Digital Learning Sustainable Development Opportunities risks and

Digital Learning & Sustainable Development: Opportunities, risks and challenges Prof. Albert Sangrà, Ph. D. Academic Director, UNESCO Chair in Education & Technology for Social Change Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC)

Content 1) Global World’s Challenges: going towards Digital Learning 2) Opportunities 3) Risks 4) Final remarks

Global World’s Challenges

“If your time to you Is worth savin’ Then your better start swimmin’ Or you’ll sink like a stone For the times they are a-changin’. ” Bob Dylan (2016 Nobel Prize in Literature)

Internet is changing the way economy, work, communication, and also education perform in the society Information and Knowledge Society (Castells, 2001)

UNESCO OECD Working Party on Measurement and Analysis of the Digital Economy SKILLS FOR A DIGITAL WORLD 2016 Higher Education in the World Report 6 Towards socially responsible HEI, globally and locally engaged A Skilled Workforce for Strong, Sustainable and Balanced Growth 2016

Rationales for the use of ICT in Teaching and Learning at Higher Education Institutions • Enhancing the quality of teaching and learning • Accommodating the learning style of millennials • Increasing access to learning opportunities and flexibility for students • Developping skills and competències needed in the 21 st. Century • Improving the cost-effectiveness of the system (Bates & Sangrà, 2011)

Learning is changing http: //www. slideshare. net/courosa/why-social-networks-matter

[They’re digital natives] http: //www. slashgear. com/babys-first-ipad-24121114/

Opportunities

• Students involved in online distance education: 5. 8 million (fall 2014) • 2. 85 million (taking all online) • 2. 97 million (taking some, but not all, courses at a distance) • Growth rate of students taking at least one distance course: 3. 9% (20132014) • Education level: • 72. 7% undergraduate • 38. 7% graduate • Students not taking any distance education courses: 390, 815 and dropping down Allen, E. & Seaman, J. (2016). Online Report Card. Tracking Online Education in the US

• E-Learning is the second more used method for training in companies (43, 5%) Training for Employment 2014 Key findings (Fundación Tripartita para el Empleo) • Traditional face-to-face training slows down in favour of e-learning Beyond Knowledge (Barómetro del Observatorio Cegos, 2014) • “The potential of e-learning to impact learning, society and economy in developing countries, and to produce a worforce capable of leading countries into globalized, knowlege-based economies is very relevant” Michigan State University (2011). An Analysis of e-learning Impacts & Best Practices in Developing Countries. The ICDT 4 D Program. • UOC students had positive relative earnings gains Carnoy, Jarillo, Castaño-Muñoz, Duart & Sancho-Vinuesa, (2012)

Efficient employability skills Adult education principles: • • Responsible learning Experiential learning Cooperative learning Reflective learning Cleary, Flynn & Thomasson (2006) Significant improvement through online education (Australian Flexible Learning Framework, 2009)

Skills students value they got through online education Research in progress PSU-UOC (Sangrà & Qayyum, 2016) 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. Critical thinking, analytical thinking Ability to analyze and synthesize, critical thinking, interpret relevant data Management skills: ability to manage teams Improve professionally in my job Competitiveness: Latest state of technologies. Help me grow on a personal or emotional level; Personal enrichment Help me learn and solve obstacles that present themselves professionally; personal ability to solve problems Autonomy and opening new work borders Knowledge development and its application to both personal and work life Discovery of new concerns Better time management Organizational skills Self-criticism Cultural knowledge Ability to work in teams 15

Students in online conditions performed modestly better, on average, than those learning the same material through traditional face-to-face instruction. Learning outcomes for students who engaged in online learning exceeded those of students receiving face-to-face instruction, with an average effect size of +0. 20 favoring online conditions Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta. Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies (2010). U. S. Department of Education. Washington, D. C.

• “Cyberlearners performed significantly better than traditional learners. Mean score (final exam) for the cyberlearners was 11. 3, while the mean score for traditional learners was 9. 8” Navarro & Shoemaker (1999) • “Online learning for teaching clinical skills is no less effective than traditional means. ” Mc. Cutcheon, Lohan, Traynor & Martin (2014) • “FTF and online students perceived equal degree of academic self-concept. Effect of social presence on learning and satisfaction were higher online than FTF. ” Zhan & Mei (2013) • “With proper support structures in place, students who are atrisk for dropping out can overcome challenges and find success in an online learning environment. ” Lewis, Whiteside, Garrett Dikkers (2014)

Main pillars for the future of learning • • • Flexibility (Burge, Campbell Gibson & Gibson, 2011) Personalization (Buchem, Attwell & Torres-Kompen (2011) Interaction (Garrison & Anderson, 2011) Collaboration (Dillenbourg, 1999; Guitert, 2014) Informalisation (Cross, 2010; Redecker, 2011)

18, 5% 7, 7% Formal, non formal and informal learning Lifelong and. . . Lifewide (The LIFE Center, 2007)

Learning Ecologies Barron (2004); Jackson (2013); Sangrà, González-Sanmamed & Guitert (2013)

My Lifelong Learning Ecology

FORMAL NON FORMAL INFORMAL Learning Ecologies Analysis Framework FACE-TO-FACE BLENDED ONLINE

Online education as good as or better than face-to-face instruction: 71. 4% in 2015 (57. 2% in 2003) Source: Babson College-OLC Online Report Card 2016 Graphic: http: //www. pearsoned. com/higher-education/online-report-card-2016/

Openness The power of networks and data

Risks

• Massification of access From economy • Disruptive business models • “Uberisation” of education

Quality Massification of access Technology Access Cost

Disruptive business models (Christensen, 2011)

“The economic value of high-quality teaching” ( Hanushek, E. (2010). The Economic Value of Higher Teacher Quality. Working Papers, 56. National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research. ) “To meet students’ needs, then, colleges need to either more explicitly build instructor presence and guidance into online courses. ” Smith Jaggars, S. (2014). Choosing between Online and Face-to-face Courses: Communty Colleges Students Voices. American Journal of Distance Education, 28(1), 27 -38.

Source: emilianoperezansaldi. com

Student data as the ‘new black”, as oil, as a resource to be mined Image credit: http: //fpif. org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/great-oil-swindle-peak-oil-world-energy-outlook. jpg

How much (more) student data do we need? ‘how much is enough data to solve my problem? ’ (Adryan, 2015) Image credit: https: //www. flickr. com/photos/uncleleo/1341913549 Idea: Paul Prinsloo (UNISA)

“Datafication” of education • A panacea for many corrent educational challenges and problems • A new way for governing and controlling education systems • Reproduction of inequalities and social relations • Intensification of managerialism within education • Dataveillance • The reductive nature of “what counts” as “education” (Selwyn, 2016)

Caught between correlation and causation Image credit: http: //www. tylervigen. com/spurious-correlations

- “My teacher told me I’ve improved my writing since I do my homework with a laser printer …” “Uberisation” of education

Technology should support, but not shape life. “Foodies are reactionaries” “Rinehart criticized people who eat regular food as being “reactionary. ” He thinks that his own industrialized food product is going to save the world, and that “new” and “different” are necessarily better. ” (http: //www. returnofkings. com, June 1, 2013) SOYLENT The need of humanistic competencies for technologists “… if we say that reality is one, we also know that it is complex and if we don’t collaborate between disciplines, from science and art, we will live a partial reality. ” (Aymerich, Ara, 7/6/15)

While Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools “are producing compelling advances in complex tasks, with dramatic improvements in energy consumption, audio processing, and leukaemia detection”, we are also faced with the reality that “AI systems are already making problematic judgements that are producing significant social, cultural, and economic impacts in people’s everyday lives. ” (Crawford & Whittaker, 2016, par. 1)

Quality The future of learning: Digital, distributed, data-driven – but … increasingly unequal Access, funding and rankings Technology Access Cost Justice, care and student support in a resourceconstrained world Source: Paul Prinsloo, University of South Africa

Image sources: https: //twitter. com/urbandata/status/695261718344290304 https: //za. pinterest. com/barbaralley/fair-is-not-equal/

Quality n Me th o itio gn do co log y Re Technology Cost Access Openness

Final remarks

• Increase of learning opportunities for as many people as possible based on quality criteria, sustainability and equity. • A new, more flexible and adaptable structure of HE education programs and courses has to be carried out. • Industries and Universities have to develop framework agreements for mutual benefit. • Online education has a potential that has to be unleashed through quality provision. • Brasil has to go a step further by being trusted in public or private, not for profit, quality online education provision to foster social and economic growth based on equity.

• Research has to deepen in the contribution of online education for getting a better skilled workforce (learning design, quality assurance, accreditation, online teacher training) • Relevant data on interactions (opportunities provided for a good learning experience) are needed. • Guarantee of well-trained and competent group of teachers in online education is a must. • Resources for learning have to become more and more available to the students • Basic and applied research, particularly in online education methods and the results achieved by the students (student performance)

Muito obrigado Thank you all asangra@uoc. edu http: //edulab. uoc. edu/ twitter: albert_sangra http: //unescochair. blogs. uoc. edu/blog/