The Emerging Learning Society

The Emerging Learning Society Patrick Blessinger, Habiba Chaoui, Hari Kamali, and Inge Rozendal The advent of the Digital Revolution (also known as the Third Industrial Revolution – circa 1960 CE to 2000 CE) ushered in the Information Age. This period was characterized by the ubiquitous use of information and communication technologies, especially digital technologies such as computers, robotics, and the internet. During this period, relatively simple data-based systems (to process raw facts) gradually developed into more sophisticated information-based systems (to support human decision-making) and eventually developed into more complex knowledge-based systems (to generate new knowledge). At each level of processing (data to information to knowledge), more meaning, context, and value are being added to the sense-making process. These systems are, if effective, extensions of human intelligence. Since there are inherent limitations and constraints on what the brain and nervous system can do, humans use their intelligence to design and [...]

Rethinking Higher Education for the Future 

Rethinking Higher Education for the Future  Patrick Blessinger Over the past several decades, the democratization of knowledge has spread rapidly around the world as a result of political, economic, social, technological, and environmental forces. These forces have helped global higher education experience unprecedented growth in student enrollment and institutional diversification. Global higher education enrollment is expected to reach nearly 600 million by 2040. In the future, certain countries in Africa and Asia are expected to experience the largest increases in participation rates. What was once an elite higher education system just a few generations ago has quickly emerged into a massified higher education system. Today, in some parts of the world, higher education has even reached universal access. Not only are there now many types of degree-producing formal learning options available to people but there are also many types of open education and non-formal learning options such as OpenCourseWare and Khan [...]

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