(2009-09-18) Higher Ed Tech Blurb

A friend asks:

1. EBook readers are lighter than Text-Book-s, and e-textbooks can be updated electronically. Do you think that most college students will be using e-texts in 10 or 20 years? Why or why not?

• I think they'll be using computers to work with Educational Technology much too Interactive to be thoughts of as a Text-Book. I think teachers/professors will do a lot of custom assembling of Learning Object-s from multiple sources (including previous-term student projects), and students will customize further around that (in both cases using Product Review sites).

2. How is information technology changing the face of Higher Education (College Education)? What changes can we expect in the coming years?

• Physical-campus-based universities that are not highly "branded" (e.g. Ivy League) will have a harder time justifying their expense. Virtual universities, even if driven by full-time programs, will have an increasingly competitive offering (Disrupting Class). Accreditation will become decentralized or irrelevant for an increasing number of fields. Portfolio and ApprenticeShip will be recognized as more useful.

  • someone big with a CamPus-based model (Ivy League/equiv? Edison Learning?) will buy a Virtual Learning organization.