Episode 076 - Bryan Alexander

In late March 2020, most institutions of higher education in the US and around the world have closed their campuses in response to the coronavirus pandemic, and in most cases those institutions have shifted the entirety of their instruction to online and other alternative methods. In the next few episodes of Leading Lines, we’re going to explore what this means for higher education, both in the short-term as faculty and other instructors find practical ways to navigate this transition to remote teaching and learning and in the long-term, considering how educational technology and, indeed, all of higher education might change in response to what’s happening here in 2020. To help us understand that longer-term impact, we reached out to Bryan Alexander. Bryan has a PhD in English language and literature from the University of Michigan, and he taught for a number of years at Centenary College in Louisiana. From 2002 to 2014, Bryan worked with the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education, or NITLE, a non-profit working to help small colleges and universities best integrate digital technologies. These days, Bryan is a futurist, researcher, writer, speaker, consultant, teacher, and a senior scholar at Georgetown University. His latest book, Academia Next: The Futures of Higher Education, was published by Johns Hopkins University Press earlier this year. Bryan talks about higher education’s current pivot to online teaching, and ways to think about the potential long-term impact of the coronavirus pandemic. As you’ll hear, Bryan is informed, insightful, and compassionate, and we are glad to share the conversation here on the podcast. Links • The Future of Education Observatory, http://futureofeducation.us/ • Bryan Alexander’s website and blog, https://bryanalexander.org/ • @BryanAlexander on Twitter, https://twitter.com/BryanAlexander • Academia Next: The Futures of Higher Education (Johns Hopkins Press, 2020, https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/academia-next • The Future Trends Forum, https://bryanalexander.org/the-future-trends-forum/ • Colleges and universities closed / migrating online for COVID-19 [spreadsheet], https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19wJZekxpewDQmApULkvZRBpBwcnd5gZlZF2SEU2WQD8/edit#gid=0