There will be a slew of questions that higher education leaders and administrators need to answer in the upcoming months.
Ed Tech – Thirty Years In
Does your institution use education technology effectively? Or are you stuck in the past?
Higher (disconnect)ED
Loneliness leads to failure. Lonely students do not persist. Being alone makes a person far less likely to get good grades, stay in school, find a good job, and more. And just as we know that not every measure works for every person, success can be better predicted through non-cognitive measures than academic ones for many students.
What Is A Learning Ecosystem?
A crucial “systems thinking” component of a learning ecosystem is this: Integration trumps functionality. In other words, if 85% of your desired functionality can be achieved with a fully integrated tool, or 97% of your desired functionality can be achieved with no connection to other parts of the ecosystem, use the former and avoid the latter. (Of note, this is why the RFI / RFP process can be so detrimental to an organization’s longitudinal well-being from a systems perspective.)
What Is A Learning Ecosystem? (10 Minutes)
A learning ecosystem is an omni-channel, multi-modal system that includes all necessary support, resource, and context options by which people learn. In a formal context, such as a college or university, the learning ecosystem is typically a mix of people, technology, and other infrastructure, leading to certifications and/or degrees for students. But all of these stakeholders require balance. The key to an effective learning system is stasis. The term ecosystem becomes crucial in this context as it connotes interdependence. In any ecosystem, stasis is reached when interdependence of a (typically) complex system or network is balanced between organisms and their environment.
Accessing Technology
Think about a portal. In my opinion, this is one of the most under-utilized (and therefore under-valued) pieces of digital real estate at a University. And you can tell. The typical portal at a college is the equivalent of a trailer park for links, notifications, and assets. So what do users do? They bookmark the few links they actually find useful and access them directly. Of course that also means they never see the notifications, announcements, or new links over time.