First Annual Friends of the Library Public Lecture
On Monday 11th April 2011, the Friends of the Library hosted their first annual public lecture - Education in the Digital Age at the Queensland Conservatorium. Richard Katz delivered a dynamic presentation on the way universities and student interaction is changing, and our need to embrace this now and in the future. The 85 guests were then wowed by the always entertaining Jazz Australis, while nibbling on canapes and refreshments. Griffith initiatives from Learning and Teaching and the Research Data Services Unit were on display for the guests to view and helpful staff were close by to answer questions.
Dan Petrovic, a former Griffith student has written a great review of the night on his own blog http://dejanseo.com.au/education-in-the-digital-age/
Education in the Digital Age
The first mainframe computers and the first nodes of the Internet were found on university campuses. Higher education and digital technologies have deeply influenced each others past and future. University research in particular has been transformed. Until recently, education itself has changed little in the digital age. While virtually all students use information and communication technologies to study and prepare for exams, the classroom itself continues to look more medieval than modern. Partly this reflects the durable success of personalized instruction. Partially it reflects how hard it is to change in settings where every teacher is the producer, director, and star actor in her or her classroom.
As the digital age moves to a disruptive phase, it will be harder to keep out of the educational experience. The digital age is fostering new student preferences and is unleashing new forces - corporatization and consumerization - on education and real changes in teaching and learning are in evidence. Renaissance or dark age, that is the question?
Guest speaker
Richard N. Katz
Richard N. Katz is the founder and principal consultant with Richard N. Katz and Associates. Among other things, he serves as Senior Advisor to the Deputy President of the National University of Singapore on Information strategy and Senior Vice President of Nuventive Corporation. Katz was vice president of EDUCAUSE from 1996 until July 2010 and in 2001, he founded the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research (ECAR). Before joining EDUCAUSE, Katz held a variety of management and executive positions spanning 14 years at the University of California (UC). Katz led that University?s development and implementation of strategic management initiatives and became the second recipient of that University?s Award for Innovative Management and Leadership.
He is the author, co-author or editor of seven books, four major research studies, and more than 70 articles and monographs on a variety of management and technology topics. His book Dancing with the Devil was deemed one of the 10 most important education-related books of 1999 by Lingua Franca. He received his B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh, and his MBA from UCLA.
- Photos from our first public lecture are available on the Griffith University Facebook