According to this article by George Siemens and Kathleen Matheos, a power shift is occurring in higher education, driven by two trends: (a) the increased freedom of learners to access, create, and re-create content; and (b) the opportunity for learners to interact with each other outside of a mediating agent. Information access and dialogue, previously under control of the educator, can now be readily fulfilled by learners.

In this paper, author George Veletsianos discusses the implementation of a small-scale Adventure Learning project in a higher-education classroom. Data used to evaluate the Adventure Learning project indicates that the learner experience was engaging, meaningful, fun, and challenging. Suggestions for future practice and research include a call to rethink education in terms of pedagogy, social technologies, creative curricula, authentic learning, and narrative.

This special report from the U.S. National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education and the Southern Regional Education Board addresses U.S. state policy dimensions of college readiness. It identifies the key issues and problems associated with the college-readiness gap, which is a major impediment to increasing the numbers of college students who complete certificates or degrees. This policy brief also provides governors, legislators, and state education leaders with specific steps needed to close the readiness gaps in their states. 

In this article, authors Lisa Harris, Lorraine Warren, Jean Leah, and Melanie Ashleigh critique the commonly accepted notions of “digital native” students and the widening generation gap between them and “technophobic” faculty. Their case studies, from U.K. higher education, demonstrate that attempts to introduce new models of learning are inhibited by 1) prevailing structure and culture within universities and 2) expectations (or even a stated preference) for traditional delivery and assessment of knowledge by the students themselves.

 Many educators have called for the inclusion of new technologies like blogs, wikis, and social bookmarking in higher education to address the learning needs of the Net Generation. Is there really a discrepancy between the personal and educational use of new technologies by undergraduates? What new technologies do they perceive as most beneficial for their learning?