I’ve argued for a while that, whilst I agree with the idea of eportfolios as a way of demonstrating student learning, I have a few concerns about the way that some universities have implemented eportfolios. I have always believed that an eportfolio should ‘belong’ to the student user and should be independant of the university. Ideally it will be a space in the cloud that the student can use across many institutions as they continue their life long learning activities both academic and professional. » Read more: Goodbye to eportfolios for a fee?
Archive for the ‘Opinion’ category
Goodbye to eportfolios for a fee?
January 13th, 2010The Decade Ahead in Higher EdTech
January 3rd, 2010Well it’s the end of the decade and the new one has just started. I thought that, in the name of a harmless bit of fun, I would stick my neck out and make a few predictions about where we might be going with edtech in universities over the next decade. I’ve kept it brief because to explain each one in detail would make this post unbearably long and each subject probably deserves a more detailed post to fully explain my thinking. They also aren’t in any particular order. Let’s see if you agree or not. » Read more: The Decade Ahead in Higher EdTech
Direct from the Innovation Prevention Department
December 9th, 2009I was watching the Twitter stream for the ASCILITE 2009 conference this morning during the final keynote from @jamesclay with a certain amount of dismay as tweets regarding the ‘Innovation Prevention Department’ (IPD) started to appear. The reference was to IT Services organisations in tertiary education. Now I wasn’t at the conference so I don’t know the context of the IPD in James’s talk but I do feel the need to comment on this notion of innovation prevention by IT Departments [Edit: 10 December, 2009. Please see James's comments about context - in fact the notion of an IPD may be any organisational unit within a tertiary education institution]. Some of you may be aware that I am a senior IT Manager for one of Australia’s largest universities (70,000 headcount, 46,000 EFTSU). I normally only comment on general educational technology issues and not work related matters. I am going to make an exception this time.
I have worked with and for six universities in the UK and Australia over the last twenty years. The last eleven months have been my first in a central IT organisation. Previously I spent ten years as a lecturer and the rest of my time as a software developer/consultant/contractor/elearning manager. Prior to my current position it is fair to say that I have been reasonably critical of central IT organisations in tertiary education. It was a mutual dislike. A group that I once worked in was described as ‘rogue programmers’ by the university Director of IT. We, in turn, thought of them as being risk averse, conservative, slow and rigid.
» Read more: Direct from the Innovation Prevention Department
Delicate Geniuses
September 13th, 2009I was having a look at the Times Higher Education site the other day when a post entitled “Students get marks just for turning up” caught my eye. The post describes how some universities have been accused of bribing undergraduates by awarding assessment marks simply for turning up. » Read more: Delicate Geniuses
Re-arranging Deck Chairs
August 30th, 2009I spent most of last week in Coolongatta at the CAUDIT-Educause Institute 2009. For those unfamiliar with the terms, CAUDIT is the Council of Australian Universities Directors of Information Technology and Educause is the peak body promoting intelligent use of information technology in higher education. The Institute has run annually in Australia since 2002 and is based on a similar institute that runs twice a year in the US. It is ‘designed as a professional development program for those who manage some aspect of information technology and resources in higher education, whether within their department or for the entire institution‘. » Read more: Re-arranging Deck Chairs
New Players in Higher Education – Challenges for Universities
August 9th, 2009A few days ago I wrote a post about some the future challenges facing higher education over the next ten years. In that post I covered some of my initial thoughts about the challenges of open content and that I believed the key for universities will be in developing rigorous and consistent assessment in order to help maintain their reputations.
Related to both of these issues is the rise of new players in higher education in what will be an increasingly competitive business. I had planned to write something on this in the near future but I have been spurred into action by two links I came across this morning. The first was a link to a site that provides comparison services for online courses at universities and colleges in the US.
» Read more: New Players in Higher Education – Challenges for Universities
Some Ways Universities Will Change Over Ten Years
August 3rd, 2009As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I am currently working on a roadmap for educational technology in my university over the next ten years. Of course when looking over such a period it becomes crucial to try and anticipate the changing roles and functions of universities over that period so that we can think about the effect on educational technology.
Many commentators have speculated that the next ten years will be one of fundamental change for universities. Comparisons are made with the record industry ten years ago and the publishing industry at the moment – both faced with the hugely disruptive changes being bought about by new ways of learning and sharing on the internet.
I thought I would put my head above the parapet and share some of the thoughts I am having about the way universities might change and some of my initial conclusions. I say initial because my thoughts are changing all the time as I try and rationalise the very wide range of factors that may come into play over the next few years.
Many of the ideas have come from the The Tower and the Cloud, The Edgeless University (PDF), Stephen Downes work on forecasting the future for higher education and numerous blog posts, particularly from those listed in the sidebar.
I’ll do this in a series of posts because to write them all down at once is just too hard at the moment. Today I’ll start with two of the most important; open content and assessment.
» Read more: Some Ways Universities Will Change Over Ten Years
Academic Reputation in the Future
July 26th, 2009I have been reading Professor Martin Weller’s very interesting recent blog posts about academic reputation and online engagement. He raises interesting questions about the nature of scholarly activity, the factors that have traditionally lead to recognition and promotion and whether or not these are changing in an increasingly socially networked world.
» Read more: Academic Reputation in the Future





