On 26th March, Dr Bex Lewis will be running a Collaborative Enhancement and Teaching (CET) Lunch, 12.30 – 2pm
The topic will be ’The 21st Century Learner’, with discussions on blended learning tools and the use of social networks.
CET lunches are an informal space to discuss and share learning and teaching experiences/practice across the university.
The session will include discussions as to what differences there may be with “The 21st Century Learner”, a summary of Sir David Melville’s CLEX report from March 2009, a consideration of what Blended Learning is, visual stats, and a look at some potential tools/their uses.
(The presentation was somewhat a ’work in progress’, and there’s a lot more depth I’d like to investigate, but it generated great discussion, and some thinking for me/others!)
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It seems relevant to ask what will characterise the 21st Learner and how will universities respond?
Education is not apart from society. If people use technology in different ways or behave differently then those changes will eventually be embedded in education. A trivial example – once all educational writing was done in pen and ink. Then came the biro and in spite of warnings that the standard of writing would drop the biro quickly superceded pen and ink.
So how will the world of, say, 2030 differ from today? Out of many changes two of importance for education will be the pervasiveness of communications technology and the consequent expectation that people will have that activity is shared and results thereby obtained quickly.
Communications technology will advance through much faster networks and better devices for linking to networks. One person will connect to another person, or a group of people, through mobile devices that deliver high quality, 3D images. The expectation will be that response to questions is near instant. If in doubt consult a friend or colleague. A kind of tribal living, electronically mediated.
How will this fit with education? Students will expect to work in groups and to split tasks between them. They will be loathe to study on their own. After all, at any hour and in any place they will be able to contact their friends. They will see coming to university in the flesh as something special, and mainly for the social rather than academic contact.