Towards an Effective ICT-based University Learning

Abstract

The principles and practices of university learning are being subject to critical reconsideration from new approaches to adult teaching and a growing use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). ICTs in adult learning have an ambivalent effect. On the one hand, they offer potential improvement in on-line communicative activities and the transmission of codified or explicit knowledge. On the other hand, they can reduce socially- and interactive-mediated tacit teaching and learning. Thus, the crucial criterion for effective and complementary use of ICTs in adult andragogy is whether they enable time and interactive social space for the tacit dimension of teaching and learning. This chapter analyzes these issues by comparing how two young universities in Spain have dealt with these effects of ICTs in relation to the tacit and interaction challenging dimensions of learning and teaching.