HomeAsia-Pacific Social Science Reviewvol. 1 no. 2 (2000)

Contextualizing the Effects of Technology on Higher Education Learning and Teaching: The Social and Human Dimensions of Educational Change

Allan B. I. Bernardo

 

Abstract:

The aim of this paper was to describe a more nuanced understanding of how technology is changing higher education. It first described how technology seemed to affect education in the recent past by referring to the historical studies of Cuban and discussed the general conservative nature of educational institutions when it comes to embracing change. After which it asserted that at present, technology's impact on higher education seems to be integrally related to other socio-economic developments, in particular, globalization and the movement towards knowledge societies. It then summarized the observations of others and predicted the changes related to higher education institutions. The changes were described as being either indirect or direct effects. In the main section of the paper, an attempt was made to differentiate the possible effects of technology on four types of higher education institutions. The typology was intended to be a heuristic tool for delineating how different responses to technology may be mediated by certain characteristics of higher education institutions. These characteristics mainly refer to the degree to which administrators and faculty members in the institutions are sensitive to and are reactive to external social and economic forces, and whether the systems and structures of the institution afford accommodation of change forces.