Malcolm Brown Director, Educause Learning Initiativembrown@educause.eduOctober 2009

Original content © Malcolm Brown mbrown@educause.eduSide designs © Sarah Horton sarah.horton@dartmouth.edu

“The future of higher education lies outside the classroom.”from Chronicle of Higher Education, 1999“…the concept of the classroom as the center of learning interaction and engagement is not going away anytime soon.”Alliance for Higher Education Competitiveness, October 2005

ThesisOur challenge lies much more in design and less in technology

ThesisOur challenge lies much more in design and less in technologyfuture

Exploration

<Harry Potter illustration here>

Wait!!! What about all the predictions?

Utopian

Digital facelifts

“Even the revolutionaries can’t predict what will happen.”

Predictions

Questions?Comments?

HeadingBearingsa sense of directionwhere we are now

Bearings: StudentsDesktop down 71% to 44%Laptops up from 65% to 88%More than 90% use:library web sitepresentation softwaresocial networking sitestext messagingWithin a year 63% will have a smart phone

Bearings: pace

What’s in a second?1,157 videosuploaded7 computerssold2 new blogs520K linksclicked2.2M emailssent31K txt msgs

Facebook 250,000,000

34,916,000,000= 10% of all minutes spent online in January 2009= minutes spent on social networking sites by U.S. users = 66,430 years

Bearings: the cloud

Bearings: higher education paradigm under pressure

Bearings: higher education paradigm under pressure“Undergraduate education is on the verge of a radical reordering… The business model that sustained private US colleges cannot survive.”“The typical 2030 faculty will likely be a collection of adjuncts alone in their apartments, using recycled syllabuses and administering multiple-choice tests from afar.”

“The whole setup would run like iTunes and sessions would be recorded for later review.”“This could happen tomorrow, the pieces are all there ready to be put together.”

“PBS and NPR are now posting taped interviews and videos of lectures by academics, adding to the growing number of free lectures online.”

Learning environments

Classrooms

Scroll ahead 70 years…

Smart classrooms

formalLearning spacesvirtualinformal

formalLearning spacesvirtualinformal

DriversTechnologyConstructivismUbiquitous Internet

New driversMobile technologyCloud technologyNetGensread/write Web (aka Web 2.0)

formalLearning spacesvirtualinformal

formalvirtualinformalLearning environments

What is an environment?

What is an environment?Sense of place and purposeAnywhere anytime any placeMix of planned and unplannedRange of participants, systems, forcesDynamic flux of roles

Personal goalsCampus culturePersonal learning stylesread/write culturePersonal contextPeer culturePersonal technologyLearning resourcesLearning practicesInternet technologyLearning spacesCampus technologyPeopleCampus orgsSupport

The classroom is no longer a box

Traditional classroomChalk boardsOverhead

read/writeclassroomread/writeclass

The classroom todayDynamicConnected:intra-connectedinter-connectedaka: read/write, import/exportParticipatoryUnpredictable in part

The classroom todayDynamicConnected:intra-connectedinter-connectedaka: read/write, import/exportParticipatoryUnpredictable in part• Participatory• Unpredictable

Questions?Comments?

Headings

What’s ahead?Trends Human factorsVerbs, not nounsCommunity infrastructureMultipurpose roomsParticipation-enabling designTech outfittingChallengesDesignPerceptionCostSupportDistractionAssessment

Human factorssource: Prof. Scott Pobiner, Parsons New School for Design

Verbs, not nounsProjectorChairsWiresPodiumsLightsComputersetc.ConnectBuildDiscussAnnotateAnalyzeDesign

Multipurpose roomsLectureCritiqueStudioMeetingSeminarWorkshop

Technology trendsPresentation captureVideo conferencingDisplay technology

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_LED

Challenges#1 Good design

Whenever the number of possible actions exceeds the number of controls, there is apt to be difficulty.–Don Norman

Norman’s criteria 1Visibility“by looking, the user can tell the state of the device and the alternatives for action”

Norman’s criteria 2Good conceptual model“consistency in the presentation of operations and results and a coherent, consistent system image”

Norman’s criteria 3Good mappings“possible to determine the relationships between actions and results”

Norman’s criteria 4Feedback“full and continuous feedback about the results of actions”

#2 Perceptions“No kindergarten classrooms!”Stanford professor

Support challengesGearOperationalReal time supportEffective pedagogyCommunity design, planning etc.Community of practice

#4 Cost challenge

#5 Distraction challenge

Distraction challenge

#6 Assessment: is it working?

“The future of higher education lies outside the classroom.”from Chronicle of Higher Education, 1999“…the concept of the classroom as the center of learning interaction and engagement is not going away anytime soon.”Alliance for Higher Education Competitiveness, October 2005

Thank you!mbrown@educause.edu