Consolidating Understanding: How to Transform Higher Education through Technology Enhanced Learning

Abstract

Critical success factors and lessons learnt from our mistakes are two sides of the same coin. Evidence which contributes to debates in this area can emerge from a number of different sources. The current era of using the Web and the Internet to enhance learning builds on significant advances which were made from the mid-1990's. Over the last decade and a half numerous projects and programs worldwide have attempted to harness the power of computers and communications technologies to enhance learning. The literature on technology enhanced learning contains much on individual innovations which have been engineered to address specific educational issues. But individual institutions are also consolidating learning through activities such as benchmarking of e-learning. The evidence can therefore be drawn from two rather different perspectives, the individual technologically inspired view, and the more holistic, strategic, institutional view. Most conferences and workshops report on success stories only. But reality consists of successes, failures, and many points in between. Perhaps the most interesting is the knowledge which has accumulated which enables project managers to identify potential failures at an early stage and apply remedial measures. This type of knowledge is extremely valuable. Millions are being invested to innovate education, and to build European-wide strength and cohesion in the area of technology enhanced learning. As a community which sees its future strength in knowledge, harnessing technology effectively to facilitate high quality post-secondary education is especially important. For this reason, it would be especially helpful to develop a Pan European perspective which is able to differentiate between factors which are specific to particular approaches to education, and those understandings which have a more global value. A useful discussion was begun at previous conferences, but there are many more contributions which could be made. What hard-learned lessons aren't we hearing about? What are the challenges that even successful projects have faced? What about the projects that don't' work out as planned?

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ORCID for Su White: orcid.org/0000-0001-9588-5275

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