Digital Tools Can Save Money And Reinvent Higher Education

By Dr. Marciene Mattleman

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - With prominent universities offering mega-courses online, proponents of mass technology hope that the lecture method in high education is fading - that professors will use technology to deliver basic concepts online before class, leaving more classroom time for face-to-face discussion and hands-on exercises.

While 55% of students have smartphones that provide Internet access, 87% own laptops and tablet-computer ownership is growing fast, professors still use lectures primarily, with only 22% using the latest technology effectively according to an article by Jeffrey R. Young in The Chronicle of Higher Education's Almanac of Higher Education 2012-13.

Colleges are re-evaluating their management systems, the software that supports teaching online with many leaving Blackboard, the leading provider and moving to Moodle, giving programmers more power to make modifications.

Professors are looking for ways to gauge scholarship influence and web driven scholarly interactions - another indication of major digital changes ahead.