Not long got back from the annual ‘bunfight’ that is the ‘Future of Technology in Education’ where various people from around the technology and education sector have 20 mins each to share their thoughts and ideas with a 350 strong audience. This is now my fourth one I’ve attended and I have to say it just gets better and better!
I did write some notes but a few of the sessions actually went over my head! One of the sessions truly inspired me so that’ll have its own entry:
The CIO and finding the future (eco-system) of education
– Jan-Martin Lowendahl
Jan-Martin is a Research Director for Gartner who looks at trends and how they can affect HE.
- Showed us the Gartner Hype Cycle for Emerging Tech and likened it to Katsushika’s ‘The Wave’ – or a tsunami of resources about to hit academics!
What is the hype cycle:
- He referred to the ‘death of distance’ – online studying removes the geographical barrier.
- Asks ‘Where can we add value to services?’
- Need to focus on the management between IT Infrastructure, IT Systems and Processes
- Organisational Efficiency vs Personal Productivity
Pervasive Media in Education
– Nick Skelton
Nick firstly gave us a reality check – we’re gonna be charging up to £9000 a year for our undergrad courses – we need to be upping our game! He asked a group of students why they chose to study at his uni (Bristol):
- Right course
- perceived as a good uni
- Life in that location… Bristol is seen to be a cool city (especially on YouTube) that ‘does cool shit’. More unis need to sell this aspect!
We need to understand how our students live – they don’t always spend their time at uni!
Embedding Learning Technologies 