Heutagogy in the Digital Age

The future is here. It's just not widely distributed yet.

William Gibson (1948 - )

The world is changing. The advent of the Information Communication Technologies (ICT’s) and the World Wide Web has changed the way that humans communicate, govern, barter, work, and socialize. This phenomenon has propelled the Education community to seek new methods of teaching and learning in order to prepare students for this new world order. Research into teaching and learning suggests that the tried and true methods of the past may not be appropriate for the globalized world. The tried and true method of the teacher led classroom is not efficient in the current technological climate.

Hase and Kenyon (2000) state “the rapid rate of change in society, and the so-called information explosion, suggest that we should now be looking at an educational approach where it is the learner himself who determines what and how learning should take place” (p. 1). Heutagogy is defined as self-directed or self-determined learning. Heutagogy begins with students taking responsibility for their own learning from reading to researching, reporting, reflecting on, and assessing their own work. The expected result of heutagogy is for the student to learn the material related to the course and to build life skills encompassing a whole of learning philosophy towards people, workplaces and communities in order to succeed in life. (Ashton and Newman, 2006).

Online learning is a booming business. Students are looking for new ways to fit their college education into the busy lifestyles that they lead. Heutagogy places the power in the hands of the learner and looks to a future where knowing how to learn will be a fundamental educational skill (Ashton & Newman, 2006).” Self-determined learning empowers the individual to think independently and critically. It enables students to share power in a collaborative environment provoking an atmosphere of critical thinking and effective communication. Students...