How the Digital Society Will Affect Teaching and Learning

How the Digital Society Will Affect Our Lives, Our Teaching, and Our Learning:

An Analysis of Changes in College Business

Models X College

Boston

[email protected]

C. Peter Waegemann

Agenda1. What is the Digital Society?

a) How is it changing the way we think? b) What are the changes in how we obtain and store

information?

2. How is education changing? a) What are current trends?b) What are the generations of online education?

3. What can/should colleges do?a) What are some initial thoughts on re-inventing colleges?b) Why is a strategic plan needed?

4. Discussion

What Is Changing Through Our Digital Progression?

• Wealth of available information– Information resources– Decision processes– Our memories: Storage of data loses importance

• Communication (virtual and global)– Social life and personal behavior– Different information flow (news, personal, new ideas,

etc.)• Life changes from brain-centric to systems-centric• AI will govern our thinking, behavior and decision

making– Dependence on electronic devices

• New information transfer: Disruptive effects on education

Stage 1: THE BRAIN Memory and information processing (thinking) is taking place in the brain.

Stage 2: BOOKS AND DOCUMENTS

Books and documents supplement the brain in terms of information storage. There is an active interaction between the knowledge and information stored in the brain and books/documents.

Stage 3: WORLD INFORMATION COMMUNITY (WIC)

Most new and known information is stored in WIC.

The brain’s new role is to • Navigate the wealth of information• Create context of much of the data• Work with artificial intelligence, and select and interpret information according to one’s belief system.

Three Stages of How the Storage of Information has Changed in a Digital Society

Cloud

Electrical algorithm processing units combined in integrated circuits make up the computer

Rules, processing and communication languages make up operating systems and software

Internet provides computer connectivity

Indexing makes digital information accessible

Mobile devices

1

2

3

4

5

6

It is not just the Internet that is changing our lives…

These six elements make up a new way of living together:

World Information Community (WIC)

Changes WIC is Bringing for Individuals

Data Access Information Processing Communication Economics

Commerce

Making Use of WIC: Easier ways to research and access information

Change from oral storytelling and hard copy literary reading to precise multi-media communication, less face to face

Documentation and opinions: More Permanence and impact

Semi-automated jobs disappear

Change from data/memory-based thinking to concept/idea-based thinking

Historic Changes

How WIC will change our understanding of intelligence

10Brain’s new role

in dominating the information field

1Concept focused,

less detailed memorizing

2New educational

paradigmFrom teacher-

centric to system- centric

3New intelligence

systemsAccessible knowledge

vs. memorized

9Transparency

4WIC Literacy:Several levels

8WIC-based fact

checking 7

Emotional motivators will be

monitored and guided

6Apps will guide

people

5Departure from

linear (book) information

capture

Three Factors

LearningWhat information is available?

What information can be accessed?

ThinkingProcessing information

Distinguishing informationConcept understanding

Decision making

Documenting and CommunicatingFrom voice to text

From occasional to continuous communicationFrom limited communication partners to social media

communities

1. Change

The wealth of information available to anyone

The smart kid of the past was good at memorizing. The smart kid of tomorrow is good at navigating and context recognition.

Information Overload?

2. Communication

InternetTexting

Speech RecognitionLanguage Processing

ToolsMulti-media

New virtual communities

Faster and simpler

Continuous

3. Documentation

• Permanence• Increased responsibility• Move from privacy to transparency

4. Shift from Brain to Systems

• From memorizing to accessing information• From “personal” teaching to system teaching

– Knowledge transfer depends on motivators– Videos and games can be better aiding tools

“Fighting online ‘system teaching’ is like fighting books”

Teachers: The Lifeblood of Education

• The teacher of the today is the transportation of the past

• The teacher of tomorrow is the transportation of today and tomorrow

Both bring people from A to B

Resisting change

“This discovery will create forgetfulness in

the learners’ souls, because they will not

use their memories; they will trust to the

external written characters and not

remember of themselves.””

Plato, Phaedrus, from a translation by B. Jowett Plato, Phaedrus, from a translation by B. Jowett

What Does This Mean for Education?

• Information Transfer (Teaching) is Changing– Recording to viewing– Providing “learner-friendly” material– Games

• Business Model is Changing– New competition– Development of proprietary material– Less course- and degree-centric, more subject matter-

centric• New MARKETING

How people imagined in 1910 how learning would be in the year 2000

Source: Unknown Spanish newspaper 1910

Excitement and Fear

“College is Dead. Long Live College!” Time Magazine, Oct. 18, 2012

Can Online Megacourses Change Education? Google+

Online Discussion, Feb. 2013

MOOC – Massive Open Online Courses

MOOCs will revolutionize the educational field

January 15, 2013

Online Courses Will Change Education Forever!

Rescuing Education from Death Valley

TED

Types of Online Courses

1. Video recording of course teaching– Remote access offers additional college capacity

at little extra cost– Can be combined with degree programs– Limited success over the long term

2. MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses)– A new approach

3. Networked and re-invented colleges with traditional and online teaching

Learn by doingHighly interactive, project-based exercises replace lectures

The lecture is dead!! Bite-sized videos make learning funCreative games and fun programs make learning fun

Learn in online groups

Collaborate online with others

Programs co-developed with employers

Learn what you need for your job

Low cost, low cost, low cost“The new business model that puts colleges out of business”

Blogs:“What is the long-term future of degrees?” – “Employers test job-applicants with their own software (developed with educational institutions)” – “Value is not what the student learned for passing the test but what enables her doing an excellent job.” – “Colleges must understand that they have to produce students who can compete with AI.”

End of elitism

Pay for what you learn

Guidance what to study

9 Changes

MOOCs1. EdX – Network: MIT/Harvard, Wellesley, Georgetown, Berkeley, 26+ courses

2. Coursera: 62 universities in 11 countries, 313 courses in 21 subject areas

3. Udacity: 22 college-level courses supported by Google, San Jose State

4. Udemy: Any expert can teach a class. 5,000 courses in 16 categories

5. P2PU: organizes learning outside of institutional walls and gives learners recognition for their achievements

6. Canvas Network: Connecting students, teachers and institution. 30+ courses

7. Alison: 500 courses, mainly free, oldest (since 2007)

8. StraighterLine: Works with 40 colleges

9. Gender Through Comics: uses a study of comic books incorporating highly interactive video lectures, online discussions between students, and real-time socially driven interviews

10. Skillsoft: Claiming to be the largest. Maybe more of an example of things to come: practical and international

More…

Goals

• Preparing students for the digital society• Using new media and methods for better

teaching– Available programs– Creating a “class community”

• Changing curricula– Waiting for state or national consensus or

experimenting?

The dramatic challenge

Approx. 4,200 Colleges in US

In 2016-2020: 1,800 of these

colleges will be in trouble!

Heading toward the cliff: You need a strategy to face these challenges

and you need it now!

Balancing

Goals

1. Fill your classrooms and dorms

2. Grow online population3. Be profitable4. Build a future

Threats

• Migration to competition• Why go to this college?• MOOC – Eroding fees?• Business intelligence: What

are the assets besides real estate and reputation?

Online Teaching: Classroom Videos

Online Marketing

Proprietary Software

Community Development

Re-invent CollegeImages courtesy of JOLT

Checklist

1. How many courses are recorded live, indexed, and available for marketing?

A presented course is not a temporary service but can be a product to be marketed.

2. What is your short-term strategy?

3. Have you developed an online goal for the next three years? (Example: number of online students and courses)

4. Have you established consistent quality for recorded teachings?

Online Teaching: Classroom Videos

Online Marketing

Proprietary Software

Community Development

Re-invent College

Questions

1. How do you market the online program?2. Why would students sign up for your

program (vs. another college)?3. Are MOOCs affecting your efforts?

(Are you sure about the future?)4. Most of the growth comes from the

international market. How would you rate your efforts?

5. What efforts have you made to create a network of teaching institutions? (vs. being approached)

6. Do you have a strategy for the ideal network?

Online Teaching: Classroom Videos

Online Marketing

Proprietary Software

Community Development

Re-invent College

Checklist

Stage 1

Recording and indexingSoftware for usageSoftware for automated grading

Stage 2

Creating teacher-independent proprietary materialNew creative modules

Multimedia presentations without the teachers

Educational gamesComics

Develop new model for teachers to become coaches

Online Teaching: Classroom Videos

Online Marketing

Proprietary Software

Community Development

Re-invent College

Issues

1. Join or create a community of networked colleges (national and international)

2. Student network

• Crowd sourcing

3. Network with employers

4. Crowd sourcing for material

Online Teaching: Classroom Videos

Online Marketing

Proprietary Software

Community Development

Re-invent College

“Teaching” – the process of knowledge transfer - will be less of a service and more of

a product• Fewer people teaching• Efforts toward developing proprietary teaching

material• Marketing is the key to success• No national or language boundaries• Focus on knowledge value (rather than degrees)• Disruption: Change from traditional colleges to

an “industry” that sells its online teaching products as well as the use of its in-person programs

Online Teaching: Classroom Videos

Online Marketing

Proprietary Software

Community Development

Re-invent College

Growth

2000

First Generation of Online Education: Teacher-centric

2015 2020

Second Generation of Online Education: Content-centric

•Material developed by the educational institution

•Teachers as tutors, authors, and counselors

• Unlimited student population

Teaching Process Today

ClassroomTeaching

Online teaching increases• Remote access• Repeat functions (on demand)

• Software against student cheating• Value of program • Marketing

Online Teaching

Teaching Process Tomorrow

ClassroomTeaching/Coaching

Online teaching increases• Different organization of content• Automated testing and progress

management• Repeat functions (on demand)• Different roles of teachers• Different roles of institutions

Potential Risks

• Internet collapse– What happens if all of this information

disappears with a click?• Information control

– Creating biases – Posting mis-information displayed as truth

• Privacy• Artificial intelligence

– Companionship– What happens to person-to-person

interactions and dependencies?You must be prepared for these threats.

Don’t Wait to re-invent your

college

Thank you for listening

For more…

• Contact me at [email protected]• Visit www.waegemann.net• The book is available from amazon.com