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Emerging Technologies and Distributed Learning in Higher Education

Chris Dede, George Mason University

Abstract

This chapter depicts visions of how sophisticated information technologies may influence the nature of higher education over the next couple decades. Its purpose is not to present predictions of an inevitable future, but instead to stimulate reflection about how we can collectively evolve colleges and universities by creatively moving beyond almost unconscious assumptions we hold about teaching, learning, and schooling. The rapid advance of information technology is driving shifts in every other form of societal institution, in ways that are often unplanned and sometimes unfortunate. Hopefully, the academy can do better in determining its own fate through deliberate choice and collaborative action to achieve the full educational potential of advanced computers and telecommunications.