CHAPTER TWO
Expanding Role of Technology The process of teaching and learning is a highly nuanced form of communication between teacher and student. Today, new communication technologies frame the social and intellectual context of the modern world and have also had a significant effect on higher education. Over the decades, new technologies have risen and fallen in their influence within education generally and often within a single student’s own learning experience. The most appropriate technology is not necessarily the one of current fashion, but the fundamentally different character of modern communication technology allows students to actively draw upon a virtually infinite number of customized sources for their own edification. This capacity must be recognized by universities if they are to remain congruent with the other aspects of a student’s life experience and provide meaningful educational opportunities.
and Universities, framed the technology challenge in September 2009 at University Fall Conference at PLU. The challenge, he said, “is to incorporate technology into every student’s learning experience in a manner that serves the high and noble purposes of a PLU education.” Therefore, in the decade ahead, the university must be committed to staying well-informed of changing technologies and their applications to higher education, and we should utilize those innovations that advance academic excellence and student learning and support a high quality education.
Evolving Educational Experiences and Expectations
One indication of the scale of the impact of technology on higher education was reported in a 2010 research study by the Alfred P. Sloan consortium. The study found that 63 percent of institutions in the United States regard online learning as critical to their long-range educational strategy. The same study reported that 5.6 million college students were taking at least one online course in the fall of 2009, an increase of 21 percent over the previous year. An ever-growing number of entering college students have experienced either online learning or other “teaching and learning with technology” strategies.
Today, K-12 education is facing a severe and substantial funding crisis across the nation while simultaneously facing increasing pressure to demonstrate achievement based on cognitively oriented examinations. Both of these realities are adversely affecting the preparation of the incoming generation of college students and their readiness for an intensive, highly engaged academic experience. At the same time, economic pressures are understandably encouraging both students and their families to focus on job and career-oriented academic programs. These changes in both educational experience and emphasis on outcomes will have a significant influence on college students during the coming decade. They present both an opportunity and a challenge for a university committed to engaged learning, and vocational and career discernment.
David Warren, president of the National Association of Independent Colleges
Another changing expectation relates to the master’s degree and the growing number of
26