by Derek Morrison, 12 May 2009
The Committee’s final report plus associated resources was published today.
It is a sensibly cogent report. For me, para 98 summarises things very nicely (my emphasis).
“… This does not necessarily mean wholesale incorporation of ICT into teaching and learning. To assume that would be to mistake the issue. This, in our view, is adapting to, and capitalising on, evolving and intensifying behaviours that are being shaped by the experience of the newest technologies. In practice, it means going with the flow and building on and steering the positive aspects of those behaviours such as experimentation, collaboration and teamworking while addressing the negatives such as a casual and insufficiently critical attitude to information.The means to these ends should be the best tools for the job whatever they may be. The role of HEIs is to enable informed choice in the matter of those tools, and to support them and their effective deployment.”
There is an underlying message that there needs to be more work on raising the digital literacy of the “digital natives”. In my view this needs to be handled by extending our enhancing and adapting our concepts and implementations/processes of scholarliness rather than embarking on a rush to implement a series of digital literacy “events”.
I suggest the CLEX report should be read in association with:
- Paul Ramsden’s November 2008 paper The Future of Higher Education Teaching and the Student Experience
- Sir Ron Cooke’s October 2008 Online Innovation in Higher Education (there is also an executive summary)
- HEFCE’s March 2009 Enhancing Learning and Teaching Through the Use of Technology or, and, …
- HEFCW’s April 2008 Enhancing Learning and Teaching Through Technology: a Strategy for Higher Education in Wales.
