Disruptive technologies and MOOCs may be a good thing for higher education
Steven Mintz, the executive director of the Institute for Transformational Learning, University of Texas System wrote a couple of very interesting articles in two major higher education publications last month. In an article in Inside Higher Education titled “Lifting All Boats, How MOOCs Can Bring Higher Education Together, he talks about how MOOCs may actually benefit higher education by providing opportunities to “rethink pedagogy and instructional design for a new century and a new generation of students.” This is exactly what traditional online education has been doing for the past several years. In a commentary in the Chronicle of Higher Education titled, The Future is Now, 15 Innovations to Watch For, he shares his predictions for the future of higher education over the next 36 months. I agree with Mintz that some of the recent disruptions in higher education that many people are worried about may actually benefit higher education and keep the focus where it should be, on learners and learning. I’m especially interested in these 5 innovations:
- Innovation 2: Evidence-based pedagogy
- Innovation 4: Optimized class time
- Innovation 6: Fewer large lecture classes
- Innovation 7: New frontiers for e-learning
- Innovation 8: Personalized adaptive learning
@kkeairns eLearning Blog 