Reading Shawn’s recent post on the history of Learning Innovation at Duke, I was inspired to share my initial musings on our present and future.
I am new to Learning Innovation and Continuing Studies, with two months under my belt now. In this short time, I’ve already seen and learned so much – and I definitely still have so much to learn.
So far, the biggest moment for me was our 2023 Emerging Pedagogies Summit. In two and a half days, I got a chance to meet faculty and staff at Duke, and hear perspectives far beyond Duke, on some of the most innovative and important trends happening in higher education today – pedagogies of care, generative AI, learning for the 100-year life, learning at scale, and so much more.
For me, this showcased the power of what Learning Innovation does – bring really smart people together to imagine the future of higher education. Throughout the Summit, I heard people share their own thoughts and practices, and I even heard some of the presenters learn new things or change their minds along the way. This is the beauty of bringing together experts who retain an open mind and a desire for improvement and innovation.
The 2023 Summit is over, but our goal is to continue these conversations with communities of practice, research grants, and other initiatives. We’re committing to fostering these conversations year-round, instead of once a year in a formal setting. To me, that’s what Learning Innovation is all about.
In less than two months, Duke begins celebrating its Centennial year. It will be a time to look backward and celebrate Duke’s rich history, but also a time to look forward and imagine the next 100 years at Duke. At Learning Innovation, we’re excited to help faculty and leaders shape this future.
The featured image for this blog post (seen in the blog feed) was created by Blythe Tyrone using Canva’s AI image generator.
