Technology-Enhanced Learning in Higher Education

Technology-Enhanced
Learning in Higher Education is an anthology produced by the
international association, Learning in Higher Education (LiHE). LiHE, whose scope includes the activities
of colleges, universities and other institutions of higher education, has been
one of the leading organisations supporting a shift in the education process
from a transmission-based philosophy to a student-centred, learning-based
approach.


Traditionally education has been envisaged as a process
in which the teacher disseminates knowledge and information to the student,
and directs them to perform - instructing, cajoling, encouraging them as
appropriate - despite different
students' abilities. Yet higher education is currently experiencing rapid
transformation, with the introduction of a broad range of technologies which
have the potential to enhance student learning. This anthology draws upon the
experiences of those practitioners who have been pioneering new applications
of technology in higher education, highlighting not only the technologies
themselves but also the impact which they have had on student learning.


The anthology illustrates how new technologies - which
are increasingly well-known and accepted by today's 'digital natives'
undertaking higher education - can be adopted and incorporated. One key
conclusion is that learning remains a social process even in
technology-enhanced learning contexts. So the technology-based proxies we
construct need to retain and reflect the agency of the teacher.



Technology-Enhanced
Learning in Higher Education showcases some of the latest pedagogical
technologies and their most creative, state-of-the-art applications to
learning in higher education from around the world. Each of the chapters explores
technology-enhanced learning in higher education in terms of either policy or
practice. They contain detailed descriptions of approaches taken in very
different curriculum areas, and demonstrate clearly that technology may and
can enhance learning only if it is designed with the learning process of
students at its core. So the use of technology in education is more linked to
pedagogy than it is to bits and bytes.