Throwing Sand in the Gears of Higher Education

Rich DeMillo spoke at the American University Library Digital Futures Forum last week  The subject was the transformational power of media and how digital literacy is changing higher education.  Rich’s talk focused on the speed with which incumbents can be swept aside in the face of social, economic and political changes: traditional universities have been slow to recognize that change.  Rich used Massive Open Online Courses as a metaphor for mentoring and peer-to-peer learning when online technologies are used intelligently.  His conclusion?  There is actually nothing very radical about a MOOC, and existing technologies are already being deployed widely.

Watch the video here.

The session concluded with a panel discussion.

• Laura DeNardis, Associate Professor, School of Communication
• Jill Klein, Information Technology Executive in Residence, Kogod School of Business
• Christopher Simpson, Professor of Journalism, School of Communication
• Moderator: Alex Hodges, Assistant Director for Library Instruction, University Library

#change11