1. photo by Flickr ID Matt Hamm
http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthamm/2945559128/sizes/o/
emerging technologies
challenges & opportunities
how
to re
spon
d?
the institution needs to be seize the opportunity; not be the challenge \n
the institution needs to be seize the opportunity; not be the challenge \n
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and even if they have not changed, they will inevitably have to change. \nwith the increase of fees students will need flexible ways of learning; more than that students will also require applied learning. More than ever we need to equip students with real life situations and experiences which will make them ready for a job market which requires highly skilled and creative knowledge workers. being digital literate is not only a need; its a requirement of the new working force. \nStudents who come to the University with the idea they have bought a degree will not go far; those who come to the idea they will recreate themselves while pursuing their own studies will lay down the foundations of their and our own future. Institutions have a saying on that: not so much on how to predict the future, but rather on how to prepare learners to address the issues that are yet to come. \n
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we can no longer be mandated by technological plans that last 3-5 years and another 3-5 years to be revised and updated. we need to accompany the times, we need to be flexible and competitive. we need to use and experiment with the latests technologies that are out there and foster criticality about its use. \n
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and with that the institution needs to be the change and rebrand itself as the daring institution it should always be. The business of HE institutions is to constantly address the changes in society in a proactively way, not to conserve practice as tradition and doctrine. we should be the ones pushing the boundaries \n
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I am not going to talk about lack of this or lack of that. I am going to rather focus on what we should have and start doing. the change cannot only come top down or bottom up, it needs to come from both ends. they need to meet half way; they need to find some common ground and achieve real communication! \n
collaboration on technology needs analysis all parties involved - from leadership group, academics, support staff and students, all need to be part of the problem to be able to be part of the solution. Active engagement is the way forward, because it will give them sense of involvement and identity, and achievement too.\n
we need YES people. we need people who are willing to help, not people who puts others in stand by when it comes to develop new ideas and empower new pratices. we need people willing to work truly together, who are flexible and daring enough to try new things. \n
we have talked a lot about communities in education, but have we truly unlocks its full potential? we need models, we need champions, we need an open mentor scheme that is visible and active. we need a new emphasis on people’s working relationships and how they support each others. we need this to be acknowledged and values by the institution. we need to humanise the process of integrating technology in academic practice; not a 1-fits-all formula which allows to add some form of technology into the curriculum without significant context \n
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change people’s practices is a difficult cultural shift which requires time, patience, personalised support and acknowledgement.\nthere is a pressing need to change people’s perception on the use of technology to teach. it’s not about content delivery; it’s rather about context creation and stimulation of learner driven dialogs. Doing the same old same old with new technology will not help us tackle the current teaching and learning issues. It will only aggravate them. Need to create trust and seek dialog to understand people’s need - so people can understand their own new needs. Refer to use of VLEs as expensive PPT storage spaces\n
enhance support - we need learning technologies, educators (lecturers, teachers, researchers, etc) to communicate and trust each other- that’s establishing a new culture. \nSupport also comes into different forms: \n- money for research informed practices - for collaborations between support and faculty staff to carry out new technology embedded projects;\n- Time \n- opportunity to do things outside the box - get a specialised team that is able to work with emerging technology and is allowed to do so using the university servers ( we are accountable to where are students and staff store their data - we should be creating opportunities for them to innovate within ‘save and critical’ environments, rather than having them explore other venues in unsupported ways.\n\n\n\n
acknowledgement of new ventures- value people’s work and given it academic credibility (in annual appraisal, career progression, research activity) - we need to actively promote and praise technological innovation as part of academic practice. Only what is recognised counts!! Change appraisal policy\n