展望数字化未来：认识新学习平台重温技术的争论

Beyond the digital horizon: new learning platforms, old technology debates

本文着眼事关高等教育未来的问题,跨越数字化现状,展望数字化未来。文章基于爱尔兰共和国的现行经验,讨论中国和欧洲在慕课时代所面临的一些问题。文章主张应该考虑人类所面临的一些更为宏观的全球性挑战和社会挑战,在这个背景下着眼长远,思考未来高等教育新模式。本文正是建立在这种大局观的基础上。具体说来,文章第二节提出希望我们的高等教育系统和新学习平台服务什么样的社会和社区这个问题,接着讨论新技术所促成的各种新学习地点和空间的潜能,尤其是在模糊各种传统教育界限这个方面。贯穿于这个讨论的中心是:技术是被应用于变革性实践中已达成不同目的还是仅对传统教与学方法"锦上添花"——这是决策者、机构领导者和教师所必须面对的挑战。文章最后重温教育技术史上的一些典型争论,认为我们需要更加复杂的生态学理论和视角才能更好地理解我们究竟希望拥有什么样的未来以及慕课这场最新运动的影响。

This paper looks beyond the current digital horizon by asking a number of questions about the future of higher education. It draws on the current experience in the Republic of Ireland to discuss some of the questions facing both China and Europe in the age of the Massive Open Online Course(MOOC).A case is made for longer-term thinking about the future of new models of higher education in the backdrop of some of the wider global and societal challenges facing humanity. This bigger picture perspective frames the paper. More specifically the second section asks what type of societies and communities we want our higher education systems and new learning platforms to serve. The potential of new places and spaces for learning made possible through new technologies is then discussed, especially in terms of blurring traditional educational boundaries. Throughout this discussion the challenge for policy-makers, institutional leaders and teachers is whether technology will be adopted in accordance with transformative practices for very different outcomes or merely added onto traditional ways of teaching and learning. Finally, the paper revisits some of the debates that characterize the history of educational technology and argues we need more complex ecological theories and perspectives to better understand our preferred futures and the impact of the latest MOOC movement.