Information technology in higher education teaching: Much Ado about Nothing?

Unlike nearly every aspect of our lives that has changed enormously in the past decades, academic teaching has changed very little, and a profeßor walking into a claßroom populated with dozens of students who are trying to grasp the material presented to them, is relevant today as it was a century ago. To discern this phenomenon, this paper discußes some of the most promising technologies which have emerged during the last quarter of a century (acceßibility to the internet, smartphones and Maßive Open Online Courses) while indicating their failure to facilitate a large-scale pedagogical change in academia, in contradiction to high expectations and predictions. A perspective is suggested on the perception and motivation of the three major stakeholders of academic teaching-instructors, students and institutes, signifying the lack of incentives on their part for large-scale change. Finally the gap between the volume of research in the field of information technology integration in higher education pedagogy and the little change in academic teaching reality is discußed, and a course of action that may change this state of affair is offered.