Technology-Enhanced Learning in Higher Education

Technology-EnhancedLearning in Higher Education is an anthology produced by theinternational association, Learning in Higher Education (LiHE).  LiHE, whose scope includes the activitiesof colleges, universities and other institutions of higher education, has beenone of the leading organisations supporting a shift in the education processfrom a transmission-based philosophy to a student-centred, learning-basedapproach. Traditionally education has been envisaged as a processin which the teacher disseminates knowledge and information to the student,and directs them to perform – instructing, cajoling, encouraging them asappropriate –  despite differentstudents’ abilities. Yet higher education is currently experiencing rapidtransformation, with the introduction of a broad range of technologies whichhave the potential to enhance student learning. This anthology draws upon theexperiences of those practitioners who have been pioneering new applicationsof technology in higher education, highlighting not only the technologiesthemselves but also the impact which they have had on student learning.The anthology illustrates how new technologies – whichare increasingly well-known and accepted by today’s ‘digital natives’undertaking higher education – can be adopted and incorporated. One keyconclusion is that learning remains a social process even intechnology-enhanced learning contexts. So the technology-based proxies weconstruct need to retain and reflect the agency of the teacher.Technology-EnhancedLearning in Higher Education showcases some of the latest pedagogicaltechnologies and their most creative, state-of-the-art applications tolearning in higher education from around the world.  Each of the chapters explorestechnology-enhanced learning in higher education in terms of either policy orpractice. They contain detailed descriptions of approaches taken in verydifferent curriculum areas, and demonstrate clearly that technology may andcan enhance learning only if it is designed with the learning process ofstudents at its core. So the use of technology in education is more linked topedagogy than it is to bits and bytes.