OpenRoad + Mod7
Two pioneering organizations, together at last.
OpenRoad is pleased to announce the acquisition of creative agency Mod7.
Read the letter from our PrincipalExperts (and their friends) predict the future of higher education by 2020.
Posted on July 30, 2012 in Media Culture by Mod7
The position that higher education (and education in general) is sorely falling behind the times is no longer a contentious one. Nearly everyone agrees that something needs to change. The question is, when will it change? (And, even if it will change any time soon).
A new Pew Internet survey asked selected experts (who could, in turn, invite their friends to participate) " What will universities look like in 2020? "
60% of respondents believe that "higher education will be quite different from the way it is today." Distance learning, individualized learning, hybrid classes, and customized graduation requirements will be adopted more and more. While the impetus for these changes might seem rooted in developing better-equipped thinkers for a decentralized, technology-enabled culture, the experts believe that affordability will drive the move to adopt these new tools.
While these predictions address the experience of education, one wonders how the quality of education will change. The sorts of didactic, top-down, rote modes of instruction formed over the last two centuries do not necessarily prepare learners to think non-linearly, creatively or holistically about complex systems. Cross-disciplinary process is rarely explored, let alone encouraged. How will the new forms of education address this gap?
Just because we use Skype and Facebook as learning environments does not mean we are properly challenged to build the next Skype and Facebook as a result. Learning institutions may be reacting to the tech disruption, but are they truly being transformed by it?