Ed Tech Journey & Future Driven by Disruptive Innovation
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This document discusses disruptive changes in education driven by emerging technologies. It describes how open education trends like MOOCs, open textbooks, and open-source software could dramatically reduce the cost of educational content. Learning management systems may be replaced by personal learning environments tailored to individual learners. Advances in semantic web technologies may allow deeper, more complex questions to be answered through online learning. The future may see higher education competing with flexible, self-directed learning paths utilizing online resources. One example given is a woman who loses her job twice but is able to start a new career in the food industry through informal online learning and networking.
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Ed Tech Journey & Future Driven by Disruptive Innovation
- 1. The Ed Tech Journey & a Future Driven by Disruptive Change Josh Baron Director, Academic Technology & eLearning Marist College Chair, Sakai Foundation Board of Directors
- 2. What is Disruptive Change? Trivia Activity You’ll have 15 seconds to tweet answer with hash tag: #CampusTech2010
- 3. Infamous Dates in the History of Disruptive Change April 28, 2003 April 3, 2008 Know why? Tweet answer with > #CampusTech2010
- 4. Biggest Disruption in Music Industry Since Phonograph! April 28, 2003 – Apple launches iTunes April 3, 2008 – Apple becomes largest music retailer in the US 50 million customers 4 billion songs sold February 24, 2010 > 10 billion sold! Disruptive Change!
- 5. What might education look like in a future filled with disruptive change?
- 6. Presentation Overview The Past The Digital Revolution: Where’s the Disruption? The Present Emerging Technology Trends and Disruption The Future Honey, I Lost My Job…Again!
- 7. The digital revolution: Where’s the disruption? The Past
- 8. Data Transfer Speeds 1900’s > 28 bits per second 2000’s > 48,000,000,000 bits per second
- 9. Processing Power 1970’s > ~2500 transistors per CPU 2000’s > 1,000,000,000 transistors per CPU Transistor Count and Moore's Law - 2008.svg by Wgsimon
- 10. Storage Advances Apple Ile – 1983 Disks could hold 140,000 bits RAM held 64,000 bits Today – 2008 Disks hold 500,000,000,000 bits RAM is up to 2,000,000,000 bits
- 11. Let’s review… Through the digital revolution we’ve seen: Radical increase in the data transfer rates Exponential growth in computer power Massive increase in storage capacity Significant drop in price and size of computers These changes have had a tremendous impact on almost all aspects of our society
- 12. “High Tech” Hall in the 1960s
- 13. Typical “high tech” lecture hall in 1996
- 14. Why No Disruption? We’ve been automating education… Transparencies-to-PowerPoint Lectures-to-Podcasts Some disruptive trends have emerged… Distance education and entry of for-profits 1 in 4 students take at least 1 course online UC system announcement
- 15. Emerging technology Trends and Disruption The Present
- 16. Open Education Trends Learning Technology Trends
- 17. Open Education Trends Open Course Content Open Access Journals Open Textbooks Open Instructional Software
- 18. Open Course Content High quality university-level course materials, “free & openly” available Access, share, remix without cost MIT’s OpenCourseWare (OCW) Begin in 2002, now has 2000 courses 98m visits/70m unique (1% of world pop.) 78% of MIT’s faculty have published OCW
- 19. Expanding beyond MIT 176 institutions from 37 countries 3,650 courses from 46 sources and 7 languages http://www.ocwconsortium.org
- 20. Open Access Journals Addressing “knowledge divide” 5,175 Journals 417,681 articles (as of 7/14/10) No charge to institution or readers Users can download, copy, distribute, print and link to full text Peer-review w/ editorial quality controls
- 21. Open Textbooks Connexions (www.cnx.org) Based at Rice University, started in 2000 environment for collaboratively developing & freely sharing textbook content Concept of micro-contributions 16,531 remixable “modules” 1000+ total “collections” Experts contribute for reasons other than $$
- 22. Open Textbooks Sustainability has been an issue Commercial ecosystem is developing Flat World Knowledge (Video) Free online, affordable offline Open–licensed > Customizable Frees faculty from pains of new editions
- 23. Open Instructional Software Open Learning Initiative Based at Carnegie Mellon Guided by learning theory Embedded cognitive tutor capabilities in software Provide “scaffolding” much like a human tutor Develop/refresh basic skills
- 24. Trends > Future Disruptions Cost of educational content dramatically reduced Collapse of the traditional publishing industry Trends towards “best of breed” Instructors freed to focus on teaching, not content creation Empowers “self-directed learners” By Taro Taylor edit by Richard Bartz
- 25. Learning Technology Trends Open Learning Network Electronic Portfolios Semantic Web
- 26. Post-LMS Era and PLE’s Personal Learning Environment Learner customized environment Use Web 2.0 to integrate content and connections Self-directed/informal learning LMS > supports status quo teaching; teacher/course-centric PLE > open and participatory; learner-centric Pros/cons with both
- 27. “Open Learning Network” Divergent or convergent? Leverages open standards IMS Course Cartridge IMS Learning Tool Interop. OpenSocial API OLN > “mash up” between LMS and PLE Some things are private while others are open By Jonathan Mott Asst. to the Academic VP - Academic Technology Brigham Young University
- 28. Open Learning Network Example > Sakai 3 Not an upgrade but a new complementary product Learning Design Lenses June 2011 Release www.sakaiproject.org
- 29. Electronic Portfolios ePortfolio use has tripled since 2003* 50%+ of US institutions using some form Significant use internationally (Bologna) Growth drivers Value of “reflection” in student-centered learning Accountability (Spellings Commission) Capture all facets of learning (curricular, co-curricular, and extracurricular) Missing piece? – Credentialing Model * 2008 Campus Computing Survey
- 30. Semantic Web (Web 3.0) Common data framework that will allow machines to understand the meaning - or "semantics" - of data on the Web Example: Google doesn’t do well with “What was the weather in Boston when Obama was born?”
- 31. Semantic Web Wolfram Alpha is an early example 10+ trillion pieces of data 50,000+ types of algorithms & models linguistic capabilities for 1000 domains This will allow learners to ask computers deeper questions and learn from their answers
- 32. Trends > Future Disruption Empowering of self-directed and informal learning Enable documenting & credentialing of outcomes from self-directed and informal learning Self-directed competes higher education Web becomes powerful learning tool for knowledge generation By Taro Taylor edit by Richard Bartz
- 33. The Future Honey, I lost my job…again!
- 34. Honey, I lost my job…again Obtained a BA and two MA’s Marketing Exe for high tech start-ups Laid off twice in 12 month period Decided to change careers to pursue dream of a gourmet food business Problem > She knew nothing about it!
- 35. Engaged in Informal Learning Volunteered at Farm-to-Table Worked with SCORE mentor Developed business plan Collaborated with local restaurant Did a lot of research via the web Blogged to reflect on experience Networking via Facebook
- 36. What might have my wife’s experience look like in a future filled with disruptive change?
- 38. There was missing from this story?
- 39. US!
- 40. Think this will never happen? It will go down in history as a turning point for the music industry. This is landmark stuff. I can't overestimate it! - Steve Jobs on iTunes, FortuneMay 12, 2003
- 41. “When you innovate, you've got to be prepared for everyone telling you you're nuts.” - Larry Ellison, Founder and CEO, Oracle Thank You! Josh.Baron@Marist.Edu @JoshBaron (Twitter)
Editor's Notes
- Thanks a lot for that introduction as well as the opportunity to help wrap up what has been yet another tremendously exciting and informative Campus Technology conference. I think we all know what it takes “behind the scenes” to pull off an event like this so let’s just take a moment to thank everyone a CT for all of hard work and effort!!!
- Before I jump into the meat of the presentation, I would like to talk briefly about what “disruptive change” means to me and how technology can play a role in driving it. I’ll do this by starting out with a brief trivia question which I’ll bring up in a moment on the next slide…I’ll then give you about a minute to answer via Twitter using this “hash tag”…ready? OK...
- OK, what is the significance of these two dates with regards to the recent history of disruptive technologies? You’ve got one minute to answer..GO! [SWITCH TO TWITTER SEARCH]
- These dates represent the most significant technology-based disruption in the music recording industry since its inception in 1877 with the introduction of the phonograph. In just 5 short years, Apple Computer (which had never competed in the music industry before) went from launching iTunes to becoming the largest music retailer in the United States with 50 million customers and over 4 billion songs sold…a number that as now more than doubled just two years later. Folks, this is what disruptive changes looks like…change, often driven by technology revolutions, which dramatically shifts how an entire industry operates and does business…
- Over the next 45 minutes or so we’ll take a journey through the history of educational technology, past, present and future and end by looking at what education might look like in a future filled with disruptive change…
- I’ll start our journey out by briefly looking at the past and the digital revolution that has disrupted so much of our lives but oddly not on education to any large extent. I’ll then move on and spend the bulk of the presentation looking at emerging disruptive trends in the ed tech domain and their potential impact on education as we know it today…I’ll end with a glimpse into what the future may hold by relaying a personal learning story I’ve been living over the past few years and how it might look in the future.
- I’m going to accomplish this goal (I hope) by starting out with a brief discussion of the digital revolution we’ve all been living through over the past few decades and its impact on our lives, society, and most important, how we teach and our students learn. So, let’s start with what, at least I consider to be, the first DOT COM…
- Over the last 100 years we have seen a radical increase in the speeds at which we can transfer data…in the 1900’s, telegraph operators (telegraph being one of the first real digital technologies) on the Titanic (who were among the fastest in the world)…
- Show mother board of Apple IIe
- Now let’s turn our attention to teaching and learning and how technology has impacted on it over a similar time period…
- OK, so let’s start with a trend that many may be familiar with already which is the movement that has been underway for the past 10 year or so to publish free and open (by which I mean the ability to “use, share, remix” course content free of licensing fees) high quality university-level educational materials from courses. This typically includes lecture notes, assignments, solution sets, exams and at times videos and audio content. The most well known initiative in this area, and the one that really started the movement, is MIT’s OCW which began in 2002. Today MIT has recently announced the 2000th course to be released through OCW which basically represents all of their undergraduate curriculum…freely available 24/7/365 to anyone in the world…and the world is using these materials…with 70M unique visitors! The fact that this in itself has not already a more disruptive force in higher education then it is today is great testimony to the ability of HE to resist change. This is not an administration driven initiative but one that came out of MIT’s faculty’s belief that releasing their course content was inline with their educational mission (“to advance knowledge and educate students”)…this is reflected by the fact that today 78% of faculty have published at least one of their courses.
- The work that started at MIT has now greatly expanded with institutions from around the world now following their lead…which has culminated in the establishment of the OCW Consortium which has members from 37 different countries and has collectively released content from over 3500 courses which are all searchable from the consortiums web site. As this trend continues one has to wonder at what point faculty will no longer be “burdened” with developing course content and will instead simply be “remixing” content from world class institutions.
- An equally important trend in the area of open education are the efforts underway to open “access” to scholarly journals and related publications. For years our faculty have been publishing their research in journals which then lock up this knowledge behind subscription fees and proprietary databases, limiting its dissemination and ultimately creating a knowledge-divide between those with the resources to access this information and those without it. Today, the DOAJ now has over 5000 journals, representing almost ½ million articles, which are freely available to anyone around the world to download, read and distribute. It is important to note that these journals are following the same peer-review and editorial quality controls standards that are used by “for-profit” publishers which are obviously vital to ensuring the integrity and rigor of the content found in them.
- Whereas the OCW is focused on “opening” course content, this movement is focused on making the other great pillar of traditional higher education, the textbook, also freely available online through open licensing. One of the original efforts in this trend domain was the Connexions project out of Rice University which began in 2000. This group has developed a complete environment, which include open-source tools for collaboratively authoring content online, to support the development and distribution of open textbooks. Their approach is to have authors create small “modules” which can then be connected into larger collections which would represent what you might find in a more traditional textbook. This modular approach is very powerful as it facilitates the “remixing” of content but also supports small “micro-contributions” by experts…meaning, although some opt to build whole textbooks in Connexions, others may only contribute a module or two in areas where they have particular expertise, such “micro-contributions” are simply not possible under traditional publishing models. These contributions by experts are motivated by their desire to make an impact (CA School adoption is an example), not $$...in fact, when you work out the math, most faculty who write textbooks are making about $.25 per hour so money really has never been the motivator in this field.
- I want to touch on one other example in the open textbook domain as it is one model that I believe is addressing the issue of sustainability with open-content of this nature…as you may know, it costs MIT around $10,000 per course to make them digitally available…something that MIT is supporting through their resources and grant funding…but many wonder how sustainable such a model is over time. What we are now starting to see is something similar to what happened in the open-source software domain with commercial companies (e.g. Redhat, rSmart, etc.) growing up around open-source software to provide fee-based support and customization services. Although still in the early stages, we are starting to see the same type of commercial development taking place in the open-content domain. Flat World Knowledge, started a few years ago, is one of the best examples…they are a for-profit textbook publishing company but release all of their books online for free under open licenses (allowing remixing, etc.). Their revenue comes from selling different types of print versions (B&W, color, etc.) as well as supplemental materials such as study guides (which, BTW, anyone can develop and then sell through their site). They also provide tools to allow those reading content to connect up and collaborate…imagine reading your American History 101 textbook and being able to connect with students around the world to discuss it, ask questions, etc.Let’s watch a brief video so that you can see some of this in action. Video starts at: 2:19
- The last trend I’ll mention in this domain is related to the opening of powerful instructional subject-based “software” (e.g. simulations, virtual labs, intelligent tutoring systems, etc.) which are ideal for allowing learners to master basic knowledge and skills. One of the leading examples in this area is the Open Learning Initiative based at Carnegie Mellon which has been developing instructional software and related course materials and releasing these under an open license. Although similar in some ways to the OCW and Open Textbook trends we’ve already looked at, OLI instructional software is particularly unique and powerful as it is developed by on cognitive and learning theory and centered around the concept of “cognitive tutors”…these computer-based tutor programs provide the same type of scaffolding to learners as a human tutor…providing feedback only when students make an error, answering questions about what to do next, maintaining low profiles when students are performing well. In addition, data collected on student use is regularly used to refine and improve the materials. Such open and freely available tutors have the potential to assist millions of students and life learners who need to develop or refresh basic skills.
- The Open Education trends we’ve been looking at are now, with some exceptions, have been developing for the last decade or so and I believe are posed to create a number of disruptions over the next 5 years…First, much as the music retail industry has seen, I believe we will see the collapse of the traditional publishing industry as we know it today…I’m not suggesting that the McGraw-Hills of the world will no longer exist in 5 years but the publishing landscape will certain look much different then it goes today.Second, we will see a dramatic reduction in the cost of educational content and that this content will trend toward “best of breed”…meaning, the ability to use, share and remix content will allow for incremental innovation and improvements over time (rather than the “re-inventing the wheel model” we have today) leading to “pinnacle content” that represents the best of the best. With such content in hand, instructors will be freed to focus on teaching and facilitating learning rather than content creation.Finally, the ability to access and learn from such content will empower a the next generation of students to become much more “self-directed learners”…leading many of them to question traditional educational models found at most of our institutions today.
- I’ll move on how to discuss another category of trends which I believe are equally important to the open education trends in that their potential for disrupting education is equally as significant.
- I’m going to start with a learning technology trend that is getting a good deal of traction right now in the press and blogosphere which is this concept of “Open Learning Networks” or OLNs (just when you thought we had enough acronyms )The concept of OLNs is emerging from the tension that exists between the “Personal Learning Environment” (PLE) and the more traditional CMS/LMS. Although I don’t know that a standard definitions of PLEs exists, I think of them as customized environments that the user/learner creates using the hundreds or thousands of free information and collaboration tools or “gadgets” available on the web today which is then used for self-directed learning…which could either be for formal (e.g. used as part of a course) or informal (e.g. learning a new cooking style) education. I happen to use an iGoogle page (on the right) for my own PLE…you can see here that in terms of content I have RSS feeds from NPR and CNN as well as a Google Reader gadget which aggregates the blogs I watch…and I have a TwitterGadget and calendar to help me stay connected to those in my “learning network”.The tension that I mentioned earlier flows from the fact that the CMS/LMS, which were built over the last decade or so, were designed around traditional teaching methodologies and structure of our universities and colleges…thus, they tend to be very teacher-centric as well as “closed” and inflexible, particularly from the student perspective. For example, few CMSs allow students to share their work with outside experts for comment and feedback.Conversely, the PLE tends to be very open, flexible and learner centric…but there are pros/cons to both…for example, in the US we all know that things like FERPA can be issues when sharing student work publically, something the PLE does not address generally.
- The OLN (a phrase I believe that was coined by Jon Mott at Brigham Young), which is just really emerging out of the “vaporware” domain, is a mash-up or blending between the CMS and PLE…at the core of the OLN, which resides at the institution in a secure and private network, would be the traditional CMS…or at least some of the functionality we associated with the CMS today which needs to remain private (e.g. gradebook, assessments, etc.)…by then leveraged these open standards, the learner, instructor or institution can then customize the environment by connecting (securely) to other web-based apps, such as social networking sites, collaboration tools, such as Google Docs, etc. as well as easily connect or even import things like open-content. Such a “mash-up” will be tremendously empowering to students who today I feel are frustrated by the limitations the classical CMS places on their ability to interact with and learn from the larger real world.use open standards (a disruptive trend in itself really) to
- Although there are various OLN development efforts underway, the one I am most familiar with is the work associated with Sakai 3 which is not as much an upgrade to Sakai but a new complementary product that will to a large extent realize the potential of the OLN concept.The design of Sakai 3 is being informed by what the Sakai community is referring to as “Learning Design Lenses”…these were developed through a year long visioning process undertaken by the Sakai Teaching and Learning Group and capture the “learning values” of the community…they are now being used by designers and developers working on the first release (due out in June 2011) to guide their work as means to ensure that the final product supports and facilitates these learning values. As you can see from the diagram, 2 of the 7 lenses speak directly to the concepts of the PLE and the support for open standards needed to facilitate a mash-up model.As a result, Sakai 3 will support things such as “Academic Networking”…the ability for learners, instructors, researchers, etc. to leverage social networking tools to connect with each other within the OLN or between OLNs at different institutions (e.g. researchers connecting or study groups forming)…it will also facilitate what we are calling “un-Sakai” which is the idea that Sakai-based content should be able to be pushed out of Sakai to things such as other web-based apps or mobile devices.
- Very much related to the concept of the PLE (one could even consider an ePortfolio to be an integral part of a PLE) are electronic portfolios (Ask who got to see sessions with AEBEEL conference). Although ePortfolios have been around for some time…even as long as the CMS/LMS by some measures…they have not gotten the mainstream attention or seen the same growth as LMS…until now!...since 2003 use has tripled with the majority of institutions deploying some form of ePortfolios on their campuses.This growth is being driven by a range of factors, including new value that is being placed on student-centered learning and the important role that “reflection” and metacognition plays in it…as well as the issues related to accountability stemming from the Spellings Commission (which hold a hidden danger for ePortfolios as if they become simple repositories for accreditation data much will be lost).Most importantly though, with regards to disrupting higher education, is the realization that ePortfolios provide a new means by which we can capture, in deep and meaningful ways, all facets of a students learning or the “whole student”, not just those traditionally document on transcripts…of course, they are used to document curricular-based outcomes such as a senior capstone project…but more and more they are being used to also document learning that results from co-curricular (e.g. internships) and extracurricular (e.g. summer jobs, volunteering, etc.)…providing students with a rich and powerful new tool for demonstrating all of what they have learned from their educational experiences, including the softer skills of critical thinking, problem solving, etc. which employers today are so often seeking.
- As a final trend I’ve tossed in one that is really just in the early stages of maturing but has such huge potential that I wanted to briefly touch on it…plus there is a good example that is fun to play with The concept of the semantic web, which was really brainchild of Tim Berners-Lee (created of the Web), is to create a common or standards-based framework for describing data on the web in ways which computers can understand. Taking such a step will faciltate the sharing and reuse of data across web-based applications.What problem does this solve? We’ll, for example, today we have tons of data sets on the web filled with historical weather data…we also have datasets that tells us when historical figures, such as Obama, were born…but if we ask Google (or other current search engines) this question we don’t get back the right answer.The semantic web would make it relatively easy for a computer to answer this question.
- Why am I including this as a potentially disruptive trend? Being able to answer such questions and show the analysis to lead to the answer would be a very powerful learning tool. Let’s look at an example…
- The trends in Learning Technologies that we’ve seen will have a sweeping impact on not just the learning process but more fundamentally on the value we place on different types of learning…OLNs will facilitate self-directed and informal learning, as well as more traditional forms, all of which will be documented and, when necessarily, credentialed through the use of electronic portfolios…given the learner a living digital story of their lifelong educational journey…something they will likely value much more than a transcript and diploma (and maybe pay more for?).Finally, introduction of the semantic web will connect discrete islands of data and information on the web today and provide the self-directed learner of the future with powerful new knowledge generation tool.
- I would like to end by sharing with you a vision of what the future may hold if today’s open education and learning technology trends result in the type of disruption we’ve been talking about.I’m going to do this by telling you about my wife’s learning experience over the past several years as she transitioned careers and then postulate what her scenario might have looked like in a future driven by disruptive change.
- Here’s the scenario…My wife, Terry, who has a BA and two MA degrees, had spent the first 15 years of her career at a marketing executive for high tech start up companies. A career that was going gangbusters until the dot.com bubble burst…after which she was laid off twice in a 12 month period. After that she had had enough and decide to make a major career change to fulfill a life long dream of starting up her own gourmet food business.Having never worked in the commercial food sector, there was a tremendous amount to learn…
- Just to highlight a few of her learning experiences through this multi-year journey…She took on a volunteer position at a local food production company that uses locally grown produce as means to learn about the commercial food production (health regulations, using equipment, label rules, etc.)…She also worked with SCORE, small business mentor group, to develop a business plan…Collaborated with a local restaurant owner to gain cooking experience…Took a few basic courses on gourmet foods…Started a blog to reflect on her experiences, document her trials and tribulations and promote her business…Set up a Facebook group to network with friends, family and experts…After three years of learning she launched her business in 2009 (and is doing well)
- Let’s reply this learning scenario in a future driven by the disruptive change…Realizing that she would need to learn many new skills and knowledge, Terry might have begun by contacting a professional organization such as the “International Association of Culinary Professionals” to gain assistance in her career transition…after applying and being accepted, she pays a fee to have a learning coordinator assigned to her and to gain access to the IACP’s OLN. The Learning Coordinator would assemble a panel of experts with experience in the gourmet food business and work with them to develop a Professional Learning Plan that contains short, medium and long-range learning objectives designed to prepare her to start up and run her own gourmet food business. Through the IACP OLN Terry is able to find a local food production facility where she can volunteer, in exchange for providing some marketing experience for them, for the coming year. As she begins her work with them she refines her learning objectives and begins to document her work in her electronic portfolio, reflecting on her experiences weekly in her associated blog. Over the coming months, the Expert Panel members regularly review her ePortfolio, providing feedback on her learning and encouraging her to explore new areas of knowledge or to go deeper into some subjects. At one point the panel notes that her math skills are weak in some areas and she works with her Learning Coordinator, via the OLN, to find math tutoring software that she can use on her own to remediate her areas of weakness. She adds the results of her online tests from the software to her ePortfolio to demonstrate mastery of these skills to her Expert Panel. As she begins her second year her Learning Coordinator, based on feedback from the Panel, suggests that she consider taking several business course to help her prepare for developing her business plan, she finds two introductory courses online that she enrolls in but also opts to take a few face-to-face courses at a local college on more advanced topics. Outcomes from these courses are documented in her ePortfolio and reviewed by her panel. As she completes her second year her panel performs an in-depth evaluation and establishes benchmarks for completion and, with her input, a final culminating project which centers around her business plan and product launch plans.In her final year, Terry begins to connect up with others through the OLN who have major businesses in the gourmet food domain and informally work with them…she also connects with others who are just starting to consider a gourmet food business to answer their questions and tell her story. At the end of her three year program she works hard to complete her business plan and the other final deliverables that demonstrate her mastery of the gourmet food business. She presents these to her Expert Panel in a final 4-hour presentation and defense…the panel then approves her final work and certifies that she has master all of necessary skills.Knowing that she may want to teach others at some point, she submits her electronic portfolio, with assistance from her Learning Coordinator, to an accreditated credentialing organization with who works with the IACP and is award an Associates Degree in Culinary Arts with a concentration in Gourmet Foods.