Challenges in Integrating Technology in Higher Education

Challenges in Adopting Technology

• Challenge levels: solvable (those where we can both understand and know how to solve), difficult (more or less well-understood but for which solutions remain elusive), and wicked (complex to even define and thus require more research before solvable).
• Challenges at policy, leadership and practice level.

Challenge: Integrating "Informal" Learning

• Universities do NOT recognize prior “informal” experience.
• Haven’t been able to incorporate “informal” learnin experiences into classrooms.
• The more self-directed student learning ther is the greater the success/interest rate .
• Lack of scaleable ways to qualify “informal” learning that happens outside the classrooms (22).

Example 1 of "Informal" Integration

• “A student can spend years practicingadvanced graphic design techniques, for example, only to be relegated to introductory design courses when enrolled at a university” (22).

Example 2 of "Informal" Integration

• “The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee integrated a course developed by the American Psychological Association into their psychology program; their U-Pace course is self-paced and includes individual progress reports, supplemented by personalized feedback from instructors, to keep students motivated and help them understand their strengths and weaknesses. After completing the course, students performed 16% higher on cumulative exams than students who had not taken the U-Pace course” (21).

Possible Solutions

• The Lahti University of Applied Science (LUAS) began the "open badges program" in order to validate informal achievements.
• Discussion Question: How serious are these “badges” taken? University level?

Improving Digital Literacy

• Challenge: Lack of consensus on what comprises digital literacy. In addition,many individuals aren’t technologically literate.

Did You Know?

• EA Dublin Institute of Technology report states that by the end of 2014, 39% of the EU workforce hadinsufficient technology skills and 14% had none at all (24).

Did You Also Know?

• The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) most recent survey of adult skills found that millenials in the US placed nearly last in digital literacy as compared to other developed nations (24).

Improving Digital Literacy continued...

• When digital literacy is incorporated in elementary education the individuals are more likely to be more digitally literate therefore more employable.

Example of Possible Solution

• “While not every graduate will pursue a career in computer science, at minimum, understanding how algorithms apply structured linear thinking to address a variety of problems will be a key workforce skill, even in non-technical fields” (25). Exposure is essential.