Preparing for disruption: developing institutional capability for decentralized education technologies

Abstract

Abstract: A combination of pressures are now affecting institutional technology strategies; these include the increasing richness of the external technology environment, increasing individual technical capabilities, and pressures on institutions to reduce costs. An opportunity exists in this new environment for institutions to delegate greater responsibility for the provision of technology to individual students, replacing the current strategy of central provision and maintenance that promises both decreasing flexibility and increasing costs. However, while the decentralized approach offers new possibilities for personal autonomy and flexibility, it creates new challenges too: how can education professionals interact with personally-provided and managed technologies to provide coordination, monitoring, and guidance? This paper uses a general systems approach to suggest coordination tactics to bridge the capability gap between current provision and decentralized, personal learning technologies.