Higher Learning Image Gallery

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Again combining elements in an unexpected way, this illustration—with tablets standing in for the intellectual capacity of both teacher and student—represents the complex issues surrounding the place of technology in education. One of the students "asks" if the missing word in the sentence chalked on the blackboard is "un?" The teacher’s tablet displays the correct answer: "une."

Imaginatively using books as the components of lounge seating, this illustration shows various possible modes for learning – reading a book, accessing information on a tablet, conversing with another student, texting to set up a project meeting, etc. The "books" create a symbolic context for learning/education while the openness of the space—and its potential for reconfiguration—suggests the active, multi-modal and open nature of contemporary education.

Once again reversing expectations, this image refers to the "flipped classroom." Translating the "flipped" metaphor into a literal image, the upside-down chairs represent a manner of teaching in which the sequence of individual and group learning is reversed. Students prepare for class by reading books and watching video lectures. During class, the teacher guides the students in discussion or problem-solving based on preparation prior to class. The teacher "helps with homework."

A single, short stack of books is placed on a chair facing shelves that hold hundreds of tablets rather than the books one might expect—making the point that schools are rethinking the form and function of the library. If the entire contents of a library can be stored on a single chip and, given the Internet and the advent of e-books, are printed books obsolete? New forms of storage allow space dedicated to books to be repurposed, creating spaces for collaboration as well as reflection, for public gatherings as well as solitary study.

As our text suggests, the lecture format may be a failed model. The empty seats here represent the fact that students are often "absent" in terms of paying close attention to the content of a lecture. The robotic instructor represents a mechanistic delivery of information rather than a teacher engaged in a lively give-and-take of ideas. Ultimately, it is a symbol of what may be the "psychic reality" of a lecture—an instructor on automatic and students who are essentially elsewhere.

Our research for this paper showed that students today are much more aware of themselves as global citizens. In this illustration, the students are each using a different tool—book, computer, pencil and paper—associated with either traditional or contemporary ways of learning. At the same time, all of the students are characterized by a global awareness as represented by globes in place of heads.

Perhaps drawing from idioms such as "this bird has flown" or "bird in a gilded cage," the image consists of three birdcages, equipped with a chair and computer, but void of students. The illustration relates to an emerging trend among young people who choose to opt out of a four-year, on-campus education for distance learning, internships, apprenticeships and other "learn by doing" programs.

This image captures the ubiquity of mobile technologies and the degree to which young students are "embedded" in the digital world.

Here, the illustrator has created a witty image comprised of an old-fashioned manual typewriter complete with a spool of inked ribbon juxtaposed with an iPad replacing the keyboard. The juxtaposition is both humorous and provocative. "We have replaced the slide rule, typewriter and library book with digital tools that have more capability and connectivity than we could have imagined years ago."

Today’s students are "wired to learn," true "digital natives" who are very comfortable using digital tools to share ideas and information. The image shows a "plugged in" student whose head is an antenna able to pick up distant signals just as the digitally connected student is able to "pick up" data from locations near and far.

This illustration, punctuated by the bright red apple that appears on the iPad, represents a “world of change” occurring in higher education. The sturdy wood desk is a symbol of traditional methods of teaching and learning; the virtual apple a play on the familiar idiom “an apple for the teacher,” but also a symbol of the technology that has transformed and, in some case, done away with traditional forms of education.

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