The Digital Technologies - Opportunities and Challenges for the 21st Century Teaching and Learning
The Digital Technologies - Opportunities and Challenges for the 21st Century Teaching and Learning

Summary/Abstract: The author has nearly 50 years of an academic career within the University of Bucharest. Over time, the author's academic activity has been heavily influenced by remarkable personalities from the university (especially the former Rector Ioan Mihailescu) or by world-class personalities (mainly Ken Robinson, John Naisbitt and Steve Jobs). Even if this career includes a valuable teaching and learning experience... it is approaching the "end of life". This article might be considered as a retrospective of the author's teaching activity and a chance to summarize the lessons he learned. These lessons could be seen as recommendations for the academic staff and the decision makers in higher education. The article contains two important chapters. Over time, the author's academic activity has been heavily influenced by remarkable personalities from the university (especially the former Rector Ioan Mihailescu) or by world-class personalities (mainly Ken Robinson, John Naisbitt and Steve Jobs). Even if this career includes a valuable teaching and learning experience... it is approaching the "end of life". This article might be considered as a retrospective of the author's teaching activity and a chance to summarize the lessons he learned. These lessons could be seen as recommendations for the academic staff and the decision makers in higher education. The article contains two important chapters. Chapter 1 has the title "Innovative teaching in higher education". Innovation is essential for the permanent and sustainable success of any person /organization. This chapter presents some general aspects related to education worldwide and some specific aspects related to the author's academic initiatives. As soon as these initiatives have been implemented for the first time in the University of Bucharest, they can be characterized as being innovative for the education system of this institution. Many of these achievements were reported during international and national conferences. Chapter 2 has the title "Disruptive technologies with a strong impact on higher education". The author has taken into account the potential of digital technologies for higher education since 1990. The essential moment was the reading of the book "Megatrends," published by John Naisbitt in 1982, having as the main message the movement from the industrial society to the information society. Chapter 2 summarizes some of the best practices on the use of digital technologies in higher education, including cloud computing, learning management system, eLearning, game-based learning. Finally, the article includes conclusions and references itself.

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