Managing the Digital Change in Higher Education

Abstract

We need to consider that digital technology does not inevitably lead to—positive or negative—changes in education. This may be disappointing for exuberant supporters, as well as critical skeptics of technology. Such technology determinism would fail to recognize the importance of actors in bringing about changes in education and a change in learning culture. At an institutional level, this means that we—the actors—must continue the process of change. However, to see digitization as a process of “technification” would be to greatly understate the potential. If we want to take advantage of the momentum, the design process will need special attention, and we will need the courage to tackle structural change, as well. Technical developments—such as artificial intelligence and robots, as well as increased networking and the use of big data—will shape the (educational) systems. But they will not replace the social learning processes. Algorithms have the potential to prepare decisions, but it is we who decide and we who design the path to education in the digital era.