Reviewing the past to imagine the future of elearning

Abstract

The conference theme 'learning from the past' invites reflection on educational technology research and development in 30 years since Ascilite began; a period of rapid technology adoption and educational change. Common tools have morphed from static, costly devices requiring qualified programmers to low cost mobile ones that virtually every student in the western world uses daily. The social media 'revolution' is democratizing knowledge creation and sharing. People connect for education, professional and social reasons in ways that were inconceivable in the 1980s. This paper summarizes milestones, and asks how well universities use past experience to understand the present and plan for the future. The wisdom of hindsight is unquestionable, while capacity to predict the future is less certain. Some game changing technologies have come out of left field to knock expectations off the radar. The paper concludes by asking if past experience can really help us prepare for a largely unpredictable future.