What do you see as the key challenge(s) related to teaching, learning, or creative expression that colleges and universities will face during the next 5 years?


  • Information Literacy – Do students have the cognitive basis to know good information when they find it? Info Literacy has three components: technical, cognitive, and ethical – the last one, ethical, is especially challenging in a remix culture where attribution is less valued than in the past. Information literacy is much more than using a Browser. It encompases things others call multimedia literacy, visual literacy, etc. Although information literacy has been a topic in the library community it hasn't caught on in other segments yet. (Diana Oblinger) How will librarians practically keep up with the digital? (Bryan Alexander) For that matter, what does it mean to be a "librarian"? And "literacy" implies a one way consumption of content, where digital literact is both consuming and producing informatio (Alan Levine)
  • Digital Divide – while not a new trend, still very important socially. Its not just a question of whether you hav a computer, but also access to current software, broadband, technical support, etc. (Diana Oblinger)
  • Support – All of us are becoming less expert. Are we growing that cadre of people that we will need to support the great ideas coming our way? We can't expect to transform education if faculty need to learn instructional design, software applications, etc. And, can these support personnel take the kind of leadership that is necessary to help pull us out of our established ways?(Diana Oblinger)
  • Security – Viruses, worms, phisfers, spam etc. will continue to proliferate. This and the means taken to combat them will have a chilling or countervailing effect on openness, which is critical to discovery and the formulation of new knowledge. Not only do these work antagonistically, the need to address security consumes support resources that could be directed to teaching, learning, and research. (Malcolm Brown)
  • Science and Technology Leadership – we are not graduating or attracting the numbers of people we need in the sciences, and are falling further behind all the time. We need a "Sputnik" episode to wake us up. (Diana Oblinger)
  • IP issues - we're returning to the medieval theme of cloisters, by walling off campus digital environments. At the same time, global projects and functions increase in ease of use, scope, and importance (Web 2.0, GoogleEarth, etc. etc.) How to respond to this enormous division? (Bryan Alexander) An interesting data point in this regard will be provided by the success/failure of the New York Times' new model: will putting their op-ed columnists behind the wall of "Times Select" bring in more revenue, or will it simply reduce their relevance to the world at large? (Ruben Puentedura)
  • Student/Teacher Gaps In Tech Use it may grow wider and create more discomfort and dis-satisfaction (Alan Levine); particularly as faculty continue to apply technology to the old way of doing things while students apply commonplace technology in completely disruptive old patterns of work, communication, learning, etc. (Ruth Sabean)
  • Technology Churn Can we live with technologies that recycle, grow, change on a monthly, daily basis, rather than yearly basis? Can we accept not being masters of technology? (Alan Levine) As these technologies change, the cost, support, renewal & replacement costs grow, how do we balance those and compete with the growing cost of supporting aging physical campuses, and aging enterprise systems (Joeann Humbert)
  • Balancing Technology and Teaching Not just using technology, but using it in effective ways that enhance the classroom experience without derailing or overwhelming it. (Rachel Smith) Providing faculty with on-demand technology training and support (Joeann Humbert) or getting more people into a DIY frame of mind (e.g. not dependent on cookbook training. (Alan Levine)
  • Assessment Although we may get excited about the opportunities technology presents, does it really make a difference in learning, student retention, etc.? (Diana Oblinger) This is a big one; there's a huge amount of sorting out that needs to happen in this regard. (Malcolm Brown) Not all tenured faculty are convinced that technology makes a difference in teaching effectiveness and resist the pressure to integrate new technologies into teaching. (Joeann Humbert) Playing off that last point: many faculty fail to see that there might be problems with the way they teach (even when they exist), or that there is plenty of room for improvement in modes of teaching traditionally viewed as successful. So, the assessment issue has to couple the technological angle - does the technology really help - with making faculty aware of the unaddressed issues that exist in current practices. (Ruben Puentedura)
  • Curriculum design & course evaluation is what we are teaching relevant to what professionals do? Are student satisfied with their course of study? What matters? (vincent doogan)
  • Scalability We have seen lots of innovations in higher education, but many of them are still one-of-a-kind efforts. What can we do to scale our innovations? How do we implement what we already know? (Diana Oblinger)
  • Funding - Convincing those who control the academic purse strings that adequate funding is not only imperative, but must be ongoing (especially those who do not yet appreciate the relationship of technology to improved, efficient & effective teaching & learning). (Sue Bauer)
  • FUD - Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt will always be with humans facing change. (Alan Levine)
  • True cross-institutional collaboration - we are rapidly approaching if not arrived at the point where every institution can afford to provide all the experiences, resources, content, and tools that students attending a particular institution need entirely on their own. Real sharing of infrastructure, technology resources, and content in ways that leverage the shared resource and substantively use it in critical courses offered by the institution remains to be done. (Phil Long)
  • Peer review - The traditional system of pre-publication peer review is creaking to a halt; moreover it does not scale up to the rapidly evolving content that will populate the "courses" and "journals" in the future. New systems are needed that identify and direct users to high quality content and that support current and emerging review, promotion, and tenure proceses. (Richard Baraniuk)
  • Digital Asset Managment and all the issues associated with it (Black rhino metaphor) (Malcolm Brown)
  • Academic process there is currently not a single part of the academic process that substantively encourages faculty by rewarding them professionally for experimenting with technology, shifting their teaching, building on each others works, collaborating on new ways to frame learning, publishing their content, etc. This is the primary barrier to significant change regardless of the new technologies we apply.(Ruth Sabean)



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