Higher Ed is still playing catch-up – will it ever be on par?
In the article I link to below, Diana G Oblinger, the President of EDUCAUSE offers the Higher Ed community some insights such as this one: we’ve moved on from the Information Age and are now in the Connected Age. Such a statement will come as quite a shock for many Higher Education Institutions and policy makers in Governments around the world. In the article, Diana highlights the areas in which the educational setting is widely connected – learners, faculty, institutions and to that extent, I think the article is right on the money. But here’s the scary thing – if this is news to many in HigherEd (and alas it is for far TOO many) then not only are they playing catch-up, they’re already going to be missing the ALREADY EMERGING step that is BEYOND ‘Connected’
And that step is ‘Context’.
Being connected is becoming increasingly irrelevant. There’s reams of data available to almost anyone who wants it, extending (though not wholly) to almost every part of the globe. Data is said to be ‘everywhere’. We carry devices that can connect us ‘anywhere’ – we can access whomever and whatever pretty well 24 hours a day, 7 days a week consistently around the world.
Beyond Connected is Context. We are already seeing user groups ask about data and being connected in CONTEXT to their personal situations, to what they are witnessing, to what they are doing, to what they need THERE and THEN. The emerging skill set is around ‘what does this mean?’ and ‘how can this be useful?’ or ‘dangerous?’ or ‘important to share?’
If Higher Education Institutions focus on ‘Connected’ they’re already missing the point. That boat has sailed. What they need to do, ought to do, must do in my opinion, is shift focus to Context – ‘in what way can what we do be relevant and useful to the immediate contextual needs of the individual?’ That is the thinking behind MOOCs that started some five or so years ago with the likes of Stephen Downes – long before other well know institutions discovered them.
From Connected to Contextual. Can HgherEd make the leap? Here’s the EDUCAUSE Article on ‘Connected’
Every where we look we are being given clear signs of the blatant stupidity and arguably outright criminality of a toxic system of decision making. The Menindee Lakes and Darling River disaster is one example A couple of years ago I was invited to speak at a Private Equity conference at a lovely resort…
Read More >Every year I aim to identify what I think a major focus of the upcoming year will be and in that light I’m declaring 2019 the International Year of the Cooperative. I’m prompted by a multitude of signals that my daily research has uncovered, many of which will be familiar to you – Cost of…
Read More >Here we are with the last posting of the year looking at the potential for wide ranging strategy for a country like the United States. Arguably the United States is undergoing its own version of #Brexit though without the vote of the people. Instead the dictatorial nature of what I see as an incompetent strategic…
Read More >I’m reluctant to make predictions but am getting a few calls so: My tip is on a March 2019 election – the 9th or 16th But that will be an attempt to protect the existing NSW Government hoping that voters will have sufficiently vented. That said though, it also required a Federal Minoroty Government to…
Read More >The Asian Productivity Organisation has shifted gears from being a centre for member countries to talk about productivity, to one that now wants to upskills its member countries. We’ve just completed the first chunk of helping National Productivity secretariats to ready their staff for a more proactive, future facing approach to their Country’s development …
Read More >The question is, ‘how does the thinking inside this document stack up?’ Turns out, pretty good. What we spotted and what problems we said we’d have to watch out for, are just about spot on When it was discovered that the then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was going to hold the Australia 2020 Summit,…
Read More >it’s OK not to know your career path when you leave university – sometimes that won’t emerge until much later down the track,” Barber says. “We should remind kids that the pathway they select to start off with is unlikely to be their final pathway, Was interviewed by #TheodoraSutcliffe who wrote this article for…
Read More >At a recent session with the Gen Y group working on the ‘Future Melbourne’ project for the City of Melbourne I suggested that the group consider what the result might be if they could ‘invert’ the way the State of Victoria operates. What would you be likely to see if more of the functions of…
Read More >McKinsey’s interview with Richard Thaler on ‘debiasing the corporation’ is a really good one. I’ve spent the best part of two decades trying to help organisations unpack their biases through the use of foresight. I recommend this article to you Nobel Laureate Richard Thaler offers some great insights as to how to make more…
Read More >As the Ipswich Council has determined that recycling schemes are too expensive and indicates it will end collections, the question is ‘what happens next’? If result of the explosion in Tip fees by Councils around Australia is anything to go by, what happens next will not be good China recently decided to end acting…
Read More >