ICTs in Education

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This must have been the mid to late 2000s. I had begun my second Masters. It wasn't described as an "online" learning format. If I remember correctly, I negotiated with the university in the UK to allow me to do the three-year course remotely (I was living in Japan at the time and the options for distance learning Technical Communication were very limited). They accepted, on the provisos that I met all the standard deadlines, contributed regularly to the Blackboard discussions, kept up with the reading, and paid for the printed material to be sent to me by courier. (They also wanted three printed and bound copies of the dissertation couriering to them, which cost me a small fortune!) I think I might have paid more than a regular student, too, but I forget. Anyway, while doing this, I began to have thoughts about integrating translation and/or language enhancement functionality into Blackboard, the online learning platform (very similar to Moodle). What follows is a formal articulation of my ideas. Needless to say, I never realised any of these myself, but much of this functionality has become available - if not successfully integrated into e-learning platforms.

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The research I undertook for the thesis of my fourth MA revealed that blockchain is already disrupting many industries and financial processes. Its impact on/disruption of HE is assured. In 2018, it was only the nature, speed, and degree of that impact/disruption that was unclear. This research stratified the discourse into six highly related subtopics that reveal the interests and predictions of educational and technological experts regarding the nature and degree of blockchain’s disruption of HE.

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In 2018, blockchain was already intensively active in securing data and facilitating transactions in logistics and transport, energy production, manufacturing, and trading. When combined with the Internet of Things (“IoT”), blockchain applications multiply further. The adoption by established HE institutions of smart technologies has been slower.

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Smart contracts enable/enforce bilateral accountability. Payments could be withheld conditionally, released pending satisfaction, and matched in high resolution to service usage. Smart contracts ensure punctuality of payments but also force service providers to accept payment-according-to usage. For HE, such flexibility represents pedagogic challenges. Learner commitment cannot be assumed. Wherever possible, teaching would have to be packaged into stand-alone compartments, to allow students to attend according to their requirements.

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It is unlikely that HE can continue without adopting technologies that are normal in every other sphere of information usage. Only a few aspects of the traditional HE offering are inimitable by online education. These few represent a potentially valuable differentiation and could be collectively described as the university experience.

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In proposed blockchain-based systems, students have a single point of access for all their certificates and learning histories; HE institutions can rely on the blockchain for up-to-date access to all the information they require about a learner. This means HE institutions would be able to configure learning around a detailed learner profile, boosting the relevance of teaching options to optimise the learning experience. 

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Castañeda and Selwyn (2018) contend that any discussion of pedagogy requires consideration of all aspects of education, including technology. Most learning theories are of pre-digital heritage. Technology-based learning needs to be fully understood, and the conceptualisation of the design and deployment of technologies in HE must be subject to sustained theorising. Proponents of technological learning must acknowledge the affective aspects of HE; and, similarly, the “hyper-rationalisation” of digital methods and technologies of education must be avoided. The impact of any educational technology must be gauged through its relevance to identity, responsibility, social relations, and accountability, since these are critical to the HE environment and experience. On the matter of engagement, the question of whether digital technologies are disconnecting and alienating (“hyper- individualising”) learners must be asked.

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