Review of the work of writers

c) Diana Oblinger

Diana Oblinger is Vice President of the non-profit organisation EDUCASE. Previously she has held management positions with IBM and was the Executive Director for Higher Education with Microsoft. She is also an author and keynote speaker who has published criticallly acclaimed books. Of particular note is her book What Business Want From Higher Education (1999) which won the Frandson Award for the best literature in continuing education.

Oblinger often speaks on the evolving face of education and is particularly concerned with future classrooms. She focuses on the development of plans to develop classroom communities into an interactive community in which students play an active role in their learning through the use of technology; web 2.0 included. EDUCASE, the organisation where she serves as Vice President, has a mission to advance education through the promotion of intelligent use of information technology. It is on these development strategies that she often speaks.

Her book Educating the Net Generation is available online here and outlines the differences between older people, usually members of staff, who aren't overly familiar with technology, and the students who were born into a digital world and are highly proficient in the use of technology. Bridging the gap between these two groups is what Oblinger is principally concerned with.

Another problem with education that Oblinger identifies here in 'Educating the New Students' is that teachers will have mature aged students who aren't familiar with new technology in their University classes. Thus catering to both the new laerners and these older learners is difficult for teachers. In this paper she is fundamentally concerned with helping educators recognise the differences between students so that an effective teaching plan can be developed. She believes that the essential need of every educator who wishes to teach successfully is an understanding of those who they are teaching. If an understanding of the student can be achieved then highly successful teaching and deep learning will occur.

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