I just finished reading the ECAR report “The Future of Higher Education: A View from CHEMA” that was released last August.  Some of you may have read this already, but some may not have.  Anyway, it has some interesting quotes that I would like to point out. 

Second Wave of Technology Implementation

Seeing as I am not an administrator, I found the Section III, Part 5 “How will technology continue to transform the academy?” most interesting (pg. 12-13).  The report quotes Mary Daniels of Ohio State University as saying:

We are at the end of the first wave of technology implementations, where we learned how IT can change the way we do business.  The second wave will transform the learning experience.  It is just taking higher education longer to technology enhancements to education. (12)

I thought this was a good way of describing what has and is happening in schools around the country.  We have seen the power of technology to help us get our work done, but we are just beginning to see how technology can, and will change the way we learn.  In an earlier article I examined the emergence of an entirely different way of writing research papers where the paper could be written by going to different things that talk about that subject and adding your comments online.  I am not saying that is what is going to happen in the future, but it is an example of changes that could happen in the way we do things. 

Technology Changes Everything

Another responder, Steve Sayers, continues along the same line.  He says:

I think significant changes will revolve around technology.  It will alter where students learn and how they learn.  It may be longer than ten years, but the time will come when students will be able to learn anywhere. (12)

If we look at the way students are growing up using the web, it already has altered everything.  They don’t go to books for information, they go to the web.  The web will be come the platform for learning (if it has not already).  The web has replaced books for all but a few of the younger generation.

I realize that some people might look down on this change as bad.  I too consider it a great loss to not read books.  But the answer is not to go back to the books, it is to bring the books to the internet like great companies like Google are trying to do.  That way the students will go there for information, not less-reliable webpages. 

Universal Impact

Among the survey respondents, technological change was the second most selected change driver for higher education as a whole and individual functional areas.  The anticipated impact of technology did not differ significantly by either a respondent’s institutional perspective or primary mission of the functional area they represent. (12)

I include this quote just to show that everyone, everywhere sees the importance technology is going to play in the coming years. 

Resistance to Change

The #1 threat to the success of higher education as a whole, not to mention technology in it, is resistance to change.  People don’t like to change.  That is the bottom line.  When you get somebody that has done something the same way for 25 years it is VERY hard to change that… but not impossible.  From the report:

Marvin Peterson, professor of education at the University of Michigan, argues that higher education is not an irrational community that will refuse to change no matter what.  He points out that ‘there is no such thing as resistance to change in the face of a compelling reason to change.’ (15)

The key here is examining those reasons… are they good reasons?  If so, move forward.  If not, that’s okay. 

Collaboration

I have talked a lot in my recent posts about collaboration.  Perhaps that is why this next quote stuck out to me.  One of the responders said:

The increasing access to information and the speed at which it comes to us is challenging higher education’s more deliberative and collaborative tendency. (13)

I don’t disagree that the amount of information is challenging, but that is why we have amazing search engines and collaborative social networks to filter out what is important and what is not. 

What I disagree with is the notion that technology is hurting collaboration in education.  I think this idea is based off of the idea that we collaborate in person in a classroom.  I don’t know about you, but most of my classes didn’t include any type of collaboration at all!  I collaborate a lot more online than I ever did in the classroom.  Technologies like Google Docs will only increase that collaboration. 

It’s not all Good

The report is not all bright lights and star gazing.  There are some inherent problems that come with technology.  Georgia Yuan, from Smith College points out:

Technology is speeding up the expectations for responding to requests for services.  This has quickened the pace of administration to a dangerous level.  Thoughtfulness is sacrificed in favor of acting and responding quickly. (13)

I thought this was a very good point.  Technology has really sped up our lives.  We are constantly doing something, reading something, responding to something, sun-up to sun-down.  For those of us that work with technology that is even worse.  It is something we need to recognize and work on.  That being said, I think I have written enough for today.  I’m going to go and look at the wonderful weather outside! (Snow)