Association of American Colleges & Universities A VOICE AND A FORCE FOR LIBERAL EDUCATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY TABLE OF CONTENTS Winter 2014, Vol. 17, No. 1 Overview From the Editor Technology, Education, Democracy: Elements of an Emerging Paradigm Democratization of Education for Whom? Online Learning and Educational Equity There's No App for Ending Racism: Theorizing the Civic in the Age of Disruption Using E-Portfolios to Support Transfer Student Success Story Matters: Meeting Actionable Community Needs in a Digital World Bringing Online and Residential Students Together for Engaged Civic Learning Overcoming Our Distance for Election Night Connecting across Hemispheres in Media Studies Civic Seed: Developing a Video Game for Civic Engagement Improving Student Success Using Diversity and Democracy There's No App for Ending Racism: Theorizing the Civic in the Age of Disruption By: Dan Butin Last year, I finally threw away all my maps. They were in the back of my car, about a dozen of them: fold-outs of the entire United States, spiral-bound pages describing a single county, booklets about individual states and their largest metropolitan areas. I loved using them to figure out where I was and how to get to my destination, but I hadn’t touched any of them in years. In the age of GoogleMaps and ubiquitous Wi-Fi coverage, it makes no sense to have such twentieth-century relics in the trunk of my car. My iPhone talks me through next turns, always knows where I am, and gives me up-to-the-moment traffic updates. So while seeing those maps brought back some lovely memories of trips long ago, I threw them out with nary a backward glance. It was a no-brainer. It’s an open question, though, whether or not new digital technologies can, on their own, drastically enhance the democratic mission of higher education by transforming or even replacing the traditional classroom. I am dubious. Don’t get me wrong: within the next decade, technological innovation will fundamentally disrupt and in many ways improve how we think about and enact teaching and learning. Massive Open Online Courses (or MOOCs) alone may not effect this disruption; but the undergirding technological components that are bundled within many MOOC platforms—components such as cloud-based and networked computing, automated and “stealth” assessment programs, adaptive and personalized learning tools, and data and learning analytics—will surely have deep effects on higher education. This is, therefore, a critical moment to articulate how it may be possible to embrace technological disruption for the benefit of place-based civic learning and strengthen the relevance and resonance of higher education. Technology’s Promise Many see technological advancements as enhancing the vision and mission of higher education as a public good and promoting what the Association of American Colleges and Universities calls “inclusive excellence” (Board of Directors 2013). These observers imagine that new technologies will make higher education available to a much greater population, including those who have been historically marginalized. They see technology as offering the opportunity to personalize instruction—for anyone, anywhere, anytime—in order to meet diverse learners’ needs and conditions. In this scenario, technology—colorblind to the user, unmoved by the accent of the speaker, ever-patient and ever-focused—becomes the Home › Diversitydemocracy › 2014 › New Technologies: Implications for Higher Education's Democratic Mission › There's No App for Ending Racism: Theorizing the Civic in the Age of Disruption Buy Print Copies Current Issue Search Periodicals Search