Conversations on Education with Gary Poole and Michael McManus

Abstract

It is, perhaps, understating it to say that today’s tertiary education landscape has changed. If you talk to professors on most campuses, they are likely to bemoan the fact that students seem to be more demanding in the way they approach their educational experience. If you speak to students, they are equally likely to say that they expect to get ‘more’ out of their university experience. Employers and alumni, on the other hand, are increasingly providing feedback to universities about the kind of graduates they wish to see in the workplace. Furthermore, if you venture into cyberspace, there seems to be ever more online debates about all kinds of issues relating to education. With the ‘buzz’ generated in the past year alone by Coursera and EdX, the question of the place of technology in our classrooms has assumed a sense of real urgency. Given the increased level of conversation about education, technology and 21st century critical literacies, many of us working in institutions of higher learning (IHL) now find ourselves constantly confronted with questions like:

• What critical abilities do our students need that will equip them for the 21st century global economy?
• What kind of education experience can we offer our students that will provide relevant skills for the workplaces of tomorrow?
• What is the place of technology in tertiary institutions?
• How can education be transformative?

(Abstract taken from first paragraph of document)