The Next “Education Revolution”?The Engaged Campus in the Disrupted University

Keynote Presentation

Engagement Australia’s 12th International

Conference of Engaged Scholars & Practitioners

July 21, 2015

Dan ButinProfessor and Founding Dean, School of Education & Social Policy, Merrimack College, USA

Executive Director, Center for Engaged Democracydan.butin@merrimack.edu

@danbutinpresentation available at: https://merrimack.academia.edu/DanButin

This is the Next Education Revolution:Teaching is Easy…Learning is Hard

Define what we are good at Hybridization & Revitalization

transmission transformation

Form? Function?

Relevance?

Theories of innovation

Drivers of change

The Engaged University

Technology is forcing the fundamental rethinking of teaching

& learning in the university

Theo

rist

s

Christensen (2011): The Innovative University

Kuhn (1970): The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Rogers (1962): Diffusion of Innovations

Satir (1991): The Satir Model

Multiple theoretical frameworks

This time it’s different…

• Market Pressures & Segmentation

• Technological Drivers

• Demographic Changes

• Fiscal Disinvestment

• “democratization” of knowledge

Disruption Pressures – External

• Transmission Model

• “Unbundling” of faculty work; Adjunct-driven

• Splintering of pathways

•Retention-Poor & Remediation-Prone•Loss of Vision/Mission

Disruption Pressures – Internal

Technological Drivers

LEARNING ANALYTICS (“BIG DATA”)

ADAPTIVE TESTING (“STEALTH ASSESSMENTS”)

INTELLIGENT TUTORING SYSTEMS

NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING

CURRICULAR MODULARIZATION

Implications for the “disrupted university”

BREAKING THE “IRON TRIANGLE”:

COST, ACCESS, AND QUALITY

OVERCOMING BAUMOL’S COST DISEASE

This time is different…because technology is different…The “Iron Triangle” of Higher Education Baumol’s “Cost Disease”

This time is different…because technology is different…in mapping “knowledge domains”

1. Known constraints (no “degrees of freedom”)

2. Obvious predictable repeatable (“best practices”)

1. Knowable & unknowable constraints (n “degrees of freedom”)

2. CALCULATION + judgment (emergent practices)

1. Knowable constraints (some “degrees of freedom”)

2. JUDGEMENT + calculation (good practices)

1. Lacking or unknowable constraints2. Unpredictable (novel practices)

“Cynefin Framework”

This time is different…because technology is different…in “unbundling” faculty work

1. Known constraints (no “degrees of freedom”)

2. Obvious predictable repeatable (“best practices”)

1. Knowable & unknowable constraints (n “degrees of freedom”)

2. CALCULATION + judgment (emergent practices)

1. Knowable constraints (some “degrees of freedom”)

2. JUDGEMENT + calculation (good practices)

1. Lacking or unknowable constraints2. Unpredictable (novel practices)

“Cynefin Framework”

A Pivotal Moment

Transfer of information.....Apprenticeship into Wikipedia…..

.....Transformation of knowledge…..Apprenticeship into democracy

The key insight…Transfer of Information

• Surface

• Single-loop

• Novice

• Learning I

Transformation of Knowledge

• Deep

• Double-loop

• Expert

• Learning II

PASSIVE

Minimal instructor

substantial digital

ACTIVE

Some instructor

Some digital

CONSTRUCTIVE

More instructor

Less digital

INTERACTIVE

substantial instructor

minimal digital

declarative procedural contextual

Perry dualism multiplicity relativism commitment

Belenky received subjective procedural constructed

Baxter-Magiolda absolute transitional independent contextual

Chi active constructive interactive

Rethinking the role of the faculty and engagement: From the “Flipped Classroom” to the “Flipped

University”

Knowledge-centered

Student-centered

Project-centered

The Engaged UniversityTYPE OF

CLASSROOMGOALS

ROLE OF

INSTRUCTOR

TYPE OF

LEARNINGIMPLICATIONS

Knowledge

-centeredTraditional

Checklist;

EfficientExpert

Passive;

surface

Knowledge

transfer

Student-

centered

Flipped

classroom

Student

engagement

Curator and

guideActive

Faculty

professional

development

Project-

centered

Linking

Theory and

Practice

Impact;

Effective

Researcher;

“community as

text”

AuthenticKnowledge

exchange; 4 Rs

A Vision for the “Flipped University”

Knowledge Transfer

• Answers

• Diffuse

• Neutral

• Short-term

• Efficient

Knowledge Exchange

• Questions

• Focused

• “Who Benefits?”

• Sustainable

• Effective