I have to agree with George Siemens that the systems and structures of existing educational institutions will need to be radically changed before any real innovation is seen. Having worked in a tertiary organisation I know from experience that the existing structures in these organisations act as a massive brake on any form of change or innovation – particulary if it is to do with the dirty words teaching and learning. The only way of seeing any real innovation in your average University would be to first of all change the entire structure of the organisation. George points to a good example of such systematic change in the corporate sector at Cisco.

A summary of a sesssion by Scott Wilson on how institutional processes can better support flexible learning (including comments from my CORE Ed collegue Richard Millwood in the embedded video). Tertiary institutions, particularly Universities, need to be seriously looking at this subject.

My wife is currently studying at a local University, that shall remain nameless, and is enrolled in a course that is advertised as a ‘Flexible delivery option’. It is about as flexible as lump of 2×4 – it lacks flexibility in almost every aspect, from the fact that they demand you attend courses from 8:30am in the morning to 5pm several days a month, to the heavily  prescribed content and ‘write the answers we want to hear, not what you think’ uncreative essay assessments.