This is the presentation I gave to the SAFFIRE launch festival at the University of Canberra on Monday 18 March, 2013

1. NETWORK TECHNOLOGY,
DISRUPTIVE INNOVATIONS
AND THE FUTURE OF THE
ACADEMY
Mark Smithers
Online Education Services
@marksmithers

2. PROVOCATEUR
The views presented here are mine
and do not represent the views of
my employer.
Licensed CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 by greenkozi
http://www.flickr.com/photos/themacinator/5601306467/

3. DISRUPTIVE INNOVATIONS
It’s been interesting watching this unfold
in music, books, newspapers, TV, but
nothing has ever been as interesting to
me as watching it happen in my own
backyard. Higher education is now being
disrupted; our MP3 is the massive open
online course (or MOOC), and our
Napster is Udacity, the education startup.

4. FORECASTING THE DEMISE OF THE
UNIVERSITY
"Universities won't survive. The future is outside the traditional
campus, outside the traditional classroom. Distance learning
is coming on fast.―
- Peter Drucker, Forbes magazine 1997

6. DEFINING DI
Christensen describes disruptive innovation as:
“Generally, disruptive innovations were
technologically straightforward, consisting of off-
the-shelf components put together in a product
architecture that was often simpler than prior
approaches. They offered less of what customers in
established markets wanted and so could rarely be
initially employed there. They offered a different
package of attributes valued only in emerging
markets remote from, and unimportant to, the
mainstream”

7. DEFINING DI
“Disruptive technologies bring to market a very
different value proposition than had been available
previously. Generally, disruptive technologies
underperform established products in mainstream
markets. But they have features that a few fringe
(and generally new) customers value. Products
based on disruptive technologies are typically
cheaper, simpler, smaller and, frequently, more
convenient to use”

8. THE DISRUPTIVE
INNOVATION
DIAGRAM

9. MOOCS

11. MOOC DEVELOPMENT

12. MOOC CRITICS

16. AND FINALLY

17. THOMAS KUHN
Peter Sloep has described
the difference between
MOOC protagonists and
antagonists as being an
example of Kuhn‟s
„incommensurability‟.

18. MOOC RETENTION RATES
http://mfeldstein.com/emerging-student-patterns-in-moocs-a-revised-graphical-view/

19. STANFORD AI 2011
―Peter and I taught more students AI, than all
AI professors in the world combined.‖
- Sebastian Thrun, 2011

20. http://lesschmidt.net/moocs-near-the-peak-of-inflated-expectations/

21. OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
Licensed CC 3.0 http://www.openeducationweek.org/oer-dossier/

22. OPEN BADGES

23. #OPENBADGES

24. CRITICS OF BADGES VIEW THEM
LIKE THIS

25. …WHICH IS, OF COURSE, ELITIST CLAPTRAP
Licensed CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 by „lil
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sketchbookkid/3154046819/sizes/o/

26. SOCIAL PROFESSIONAL REPUTATION

29. THE FUTURE

31. MESSY

32. DISPERSED

33. GROWTH

34. SUSTAINABLE

36. LEARNING IN THE WORKPLACE

37. SOME IN UNIVERSITIES QUESTION
WHETHER YOU CAN DEVELOP
CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS IF YOU
DON‟T GO TO UNIVERSITY

38. …WHICH IS, OF COURSE, ELITIST CLAPTRAP
Licensed CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 by „lil
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sketchbookkid/3154046819/sizes/o/

39. WHAT SHOULD UNIVERSITIES DO?

40. WHAT DOES A UNIVERSITY
DO NOW?
The three purposes of the University? – To
provide sex for the students, sports for the
alumni, and parking for the faculty.
I have sometimes thought of it [the
university] as a series of individual faculty
entrepreneurs held together by a common
grievance over parking.
- Clark Kerr

41. THE MULTIVERSITY

42. COMPETE
Licensed CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 by stratman2
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stratman2/6986904966/

44. ADAPT
Licensed CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 by Peggy2012CREATIVELENZ
http://www.flickr.com/photos/73230975@N03/6893326896/sizes/o/

45. SPECIALISE
Licensed CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 by markwitton
http://www.flickr.com/photos/markwitton/3289000420/sizes/l/

46. RETREAT

47. CAN THE UNIVERSITY CHANGE?

48. Licensed CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 by toolmantim
http://www.flickr.com/photos/azrainman/991225765/sizes/z/

49. Licensed CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 by AZRainman
http://www.flickr.com/photos/azrainman/991225765/sizes/z/

50. DISRUPTIVE INNOVATIONS
In the academy, we lecture other people
every day about learning from history. Now its
our turn, and the risk is that we’ll be the last to
know that the world has changed, because
we can’t imagine—really cannot imagine—
that story we tell ourselves about ourselves
could start to fail. Even when it’s true.
Especially when it’s true.
- Clay Shirky, 2012