Teaching and Learning and Higher Education Transformation

The waves of technological and social change have eroded the effectiveness of traditional views regarding what, how, and why to educate. To effectively educate learners, fundamental assertions need to be rethought: the design of schools and curriculum, the nature of knowledge in a connected world, the relationship between educator and learner, the means and methods of authenticating information and knowledge, and, perhaps most significantly, what it means “to know” in complex, rapidly developing, and chaotic environments. This session will present connectivism as a theory of learning that can bridge the rift between traditional and new educational approaches to prepare learners for the tomorrow they will inherit.

“Only when our students see our own learning blossoming within a computer romance will they listen to us when we tell them to use these tools more wisely themselves.”

The author discusses how higher education needs to transform from it's current state of lecture based learning, to an individual based learning system.

Society expects colleges and universities to prepare students for work, life, and citizenship. But what does that preparation entail in a "flat world," where work has been redefined by computers and the Web? Higher education is being asked to anticipate and adapt to changes in today's-and tomorrow's-environment. What are those expectations, and how will higher education meet them? Information technology has catalyzed many of those changes-and it may also offer some solutions.

Higher education must continually evolve new methods of teaching and learning to support students' lifelong skills and impending careers.