Comments on: 5 Higher Ed Trends NOT to Watch in 2010

By: floraaketch

floraaketch — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 03:45:46 +0000

Everyone has their favorite way of using the internet. Many of us search to find what we want, click in to a specific website, read what’s available and click out. That’s not necessarily a bad thing because it’s efficient. We learn to tune out things we don’t need and go straight for what’s essential.

By: Integrating teaching into technology « Open Monologue

Integrating teaching into technology « Open Monologue — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 23:05:38 +0000

[...] teaching into technology I’ve been reading Tony Bates’ blog post 5 higher ed trends not to watch in 2010, his reaction to 5 higher ed tech trends to watch in 2010 at Campus Technology. A couple of his [...]

By: Jon

Jon — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 22:23:28 +0000

Ya’know, having seen technologies come and go for a very very long time in education, I can’t help wondering why everyone missed the fact that the single best thing to help students learn is having a good teacher. Period. Full Stup. Etc.

Now this comes from a guy how had made most of his adult living designing and installing “technology” in classrooms. Remember when tape recording language labs were going to make teaching language a new miracle?

Maybe, instead of pushing money into gizmo’s that “might” help learning, that money would be better spent on finding instructors (with or without Phds) that can actually teach, and pay them enough that they can spend the time on campus (or online) that it takes to make the connections necessary.

All I see is more money going to a few big name, highly published faculty (who are there only to do their own research), some of the better junior instructors laid off and replaced by third rate adjuncts who spend possibly 10 minutes more with the students than they are mandated to in the classroom so they can get to one of the other 5 schools they have to teach at in order to make their bills, and more technology experts and developers whom of course need even more administrators and specialty deans which cost more than any new fangled hi-tech room ever will. While not adding to the support people needed to keep the whole darn thing running.

By: Ian reid

Ian reid — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 23:27:34 +0000

Tony

I couldn’t agree more! We see so many institutions shoe-horning technology into old-fashioned rooms and pedagogies – and then when it is a disaster, they blame the technology, suggesting that the ‘old way’ probably was better…

Changing teaching practices is so much harder than installing a machine!

Looking forward to your predictions!

Ian

(PS Greetings from sunny Australia!)

By: Jon K.

Jon K. — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:53:27 +0000

Re: #4 Never mind that IWB technologies often don’t work as well as the mental image. And if (and that’s a big if) these are tools to break down social isolation, the same student that doesn’t raise their hands aren’t going to be the ones that go up to a whiteboard to “interact”.

On top of that, IWB’s that seek to break down social isolation would have to be multi-touch interfaces as a starter.

By: tony bates’ take on 2010 higher ed technology « noah little

tony bates’ take on 2010 higher ed technology « noah little — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:45:52 +0000

[...] http://www.tonybates.ca/2009/12/12/5-higher-ed-trends-not-to-watch-in-2010/ [...]

By: Daniel

Daniel — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 19:41:22 +0000

I keep seeing interactive lessons in action via my job… One chap who has been picked on moving some stuff around on the interactive board whilst the others look on… Fortunately death by power point quickly takes over. Or everyone accesses the lesson content via google sites and the teacher goes from one pc to another explaining what the instructions mean. Technology is allowing too many teachers to move their eyes off the ball and rely on their technical expertise to pretend it is akin to teaching expertise! Keep those rants going!