Increasing digitisation of engineering and social practices has altered the relationship between formal schooling and development of expertise for professional engineering work. What does the development of expertise look like when knowledge is generated and shared at an accelerated pace due to shifts in technology? In this paper, I present case…

Will open education replace traditional higher education, or augment it? Digital innovation in the higher education sector is fuelling speculation about the transformation of higher education and the future role of universities. Much of the speculation makes questionable implicit assumptions about current and future business models in the higher…

The essay presents the incorporation process in the reconstruction of distance education in Italy. The paper tries to highlight the transition from modern to postmodern society, focusing both on this extraordinary change in the landscape of cultural and communication processes, and outcomes for the education system and educational and pedagogical…

Patterns of technology ownership and usage, as well as skills with and preferences for various technologies, affect the college experience (Educause 2012). Students at a commuter campus of a large Midwestern public university were surveyed about technology and the learning process: 94% of the respondents believed that technology had the potential…

The area of learning has a justifiable claim to be a special case in how it can be enhanced or supported by technology. In areas such as commerce and web design the aim is usually to ensure efficiency and support specific actions such as purchasing or accessing information as quickly and easily as possible. Working with technology for the purpose…

OpenCourseWare (OCW) and Open Educational Resources (OER) are two new and closely related educational technologies. Both provide open access to learning materials for students and instructors via the Internet. These are for the moment still very young technologies. While they have grown dramatically in just ten years there is still relatively…

In the context of education, "open(ness)" has become the watermark for a fast growing number of learning materials and associated platforms and practices from a variety of institutions and individuals. Open Educational Resources (OER), Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC), and more recently, initiatives such as Coursera are just some of…

The Internet has disrupted or threatened to disrupt the traditional business models in many different areas, including publishing, record companies, retail sales, motion pictures, and advertising. One potential source of disruption for higher education is online learning, especially the recent focus on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Can…

India and China are two fast growing economies of the world and need large skill based manpower to sustain the economic growth. The existing formal higher educational system in these countries will not be able to meet the demand of the economy. The paper will try (i) to compare the development of economy and distance education in India and China…

Just a few years ago, virtual worlds were credited with the power to transform the universe. Used since the late 1990s in military and medical applications, virtual worlds first gained mainstream media attention when Linden Lab released Second Life in 2003. While other worlds, including open source environments, have launched since then (examples…

Open Source Software (OSS) presents many benefits to both the private and the public sectors, and has proven to be a viable solution in schools. Although a policy mandating the use of OSS exists in the Western Cape province of South Africa, very few schools in the province have adopted OSS. The education system in South Africa is currently facing…

Four converging trends are undermining land-based campuses as the preeminent source of knowledge acquisition and certification. The emergence of the learning sciences, the wikification of knowledge, the unbundling of faculty roles, and the migration of learning online are driving fundamental institutional change toward location-independent…

Higher education in Africa has had diverse histories and trajectories, and has played different roles over time. This article is concerned with the evolution and future of higher education on the continent, and the role that open educational resources (OER) might play therein. It is generally accepted that "the university in Africa and higher…

The change brought about in the networked information environment is deep and structural, in a way that has the potential to empower cultures left out of the Industrial Revolution. Thus, the author stresses that it is fundamental for individuals to understand, from a developing nation's perspective, how the Internet changes the capacity of…

In this article, the author talks about the education technology journey and a future driven by disruptive change. The author first provides a definition of disruptive change. To understand the potential for disruptive change in higher education--a disruption fueled by technology and related trends--the author begins with a look at the past and…