Skepticism Around Technology and the Future of Education

Skepticism Around Technology and the Future of Education
4/23/2018

As I read through the Larry Cuban and Audrey Waters articles, I couldn't help but agree with the some of the skepticism they present around the continued integration of technology in education and online learning. From my experience thus far in Higher Education I have not had an online course (outside of this one) that attempted to integrate technology to "support learning." For the majority of my online courses, technology was used for technologies sake, and as a way of replacing paper handouts and turning in paper assignments. I think there are a variety of reasons for this: many teachers did not grow up in the digital age and navigating the digital landscape is not second nature to them, at first education seemed to fear technology and social media, and now they are catching up on figuring out ways to cope with the changing world, there aren't enough resources (or research) done on how to integrate technology into a curriculum. Also in higher education, for UVM as an example, you can't mandate or force faculty to be trained on a variety of technology or to even teach an online course due to the collective bargaining power of their union (I am pro-union). Without additional training and experience, I think that the creation of truly innovative online learning opportunities in Higher Education will come slowly. I do think in the future we will continue to see a surge in Universities offering online courses however because quite frankly, it would be a poor business choice not to diversify your offerings. Also, although Audrey Waters seems to take a negative view of the marketing points of online education (accessibility and choice), from a capitalistic business perspective (and Institutions of Higher Education ARE businesses, K-12 less so), your products better be accessible and offer a level of choice or you will lose your strength in the marketplace.