Case #3: Online Education

1. Do you agree with Peter Drucker’s opening quote?

No, I'm afraid I have to disagree with Drucker’s statement.

Institutions of higher learning will continue to exist. However, their structure and
function will morph and evolve congruently with digital 21st Century learning and
teaching needs.

Let’s take an example of an airplane pilot. They need hands-on learning about flying a
plane. They must look at the various controls inside their cockpit, understand them and
use them. Do you think it will be possible to learn about them all online? How about the
simulations that first make them feel about a bad weather condition and then teach
them how to react to it? Let’s not forget the emergency evacuation training that they go
through. These experiences can be prepared in institutions and not wholly online.

To conclude, higher learning institutions will always exist, and hand in hand, the use of
technology will also increase.

2. Is the Internet a disruptive technology in the education industry in general? And for
Ivey’s School of Information Management in particular?
Education has consistently evolved from Plato’s Socratic method of questions and
answers.

Today, education and learning are portable. Fingertip access to knowledge and
information, with workplaces being distance education, online education, and even
education from one’s home, have disrupted the traditional in-classroom, in-school
education, and bricks and mortar service providers. Zoom, interactive panels, and
portable devices take learning to a site-based learning model, breaking away from the
traditional model of congregational learning.

In 1970, there used to be a TV program on ABC Network that was called “Here come the
70s”. I am not a 70s child, but I have seen re-runs of that show. I recall viewing that one
would be able to go to a school or a local library and research on any topic and that the
Encyclopedia Britannica would be obsolete. I don’t recall ever using an encyclopedia,
but my parents thrived on that, culminating in University degrees.

Furthermore, here come the 70s predicted that one would be able to stay home and
book one’s airline flight (online booking), order groceries from your computer (online
ordering), withdraw money from a machine (now ATM) that would be attached to a
bank, or that if you wanted to learn how to build a deck, you would be able to do that
from your TV screen, (now DIY). All that is to say that we didn’t demolish banks,
libraries, travel agencies, supermarkets, Home Depots, and Ace Hardware. In fact, the
internet was indeed a “DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY” in how we managed and offered our
learning.

The internet is a valuable tool for the Ivey School of Information management. In earlier
times in schools and Universities, disaggregation was prohibitive if we wanted to
disaggregate the data on student achievement in Literacy by gender, grade,
demographic, or other variables. The internet’s disrupted technology has broadened our
potential for what is achievable. It has enhanced our learning capabilities. Could schools
compete in Robotics in the WORLD ROBOTICS OLYMPIAD (WRO) if the internet had not
disrupted our learning? In addition, it helps to exchange data and to communicate with
people across the globe. Not only this, but it also provides access to various tools and
services that have made the life of information managers easy. They use the internet to
store and retrieve information. We have all heard the phrase, “Knowledge is power.”
With the help of the internet, this power is available to all students at all times. Peer
collaboration was never this easy compared to what it is today.

So, in my opinion, and to conclude, the internet is not a disruptive technology if

appropriately managed.