Taking care of business - online technologies changing practice at universities?

Abstract

Pressures on higher education from the world outside as well as the world inside to incorporate online technologies is likely to continue to grow. Society expects graduates to emerge from their university experience with appropriate digital technology skills and abilities irrespective of the level of importance of such technology within individual disciplines. Some schools in universities and perhaps the universities themselves, may not be competitive in a few years' time unless they have embraced online technologies, whether as an integral part of the curriculum or simply as another way to convey, retrieve and manipulate information. This paper explores education online as representing a new technoculture that mirrors larger changes in politics, the economy and society. The paper argues that to understand the significance of computers in teaching and learning, we should not concentrate on the 'wired' machines themselves, but the broader changes occurring in society and in higher education.