Uploaded January 2019 | Updated September 2026, 51 minutes ago
Future impact of digital innovation and IT on Higher Education, Classroom teaching, Business Schools, Universities and Colleges. How to improve student learning experience, reduce course drop outs, encourage student retention, accelerate learning. Despite 20 years of digital hype in education, the shocking truth is that classroom experience for most College students has changed relatively little, compared to - say - the explosive growth of smartphone use, social media, e-commerce and video streaming for entertainment. So what of the future? Patrick Dixon, Futurist keynote speaker on education trends.
Most teaching is still face to face, by lecturers, in lecture theatres or classrooms, using mainly slides, backed up by flipcharts / whiteboards. Even more shocking is that we have still not fixed some of the biggest problems we had 20 years ago in lecture halls and classrooms, as we will see below.
Growing complaints by Millennials: "poor value and experience"
Sadly surprising then, that a staggering 60% of 18-34 years olds across America no longer think that 4 year courses are worth the money. US Higher Education institutions have seen 6 straight years of falling enrolment.
Students often complain about lack of access to lecturers outside the classroom, poor quality learning experiences, and low numbers of teaching sessions per term, considering huge fees they have to pay. And as we will see, they also often complain that the digital world is often getting in the way of their learning.
How to create "magic" at almost zero cost to IT budgets
So what of the next 20 years?
The key is understanding how to create real "magic" for students, rather than just delivering yet another digital learning platform, or IT solution or administrative tool. Yes many of these can be very useful, but there are more pressing issues.
The really great news is that the greatest educational IT "magic" can be delivered at almost zero cost, at astonishing speed, compared to most College IT projects, if the whole Faculty and administrative staff seize the opportunity and work together with a common purpose, focussed on the students themselves.
The future of education is of course about ideas, intellect, innovation, inspiration - but it is also about getting the basics right. You can have the smartest Campus in the world, with multiple interactive learning tools, virtual classrooms, collaborative platforms, AI-enhanced automated coaching, and so on, yet miss the greatest lessons of all.
Vitally important too, to cater for the different needs / culture / expectations of the rapidly growing proportion of older students: 30-60 year olds who may be working full time or part time or taking a career break. We need an entirely new mindset in designing digital learning experiences for this constituency, who are usually highly motivated, very focussed and very intolerant of wasted time or cost.
Future impact of digital innovation and IT on Higher Education, Classroom teaching, Business Schools, Universities and Colleges. How to improve student learning experience, reduce course drop outs, encourage student retention, accelerate learning. Despite 20 years of digital hype in education, the shocking truth is that classroom experience for most College students has changed relatively little, compared to - say - the explosive growth of smartphone use, social media, e-commerce and video streaming for entertainment. So what of the future? Patrick Dixon, Futurist keynote speaker on education trends.
Most teaching is still face to face, by lecturers, in lecture theatres or classrooms, using mainly slides, backed up by flipcharts / whiteboards. Even more shocking is that we have still not fixed some of the biggest problems we had 20 years ago in lecture halls and classrooms, as we will see below.
Growing complaints by Millennials: "poor value and experience"
Sadly surprising then, that a staggering 60% of 18-34 years olds across America no longer think that 4 year courses are worth the money. US Higher Education institutions have seen 6 straight years of falling enrolment.
Students often complain about lack of access to lecturers outside the classroom, poor quality learning experiences, and low numbers of teaching sessions per term, considering huge fees they have to pay. And as we will see, they also often complain that the digital world is often getting in the way of their learning.
How to create "magic" at almost zero cost to IT budgets
So what of the next 20 years?
The key is understanding how to create real "magic" for students, rather than just delivering yet another digital learning platform, or IT solution or administrative tool. Yes many of these can be very useful, but there are more pressing issues.
The really great news is that the greatest educational IT "magic" can be delivered at almost zero cost, at astonishing speed, compared to most College IT projects, if the whole Faculty and administrative staff seize the opportunity and work together with a common purpose, focussed on the students themselves.
The future of education is of course about ideas, intellect, innovation, inspiration - but it is also about getting the basics right. You can have the smartest Campus in the world, with multiple interactive learning tools, virtual classrooms, collaborative platforms, AI-enhanced automated coaching, and so on, yet miss the greatest lessons of all.
Vitally important too, to cater for the different needs / culture / expectations of the rapidly growing proportion of older students: 30-60 year olds who may be working full time or part time or taking a career break. We need an entirely new mindset in designing digital learning experiences for this constituency, who are usually highly motivated, very focussed and very intolerant of wasted time or cost.
