education technology

Reflections on “Higher Education in Motion: The Digital and Cultural Transformations Ahead” [O’Brien]

On 10/20/2022, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Alternatives, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, colleges, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, culture, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, disruption, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, face-to-face, faculty/staff, future of higher education, game-changing environment, Google, health, higher education, ideas, innovation, instructional design, K-12 related, leadership, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, new business models, online learning, reinvent, staying relevant, strategy, student-related, surviving, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, traditional / tradition, ubiquitous learning, United States, universities, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Higher Education in Motion: The Digital and Cultural Transformations Ahead — from er.educause.edu by John O’Brien

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

In 2015 when Janet Napolitano, then president of the University of California, responded to what she saw as a steadily growing “chorus of doom” predicting the demise of higher education, she did so with a turn of phrase that captured my imagination and still does. She said that higher education is not in crisis. “Instead, it is in motion, and it always has been.”

A brief insert by DSC:
Yes. In other words, it’s a learning ecosystem — with constant morphing & changing going on.

“We insisted then, and we continue to insist now, that digital transformation amounts to deep and coordinated change that substantially reshapes the operations, strategic directions, and value propositions of colleges and universities and that this change is enabled by culture, workforce, and technology shifts.
…
The tidal movement to digital transformation is linked to a demonstrably broader recognition of the strategic role and value of technology professionals and leaders on campus, another area of long-standing EDUCAUSE advocacy. For longer than we have talked about digital transformation, we have insisted that technology must be understood as a strategic asset, not a utility, and that senior IT leaders must be part of the campus strategic decision-making. But the idea of a strategic role for technology had disappointing traction among senior campus leaders before 2020.

From DSC:
The Presidents, Provosts, CIO’s, board members, influential faculty members, and other members of institutions’ key leadership positions who didn’t move powerfully forward with online-based learning over the last two+ decades missed the biggest thing to hit societies’ ability to learn in 500+ years — the Internet. Not since the invention of the printing press has learning had such an incredible gust of wind put in its sails. The affordances have been staggering, with millions of people now being educated in much less expensive ways (MOOCs, YouTube, LinkedIn Learning, other). Those who didn’t move forward with online-based learning in the past are currently scrambling to even survive. We’ll see how many close their doors as the number of effective alternatives increases.

Instead of functioning as a one-time fix during the pandemic, technology has become ubiquitous and relied upon to an ever-increasing degree across campus and across the student experience.

Moving forward, best of luck to those organizations who don’t have their CIOs at the decision-making table and reporting directly to the Presidents — and hopefully those CIO’s are innovative and visionary to begin with. Best of luck to those institutions who refuse to look up and around to see that the world has significantly changed from the time they got their degrees.

The current mix of new realities creates an opportunity for an evolution and, ideally, a synchronized reimagination of higher education overall. This will be driven by technology innovation and technology professionals—and will be made even more enduring by a campus culture of care for students, faculty, and staff.

Time will tell if the current cultures within many traditional institutions of higher education will allow them to adapt/change…or not.

Along the lines of transformations in our learning ecosystems, also see:

OPINION: Let’s use the pandemic as a dress-rehearsal for much-needed digital transformation — from hechingerreport.org by Jean-Claude Brizard
Schools must get ready for the next disruption and make high-quality learning available to all

Excerpts:

We should use this moment to catalyze a digital transformation of education that will prepare schools for our uncertain future.

What should come next is an examination of how schools can more deeply and deliberately harness technology to make high-quality learning accessible to every learner, even in the wake of a crisis. That means a digital transformation, with three key levers for change: in the classroom, in schools and at the systems level.
…
Platforms like these help improve student outcomes by enhancing teachers’ ability to meet individual students’ needs. They also allow learners to master new skills at their own pace, in their own way.

As Digital Transformation in Schools Continues, the Need for Enterprising IT Leaders Grows — from edtechmagazine.com by Ryan Petersen

K-12 IT leaders move beyond silos to make a meaningful impact inside and outside their schools.According to Korn Ferry’s research on enterprise leadership, “Enterprise leaders envision and grow; scale and create. They go beyond by going across the enterprise, optimizing the whole organization and its entire ecosystem by leading outside what they can control. These are leaders who see their role as being a participant in diverse and dynamic communities.”

2022 EDUCAUSE Horizon Action Plan: Hybrid Learning [educause.edu]

On 10/18/2022, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, accessibility / UDL, adjunct faculty, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), blended learning, business side of he, change, changing business models, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, credentialing, economics, education technology, experimentation, face-to-face, faculty/staff, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, hybrid learning, instructional design, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, learning spaces, liberal arts, more voice more choice more control, new business models, online learning, pace of change, political science, professional development, reinvent, society, strategy, student-related, teaching & learning, technology (general), traditional / tradition, United States, universities, user experience (UX), vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

2022 EDUCAUSE Horizon Action Plan: Hybrid Learning — from library.educause.edu

Excerpts:

Building on the trends, technologies, and practices described in the 2022 Horizon Report: Teaching and Learning Edition, the panel crafted its vision of the future along with practical action items the teaching and learning community can employ to make this future a reality. Any stakeholder in higher education who teaches in or supports hybrid learning modalities will find this report helpful in preparing for the future of hybrid learning. The future we want is within reach, but only if we work together.

Asked to describe the goals and elements of hybrid learning that they would like to see 10 years from now, panelists collaboratively constructed their preferred future for institutions, students, instructors, and staff.

Institutions

Higher education is available on demand.
Learning is not measured by seat time.
Collaboration across institutions facilitates advancement.
College and university campuses are not the sole locations for learning spaces.

Students, Instructors, and Staff

Everything is hybrid.
Student equity is centered in all modalities.
Professional development is ongoing, integrated, and valued.

Student Preference for Online Learning Up 220% Since Pre-Pandemic — from campustechnology.com by Rhea Kelly

Excerpt:

According to a recent Educause survey, the number of students expressing preferences for courses that are mostly or completely online has increased 220% since the onset of the pandemic, from 9% in 2020 (before March 11) to 29% in 2022. And while many students still prefer learning mostly or completely face-to-face, that share has dropped precipitously from 65% in 2020 to 41% this year.

“These data point to student demand for online instructional elements, even for fully face-to-face courses,” Educause stated.

Also relevant/see:

A Surge in Young Undergrads, Fully Online — from insidehighered.com by Susan D’Agostino
Tens of thousands of 18- to 24-year-olds are now enrolling at Western Governors, Southern New Hampshire and other national online institutions. Does this represent a change in student behavior?

How Long Should a Branching Scenario Be?— from christytuckerlearning.com by Christy Tucker
How long should a branching scenario be? Is 45 minutes too long? Is there an ideal length for a branching scenario?

Excerpt:

Most of the time, the branching scenarios and simulations I build are around 10 minutes long. Overall, I usually end up at 5-15 minutes for branching scenarios, with interactive video scenarios being at the longer end.

From DSC:
This makes sense to me, as (up to) 6 minutes turned out to be an ideal length for videos.

Excerpt from Optimal Video Length for Student Engagement — from blog.edx.org

The optimal video length is 6 minutes or shorter — students watched most of the way through these short videos. In fact, the average engagement time of any video maxes out at 6 minutes, regardless of its length. And engagement times decrease as videos lengthen: For instance, on average students spent around 3 minutes on videos that are longer than 12 minutes, which means that they engaged with less than a quarter of the content. Finally, certificate-earning students engaged more with videos, presumably because they had greater motivation to learn the material. (These findings appeared in a recent Wall Street Journal article, An Early Report Card on Massive Open Online Courses and its accompanying infographic.)

The take-home message for instructors is that, to maximize student engagement, they should work with instructional designers and video producers to break up their lectures into small, bite-sized pieces.

Basically, kids can take pictures of anything they encounter, like a dog, and make that still image look like it’s talking using the ChatterPix software, which is great for classroom multimedia projects and ideal for kids who enjoy creating content. #STEAM https://t.co/NhEWi8BcWK

— Eduporium (@Eduporium) October 12, 2022

Assistive Technology for Kids with Multiple Disabilities — from equalentry.com

Lego Owner to Acquire Education-Technology Firm Brainpop — from nytimes.com by Trefor Moss
Kirkbi, the family-run company behind the world’s largest toy maker, plans to establish an education business

Excerpt:

Lego owner Kirkbi A/S is buying U.S. video-learning firm Brainpop for $875 million, according to the companies, as the family behind the world’s largest toy maker expands into the education business.

The Danish company said the purchase of Brainpop, which produces short animations used in schools to help children learn everything from math to music, was part of a plan to build a new business pillar. The deal—through which Kirkbi is acquiring Brainpop’s owner FWD Media Inc.—is expected to close Tuesday, the companies said.

“We are definitely on the path to establishing the Lego idea of learning through play in the formal education space,” said Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, executive chairman of the Lego Brand Group, the Kirkbi entity that oversees the toy brand.

Creating a Culture to Support Student Voice & Choice [Joseph]

On 10/12/2022, in assessment, attention, culture, education technology, engagement / engaging students, instructional design, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, learning preferences, more voice more choice more control, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, tools, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Creating a Culture to Support Student Voice & Choice — from techlearning.com by Matthew X. Joseph
Encouraging student voice and choice helps foster a more engaging learning environment

Excerpt:

During my time as a district and school leader, I observed and conferenced with students entering high school, and only about a third of those reported feeling engaged with their education. I believe education should provide students with meaningful learning experiences in a classroom of engaged learners.

One way to enhance student engagement is to allow for student voice. Students who feel their voices are heard are more likely to feel academically engaged and respected in the school community. In addition, students feel valued when they feel heard. Students learn for someone, not just from someone. Thus, feeling valued is essential in creating a safe culture for students to share their voice.

Providing students with multiple options for an assignment helps them choose the content that is relevant, meaningful, and exciting to them. As a result, they are a part of their own learning process, rather than having to move through assignments that are not engaging.

What might the ramifications be for text-to-everything? [Christian]

On 10/11/2022, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, art, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assistive technologies, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, computer science, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, distance education, drama/theater, e-books, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), education, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, face-to-face, faculty/staff, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, IT in HE, K-12 related, languages and translation, law schools, learner profiles, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, legal technologies, media/film, Metaverse, microlearning, Mixed Reality (MR), more voice more choice more control, multimedia, Natural Language Processing (NLP), neurodivergent/special needs, online learning, online media, online tutoring, platforms, podcasting, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, publishing, smart classrooms, story, storytelling, streams of content, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, technology (general), telecommunications, telelegal, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, telepresence, television, tools, training / L&D, transmedia, trends, TVs, United States, universities, usability, user experience (UX), vendors, videoconferencing, Virtual courts and law firms, vision/possibilities, visualizing information, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, wearables, web-based collaboration, Web3, webinars, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:

We can now type in text to get graphics and artwork.
We can now type in text to get videos.
There are several tools to give us transcripts of what was said during a presentation.
We can search videos for spoken words and/or for words listed within slides within a presentation.

Allie Miller’s posting on LinkedIn (see below) pointed these things out as well — along with several other things.

This raises some ideas/questions for me:

What might the ramifications be in our learning ecosystems for these types of functionalities? What affordances are forthcoming? For example, a teacher, professor, or trainer could quickly produce several types of media from the same presentation.
What’s said in a videoconference or a webinar can already be captured, translated, and transcribed.
Or what’s said in a virtual courtroom, or in a telehealth-based appointment. Or perhaps, what we currently think of as a smart/connected TV will give us these functionalities as well.
How might this type of thing impact storytelling?
Will this help someone who prefers to soak in information via the spoken word, or via a podcast, or via a video?
What does this mean for Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR), and/or Virtual Reality (VR) types of devices?
Will this kind of thing be standard in the next version of the Internet (Web3)?
Will this help people with special needs — and way beyond accessibility-related needs?
Will data be next (instead of typing in text)?

Hmmm….interesting times ahead.

2022 Students and Technology Report: Rebalancing the Student Experience — from library.educause.edu by Jenay Robert

Excerpt:

In this report, we describe the findings of the survey in four key areas:

Educational technology impacts student wellness.
Physical campus spaces continue to play an important role in students’ access to education.
The online versus face-to-face dichotomy is being disrupted.
Device access is not a simple issue when examined through an equity lens.
Assistive technology can help all students.
Students are whole people with complex learning needs and goals.

What researchers learned about online higher education during the pandemic — from hechingerreport.org by Jon Marcus
Its massive expansion created a worldwide laboratory to finally assess how well it works

Excerpts:

Now the results of this experiment are starting to come in. They suggest that online higher education may work better than pre-pandemic research showed, and that it is evolving decisively toward a combination of in-person and online, or “blended,” classes.
…
“Initially when we were doing that research it was always on the class or the course level and very rarely were you able to see how online education worked across programs and across institutions,” never mind across the world, said Michael Brown, assistant professor of higher education and student affairs at the Iowa State University School of Education.

By last year, more than half of all faculty said they “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that they wanted to combine online with face-to-face instruction, a Bay View Analytics survey found. A Harvard University task force found that 82 percent of faculty there were interested in adding digital tools they adopted while teaching remotely to their in-person classes.
…
“It’s going to take years for us to really be able to see, out of the things coming out of the pandemic, what works well, what works well in some settings and what works well for some students and not for others,” Hart said.

Also from hechingerreport.org by Jon Marcus, see:

Momentum builds for helping students adapt to college by nixing freshman grades
Critics deride ‘un-grading’ as coddling, say it risks creating ‘snowflake’ students

Struggling small colleges are joining the ‘sharing economy’ — teaming up to share courses and majors [Marcus]

On 10/09/2022, in colleges, consortiums, content development, aggregation, repositories, curriculum, education technology, higher education, ideas, innovation, instructional design, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, liberal arts, Michigan, streams of content, student-related, United States, universities, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

Struggling small colleges are joining the ‘sharing economy’ — teaming up to share courses and majors — from by hechingerreport.org by Jon Marcus
Faced with declining enrollment, colleges find ways to add in-demand courses and attract reluctant students

Excerpt:

“I couldn’t say no to getting the degree I wanted from a smaller school instead of at a big university where you’re looking at 200 students in a class,” said Smith, now an Adrian sophomore.

Adrian is among a fast-growing number of mostly small, liberal arts colleges that are adding explicitly career-focused programs through a little-noticed innovation called course sharing.

It’s a sort of Amazon Prime approach to higher education that lets majors in the humanities and other disciplines, without leaving their home campuses, “stream” classes, often taught by star faculty from top universities, in fields such as coding.

“You get an Adrian degree, you have an Adrian experience, you play your sport,” said Ryan Boyd, another Adrian student who through course sharing was able to add a minor in computer science to his business management major. “But you get to take courses from Michigan and Harvard.”

From DSC:
As a person who enjoys peering into the future, I often wondered what the place of consortiums would be within higher education. Would organizations share content with each other? This article is along those lines. I will continue to pulse-check that area.

8 Ways to Use QR Codes in Higher Education Classrooms — from er.educause.edu by Tolulope (Tolu) Noah

Excerpt:

QR codes open up a world of possibility in the higher education setting. They provide a quick and easy way for students to access instructional materials, and they complement the design of more interactive and engaging learning experiences.

From DSC:
QR codes can bridge the physical world with the digital world — which is something about to take an exponential leap as more AR and MR-based hardware and software solutions hit the marketplace in the near future.

Digital Learning Definitions — from wcet.wiche.edu

Excerpt:

Higher education uses many variations of terms to describe slightly different digital learning modalities, such as: “in-person,” “online,” “hybrid,” “hyflex,” “synchronous,” “asynchronous,” and many more. These variations have long confused students, faculty, administrators, and the general public,

WCET has worked on this issue in the past, and continues to advocate for simple, easy to understand terms that can bring consistent agreement to the use of these phrases. The WCET Steering Committee has made it a priority to attack this issue.

In 2022, WCET sponsored and led a partnership with Bay View Analytics and the Canadian Digital Learning Research Association to conduct a survey to explore the use of the terms by higher education professionals. The Online Learning Consortium (OLC), Quality Matters (QM), and the University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA) assisted with survey participation and promotion. The works published below highlight the findings of the study.

Also relevant/see:

What’s in a name? Definitions of digital learning — from tonybates.ca Tony Bates

AI/ML in EdTech: The Miracle, The Grind, and the Wall [Feldstein]

On 10/03/2022, in 21st century, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, computer science, data related items, education technology, emerging technologies, ethics, future of higher education, higher education, morals/values, programming, society, by Daniel Christian

AI/ML in EdTech: The Miracle, The Grind, and the Wall — from eliterate.us by Michael Feldstein

Excerpt:

Essentially, I see three stages in working with artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML). I call them the miracle, the grind, and the wall. These stages can have implications for both how we can get seduced by these technologies and how we can get bitten by them. The ethical implications are important.

Ed tech leaders just predicted these 3 trends will unfold in higher education [Schwartz]

On 09/28/2022, in colleges, community colleges, credentialing, education technology, future of higher education, trends, United States, universities, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Ed tech leaders just predicted these 3 trends will unfold in higher education — from highereddive.com by Natalie Schwartz
Ed tech leaders gathered in New York on Thursday to discuss trends in the sector. Here’s what they had to say.

Excerpt:

NEW YORK — It’s a brutal moment for ed tech companies.

The stock market has been battered over the past few months, and the technology sector has been particularly hard hit. Meanwhile, colleges are experiencing enrollment declines at the same time their coronavirus relief funds are drying up, potentially constraining how much they can spend with vendors.

Still, ed tech CEOs and investors remained bullish about their own sector’s future during a conference in New York on Thursday held by HolonIQ, a market analysis firm. Here are three trends they say are coming down the pike.

Lessons Learned from Six Years of Podcasting — from derekbruff.org by Derek Bruff

Excerpt:

Last month on Twitter, I shared some of the many, many things I’ve learned from podcast guests over the last six years. I encourage you to check out that thread and listen to a few of my favorite episodes. Here on the blog, I’d like to share a few more general reflections about what I learned through producing Leading Lines.

Finally, one lesson that the podcast reinforced for me is that faculty and other instructors want to hear stories. Sure, a peer-reviewed journal article on the impact of some teaching practice is useful, but some of those can focus too much on assessment and not enough on the practice itself. Hearing a colleague talk about their teaching, the choices they’ve made, why they made those choices, what effects those choices have had on student learning… that can be both inspirational and intensely practical for those seeking to improve their teaching. A big part of Leading Lines was finding instructors with compelling stories and then letting them shine during our interviews.

Speaking of digital audio, also relevant/see:

With Audiobooks Launching in the U.S. Today, Spotify Is the Home for All the Audio You Love — from newsroom.spotify.com by

Excerpt:

Adding an entirely new content format to our service is no small feat. But we’ve done it before with podcasts, and we’re excited to now do the same with audiobooks.
…
Just as we did with podcasting, this will introduce a new format to an audience that has never before consumed it, unlocking a whole new segment of potential listeners. This also helps us support even more kinds of creators and connect them with fans that will love their art—which makes this even more exciting.

Addendum on 9/30/22:

8 TIME-SAVING TIPS FOR TEACHING WITH PODCASTS – EASY EDTECH PODCAST 182 — from classtechtips.com by Dr. Monica Burns

Learning Ecosystems

8 Ways to Use QR Codes in Higher Education Classrooms [Noah]

Digital Learning Definitions [WCET]

Ed tech leaders just predicted these 3 trends will unfold in higher education [Schwartz]

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