Is Contemporary University ion Ruins or is the Renaissance of Higher Education under Way

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Is Contemporary University ion Ruins or is the
Renaissance of Higher Education under Way?

• Tapio Varis
• Professor and Chair
• University of Tampere, Finland
• EUPRIO 2001

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M.I.T. OpenCourseWare

• 10-year initiative started 2001
• public web sites (2000 courses with lecture
  notes, problem sets, syllabuses, exams,
  simulations, even video lectures)
• professorsparticipation voluntary
• University commitment 100 million

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Communication and Media Competence

• Between different disciplines (interdisciplinarity
  , transdisciplinarity)
• Between different socio-political institutions
• Between generations and people using different
  technologies

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The Rise and Fall of the Humboldt University

• Enlightment, human reasoning (Kant)
• Culture and civilization (Humboldt, 19th century)
• Centres of Excellence (techno-bureucracy of the
  20th - 21st century)

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Market university

• Priority with departments that make money, study
  money and attract money
• Academic superstarts and pariah class departments
• Corporate universities

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What is the problem?

• eWorld
• telepresence
• mobility (learner teacher, learning
  environment)

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Public Private Partnership (PPP)

• Skills crisis from 1750 throughout the 19th
  century
• Industrial developments required much wider basic
  literacy and mathematical skills
• Railway communications required to develop a new
  understanding of time and the behavious of
  mechanical machines

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Educational inventions

• The phonetic alphabet
• Printing
• Telematics (computers connected to networks)

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eLearning Business in Finland

• 6-7 million euros (MECU)
• eTampere (120 MECU 2001-2005)
• Multilingual/multicultural competence
• Schoolmaterial remains largely within national
  borders
• University materials increasingly transnational

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eLearning Summit - Access and
connectivity - Transforming the Current Learning
Model - Content Development - Digital
Literacy - ICT Skills Gap
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European vision
DEVELOPING THE EUROPEAN LEARNING INFRASTRUCTURE
Interoperable Tools, Services andContent
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Example European Centre for the Development of
Vocational Training

• www.trainingvillage.gr

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Example European schoolnet

• http//eschola.eun.org

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Virtual universities virtual polytechnics

• www.virtuaaliyliopisto.fi
• http//www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/
• www.sustain.odl.org
• Circumpolar Universities

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• Digital Literacy is "the ability to understand
  and use information in multiple formats from a
  wide range of sources when it is presented via
  computers." Paul Gilster Digital Literacy, Paul
  Gilster, Wiley and Computer Publishing, 1997

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eLearning Competencies

• What knowledge and skills will enable people to
  do human resource development work?
• General competencies

• Management competencies
• Distribution method competencies
• Presentation method competencies

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Digital literacy is key to

• Learning to learn
• Learning to work
• Facilitating job opportunities
• Providing each citizen with skills and knowledge
  to live and work
• Providing the confident use of new tools for
  assessing and using knowledge

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Basic questions

• Whose responsibility (society, learner?)
• Temporary telework, virtual family?
• Educational goals?

• Critical thinking skill
• Social competence
• Multicultural world
• Basic values

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The role of diplomas

• Skills value more than formal diplomas in the
  rapidly changing world
• When graduating many of the learned skills
  already obsolete
• The problem cannot be solved by fast courses of
  internet, nor by demands to return to the past

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Critical thinking and social competence

• Alvin Toffler (2000) need for critical thinking
  to what people see in television or read in
  newspapers to question the so called truths
• Social geography (social competence)

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Multidimensional Media Literacy(James Potter)

• Continuum
• Needs to be developed
• Multidimensional cognitive, emotional,
  aesthetic, moral
• Purpose more control over interpretations
• Effects influence

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MAIN OBJECTIVES OF HIGHER EDUCATION

• The generation of new knowledge (the research
  function)
• The training of highly qualified personnel (the
  education function)
• The supply of services to society
• The ethical function, implying social criticism

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Summary

• Towards multidimensional media competence
• New renessaince
• Globalism, multiculturalism and technology will
  lead to the search of the basic human values and
  goals of education