Planes, Trains and Automobiles: Which Way to the Future?

Professor Mark Brown
Director, National Institute for Digital Learning
Science Gallery, Dublin
Thursday 10th November 2016
Planes, Trains and Automobiles:
Which Way to the Future?

Outline…
1. Dream solutions
2. Disruptive futures
3. Building better futures
Planes, Trains and Automobiles:
Which Way to the Future?

This presentation does NOT
contain handy hints for practitioners
Advance warning…

http://studentsuccess.ie
Might be of interest…

The Rhetoric Reality Gap
1. Dream solutions…

“With the coming of the New Media, the need for
print on paper will rapidly diminish. The day will
soon arrive when the world’s literature will be
available from The Automatic Library at the
mere pressing of a button”
(Uzanne, 1994; cited
in McFarlane, 1997, p.173).

(Uzanne, 1894; cited
in McFarlane, 1997, p.173).
“With the coming of the New Media, the need for
print on paper will rapidly diminish. The day will
soon arrive when the world’s literature will be
available from The Automatic Library at the
mere pressing of a button”

“Books will soon be obsolete in public schools.
Scholars will be instructed through the eye. It is
possible to teach every branch of human
knowledge with the motion picture”.
(Thomas Edison, 1912)

“I believe that the motion picture is destined to
revolutionize our educational system and that
in a few years it will supplant largely, if not
entirely, the use of textbooks,”
(Thomas Edison, 1922)

“We will undoubtedly have lectures of every
conceivable kind presented to us right in our
homes, when practical television arrives,
possibly a year or two off.”
Short Wave Craft, 1935

Project Plato – 1960s

Cuban, L. (1986). Teachers and machines: The classroom use of technology
since 1920. New York: Teachers’ College Press.
Technology
Expectation Cycle
(1986)
Bold Predictions

Technology
Expectation Cycle
(1986)
Growing
Support
Bold Predictions

Technology
Expectation Cycle
(1986)
Subsided Enthusiasm
Growing
Support
Bold Predictions

“In 50 years… there will
be only 10 institutions in
the world delivering
higher education and
Udacity has a shot at
being one of them”
(cited in Leckart, 2013, P.28)
In a March 2012 Wired cover story, Sebastian
Thrun predicted:

Gartner Hype Cycle
“Technology-enhanced learning involves an
ongoing cycle of hype, hope and
disappointment” (Gouseti, 2010).
MOOCs
2016

“Resilience requires
adaptation and evolution to new
environmental conditions, but retains core identity”
(Weller & Anderson, 2013, p.55).

“We tend to overestimate the effect of a
technology in the short run and
underestimate the effect in the long
run.”
Amara’s Law

2. Disruptive futures…
Running
to catch a
moving train...

“It is theory that
decides what we can observe”

• Open Learning
• Online Learning
• Anytime Anywhere Learning
eLearning •
Digital Learning •
Technology-enhanced Learning •
TWO MAJOR WOLRDVIEWS
Knowledge Economy

“Frankly, all the computers and software and
Internet connections in the world won’t do
much good if young people don’t understand
that access to new technology means…
access to the new economy”
(President Bill Clinton; cited in Cuban, 2001, p.18).

Learning Society
• Open Learning
• Online Learning
Knowledge Economy
eLearning •

“Higher education has a crucial role to play in
laying the foundations of a society that is
more inclusive, participatory and
equal...” The President said “…the role of
the university in enabling citizens to develop
the tools to address the great challenges of
our time – global poverty, climate
change and sustainability – was vital.

Different interest groups and stakeholders borrow
the same ‘language of persuasion’
to legitimize their own agenda

ReschoolingReproducing
• Entrepreneurship
• Technology as progress
• Education as commodity
• Increased market competition
• Sifting agent
• Human capital
• Social cohension
• Cultural heritage
• Open Learning
• Online Learning
eLearning •
Knowledge Economy
Learning Society

Deschooling
• Sifting agent
• Human capital
• Unbundling
• Opening access
• Micro credentials
• New learning pathways
• Open Learning
• Online Learning
eLearning •
Learning Society
Knowledge Economy

ReconceptualizingDeschooling
• Open Learning
• Online Learning
eLearning •
• Just society
• Lifelong learning
• Pillars of learning
• Sustainable development
• Sifting agent
• Human capital
• Unbundling
• Opening access
• Micro credentials
• New learning pathways
Learning Society
Knowledge Economy

Critical
Consumers
Critical
Citizens
RECONCEPTUALIST
FRAMEWORK
(Delors Report, 1972)
LEARNING
TO BE
LEARNING
TO KNOW
LEARNING
TO DO
LEARNING
TO LIVE
TOGETHER
Critical
Thinkers

“Despite huge advancements in
technology over the last 50 years, the
wealth gap between developed and
developing countries has more than
doubled” (John Pilger, 2002).
3. Building better futures…

World Bank Group. (2016). Digital dividends: World development report. Washington: A World Bank Group
Flagship Report.

What type of
education system do
we want the use of new
digital technology
to serve?
Framing question…

Conclusion
Three final remarks….
• State of the actual

Conclusion
• Not on independent trajectory

Conclusion
• Not on independent trajectory
• Must keep sight of the big ideas

“Digital
Learning
should be in
the service of
big ideas,
not as a big idea
in itself” (adapted from Barnett, 2011).
Conclusion

Professor Mark Brown
Director, National Institute for Digital Learning
www.dcu.ie/nidlmark.brown@dcu.ie
@mbrownz www.slideshare.net/mbrownz

National Institute for Digital Learning
@NIDL_DCU

Planes, Trains and Automobiles: Which Way to the Future?

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