Web 2.0 university systems are helping to change the way
education is delivered, writes Steven Hipwell is an IT Officer at
Birmingham City University. Universities are building
technology-enhanced learning platforms (TELs) to deliver
"always-on" media-rich education anywhere. Just as social
networking sites like facebook, myspace and bebo have influenced
the way many of us communicate, will future students seek a more
virtual education?
The answer is more likely yes than no. Technology will become
more ubiquitous and seamlessly woven into our daily lives. It will
also be cheaper, better and easier to use. Students will use
technology for everything.
At this point in writing I have to suppress my inner "futurist
uber-geek". Reminding him that most humans are very social animals
and require interaction. So even if you believe in Ray Kurzweil's
"the singularity", simply explained: that artificial intelligence
(AI) will outstrip biological human intelligence in the near future
it is plausible that any such humanoids would still feel a desire
to gather and associate.
If I am proven right then physical university spaces may become
even more important to communities than they already are. In the
meantime, the kind of web 2.0 technologies that universities are
using to enhance teaching and learning, can be broadly categorised
as follows:
Virtual Learning Environments (VLE's): a virtual learning
platform.
Managed Learning Environment (MLE's): a VLE that includes all
required business process functions i.e. student records, finance,
HR etc.
Technology Enhanced Learning platform (TEL): A more web 2.0
evolved VLE/MLE.
The above descriptions are a gross simplification of what these
technology platforms comprise, but serve as an outline of their
functionality. TEL offerings feature virtual classrooms like
www.wimba.com and open-source e-portfolios, such as
www.mahara.org. Such products are
incredibly powerful tools for organising, networking and
communicating. But they only represent the first steps in a process
of rapid development.
I wonder how long it will be before technology like Cisco's
TelePresence will be mainstream domestic fare. Given that Moore's
Law is rapidly being overtaken by accelerating technological and
scientific advancement, perhaps, not so long. Or when fully
immersive virtual reality rooms, like Iowa State University's,
become no big deal. Harvard, Yale and MIT are collaborating on the
Sakai Project.
Liverpool Hope University has built an innovative virtual campus in
Second Life. For where we might be heading with all of this
technology a look at Oxford University's e-horizons institute is
recommended.
It would seem the next logical step will be further
consolidation and networking of university's business process
platforms. Maybe, eventually one technology platform in the "cloud"
that serves all universities. A bit like the
joint academic network of the
future.
Whatever the future holds it is likely to include a big helping
of technology and higher education will, hopefully, be enhanced by
it. Students will probably tailor their own versions of
blended
learning. Using university e-resources in conjunction with some
monster mash-ups of Google scholar and who knows what else.
If you too believe Kurzweil and "the law of accelerating
returns" then the next paradigm-shift in the time-scale of our
human-machine evolution is merely a blink away.