digital learning ecology…

One that

Transforms

Lives and

Societies

And…

Vision…

To be recognised as a world leader at the

forefront of education, research and

innovation in contemporary models of

teaching and learning that help to

transform lives and societies.

International Advisory Board…

• Professor Grainne Conole

• Professor Terry Anderson

• Dr Larry Johnson

• Professor Mike Keppell

• Sally Reynolds

• Professor George Siemens

• Professor Rhona Sharpe

• Professor Peter Shea

• Professor Norm Vaughan

• Professor Airina Volungevicene

• Professor Martin Weller

• Professor Steve Wheeler

International Advisory Board…

2015 Irish Higher Education Horizon Report

Contact Details

mark.brown@dcu.ie

@mbrownz

http://www4.dcu.ie/nidl

http://www.slideshare.net/mbrownz