I really enjoyed Alexander’s “Higher education in 2014: Glimpsing the Future” article. I found his scenarios both realistic and extreme (which is a very interesting combination). I think I felt this way because he incorporated technology that already exists but made it common place. For example most people having 3D printers. While this technology exists it is not yet economically feasible for the average person to utilize – hence both realistic and extreme.
In his Renaissance scenario, Alexander (2014) said,
“And professional development most often occurs remotely, including through social media, for reasons of cost (using the Internet is cheaper than traveling) and efficiency (people respond well to rich media in this 2024)”.
While this sentiment is simple, it would be a game changer in my industry. I cannot tell you how many conferences I would have loved to attend but couldn’t because of cost and timing. Being able to access international professional development content would expand the horizons of practitioners and create a global learning community. I recently read an article by Vescio et al. discussing the benefits of professional learning communities for both educators and students. Research has shown that student achievement increases when educators participate in PLCs (Vescio et al, 2008). I have noticed more and more resources being available online but have yet to experience a remote professional development conference. On the flip side, if professional development information is more widely accessible it calls into question whether or not you need dedicated professional development departments – which is of course a huge concern for me.
A trend I have noticed in my industry is professional development being advertised as a value add and client incentive. Our department is getting more and more requests to organize seminars for our clients. Not only are we sending people off-site, we are recording live seminars and posting them on a secure site for our clients to access. In the last few years there has been a push for more e-learning (which was one of the reasons I started the MET program). Our department, as it currently stands, does not have the resources to create online seminars at the rate our clients (both in-house and external) expect. I have openly said that our department needs to dedicate more personnel and resources towards online learning, but the legal industry is infamously slow to change. Perhaps technological advances will force our hand and require us to focus more on online content to stay competitive in the market.
References
Alexander, B. (2014). Higher education in 2014: Glimpsing the future. Educause Review, 4(5) Retrieved from http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/higher-education-2024-glimpsing-future?utm_source=Informz&utm_medium=Email+marketing&utm_campaign=EDUCAUSE
Vescio, V., Ross, D., & Adams, A. (2008). A review of research on the impact of professional learning communities on teaching practice and student learning. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24(1), 80-91. http://ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/login?url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2007.01.004