Online course run by Cathy Davidson.

There are a variety of sites in which technology is being integrated into the learning process. Some of this has involved the introduction of MOOCs (or Massively Open Online Courses.) People have debated the pluses and minuses of this way of using digital networks to extend the scope of universities and colleges.

Here, for example, is an online course that was run by Cathy Davidson last year that’s called “History and Future of (Mostly) Higher Education”, on the subject of how technology is changing higher education. If this is something that you’re interested in, then you might be interested in enrolling or just following along on the site.

There’s also been a lot written about the problems with such courses. These range from a lack of engagement on the part of students to shockingly low completion rates.

Home page of online course about technology and higher education.

Home page of online course about technology and higher education.

Related to our discussion of ‘brain-training’, here is an article from a recent Scientific American that takes a negative view of these technologies. I thought it was interesting because of the explicit connections that it makes between media consumption, especially games, and some of the ideas were discussing in class.