72 | OPINION | EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY
“Providing students with the ability to learn in different ways continues to be a priority for us all”
The new world order
Universities are having to embrace a culture where there is an expectation that content can be retrieved instantaneously from any device. Adapting to change is key to inspiring and engaging a new generation of students, says Dr Rupert Ward
poorly lit lecture theatre and the podium from which the professor would impart their knowledge of a particular subject. Note-taking consisted of frantic atempts at shorthand. Research for papers involved umpteen trips to the library in a bid to be the first on the reserve queue for titles on a lecturer’s reading list. I think we can all agree that times have changed. Today, we live in a world where technology dominates every aspect
W
hen many of us of a certain age think back to our time at university, we will often recall a
of our lives. Our smartphone, tablet and laptop enable us to access information on any subject from the location of our choice. Universities, including Huddersfield,
have had to adapt and change. Staff can no longer reel off the same lecture year after year. We need to provide students with content that cannot be found on the World Wide Web. Continuing to inspire and engage students is a challenge for us all.
Please bring your own device We have to consider that today’s generation of students have grown up immersed in technology. IT is developing at a rapid pace, while
pedagogy has yet to fully adapt to the digital age. As social media plays an important part in the daily lives of today’s students, they have come to expect instantaneous responses to their questions and immediate access to the information they need. Clearly this poses a series of challenges
for the higher education sector. We need to balance the needs of our students against not only financial constraints, but also our professional judgement as academics. Those institutions that do not embrace
technology are less likely to succeed in meeting the expectations of students and sustaining their engagement in higher education. So, the modern campus has to facilitate the rise of the anytime, anywhere approach to information. The University of Huddersfield was one of the first institutions in the UK to provide Wi-Fi across its campus. Providing students with the ability to learn in different ways continues to be a priority for us all.
“Today, unsupervised learning is far more commonplace with students encouraged to find information from a myriad of sources”
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92