The Re-invention of the Academy: How Technologically Mediated Learning Will – And Will Not – Transform Advanced Education

Abstract

Hybrid learning and online courses have attracted a great deal of interest and considerable post-secondary hype, with critics describing the new technologies as representing the death of traditional universities and supporters promoting them as the most significant innovation in hundreds of years. This paper argues that the likely impact on technologically mediated learning has been significant exaggerated, in large measure because of the over-promotion of post-secondary education in North America and the declining level of curiousity, educational motivation and work ethic necessary for the kind of independent work necessary for success with digital learning. The current models are unlikely to be the category-killers suggested by contemporary alarmists but the new technologies hold the potential to bring about revolutionary change over time.