A Critique of the Unbundling Movement: Challenges and Opportunities for Irish Higher Education
1. Professor Mark Brown
Director, National Institute for Digital Learning
A Critique of the Unbundling Movement:
Challenges & Opportunities for Irish Higher Education
Sligo, Ireland
1st June 2017
9. “It is theory that
decides what we
can observe…”
Albert Einstein
10. Knowledge Economy
• Threat
• Unbundling
• Re-imagination
Crisis •
Disruption •
Democratization •
TWO MAJOR PERSPECTIVES
Mark Brown, 2016
11. “Frankly, all the computers and software and
Internet connections in the world won’t do
much good if young people don’t understand
that access to new technology means…
access to the new economy”
(President Bill Clinton; cited in Cuban, 2001, p.18).
13. “Higher education has a crucial role to play
in laying the foundations of a society that is
more inclusive, participatory and
equal...” The President said “…the role of
the university in enabling citizens to develop
the tools to address the great challenges of
our time – global poverty, climate
change and sustainability – was vital.
14. ReschoolingReproducing
Learning Society
Knowledge Economy
Mark Brown, 2016
• Sifting agent
• Human capital
• Cultural heritage
• Education as commodity
• Competencies
• Entrepreneurship
• Technology as progress
• Increased market competition
TWO MAJOR PERSPECTIVES
• Threat
• Unbundling
• Re-imagination
Crisis •
Disruption •
Democratization •
21. Different interest groups and stakeholders are borrowing
the same ‘languages of persuasion’
to legitimize very different agenda
In the
fake news era…
27. Off Campus
in Class
Off Campus
out of Class
On Campus
in Class
Acquisition
Participation
On Campus
out of Class
Leakage
The New Learning Ecology
Physical Virtual
2. Mode
31. Allen, E., & Seaman, J., with Poulin, R., & Taylor Straut, T. (2016). Online report card: Tracking online
education in the United States. Babson Survey Research Group and Quahog Research Group.
2%
3. Border
47. Conclusion…
• What system-level responses are required to
the unbundling movement?
• What forms of unbundling might contribute to
better educational outcomes?
• What are the major risks of the unbundling
movement?
In Ireland,