Covid-19 is creating a vaccum in higher education in Canada where Ed Tech will step in. The question is: will it be to students’ benefit?
As in person classes at schools and universities stopped in Canada and most of the western world in March 2020, a void appeared in terms of teaching.
School teachers or university professors could not immediately continue teaching through online technology, for many reasons, access to & familiarity with tech on both student and teacher side being the main ones.
Pure online players mastering Ed Tech like Google, D2L, Udemy, Coursera or Athabasca university are poised to seize market share, as they are ready to deliver engaging, interactive classes.
Students are looking for more than class content when they attend a traditional university or when they go to school, however. Will schools, universities and colleges be able to offer engaging online content while attending to students’ social needs, at a price that’s appealing to them?
Or will online players who offer inexpensive course content or free classroom management software like Google Classroom increase their stronghold on schools and higher education, at the price of mining more data from its users?
Tech for Good Canada will discuss how universities and colleges in Canada are adapting to the Covid-19 crisis during an online discussion June 10, at 12:30that I will moderate, with my co-host Tim Grant.
Experts at the New Normal in Higher Education Discussion
Dr Ann Cavoukian is the former Information and Privacy Commissioner for the Canadian province of Ontario. Her concept of privacy by design, which takes privacy into account throughout the system engineering process, was expanded on, as part of a joint Canadian-Dutch team, both before and during her tenure as commissioner (1997 to 2014).
She was hired by Ryerson University as a distinguished visiting professor after the end of her three terms as IPC. Cavoukian was appointed Executive Director of the Ryerson’s Privacy and Big Data Institute in 2014.[2] Since 2017, Cavoukian has been the Distinguished Expert-in-Residence of the university’s Privacy by Design Centre of Excellence. She also heads the Global Privacy and Security By Design Center.
Dr Ron Srigley is a writer and teacher. His work has appeared in The Walrus, The Los Angeles Review of Books, the MIT Technology Review, and L’Obs, as well as in a variety of scholarly journals. He teaches philosophy and religious studies at Laurentian University and in the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Humber College, in Toronto. He wrote: I asked my students to turn in their cell phones and tell me about living without them.
Dr Gary Hepburn is currently dean of the Ryerson Chang School of Continuing Education in Toronto, Ontario . He is an expert in Continuing education, educational technology, lifelong learning, online learning and open education. Read this interview of Gary Hepburn upon accepting his role as Dean in January 2020.
Yasmin Razack (MCATD, PPCC, M.Ed) is Director of the Centre of Global Citizenship Education and Inclusion at Centennial College. There, Yasmin works with a team to strategically lead the integration of the principles and practices of an engaged citizenry and college community that reflects the valuing of global citizenship, human rights, social innovation, changemaking, equity and inclusion. This role includes the integration of appropriate curricular/co-curricular programming, social changemaking and policy development. She is currently completing her Doctorate of Education in Higher Education Leadership.
Register here for The New Normal in Undergraduate Education eDiscussion. Total time will be 1.5 hours.
The format is questions and answers between the hosts Caroline Isautier,Tim Grant , attendees and experts.
Preparatory Resources on the Future of Higher Education
Articles:
Naomi Klein: How Big Tech plans to profit from the coronavirus pandemic
Frank Bruni (NYT) The End of College as we knew it ?
Podcast Episode:
Kara Swisher’s Recode Podcast talks to Scott Galloway on the future of universities
