Plenary Session III: The Role of ICT in Higher Education, Open and Distance Learning and Open Educational Resources
ICTs in Higher Education: Who Stands to Gain?
Asha Kanwar, Vice-President, Commonwealth of Learning, Canada.
ICTs have pervaded every level of education around the world. Higher Education, particularly, has seen an unprecedented growth in the use of ICTs in teaching, research and extension activities. Who has really benefitted from this phenomenal expansion? Is it the governments who are determined to increase the Age Participation Rates (APRs) in Higher Education in the next decade? Is it the teacher who is increasingly faced with the challenge of dealing with a diverse student body with its different learning preferences? Or is it the student herself — does the introduction of ICTs make students learn and perform better? Does the hype surrounding ICTs match the hope that it generates? These are some of the questions that will be addressed in this presentation with recommendations on how ICTs can be effectively harnessed to serve all three constituencies.