Disruptive technologies and innovation in tertiary education: A broken promise or a wrong promise?

Abstract

Disruptive technology understood as any enhanced or completely new technology that replaces and disrupts an existing technology that is already in use and rendering it obsolete, entered our vocabulary nearly 25 years ago. How disruptive technology and innovation will affect tertiary education has been hypothesized for a similar length of time, from “threatening” or “sweeping away” the dominant business model towards “transforming” and “reinventing” learning. For now, the evidence for either stance is mixed leading some to conclude that disruptive technology is a broken promise. But is this promise of disruptive technologies and innovation tertiary education broken or did we believe the wrong promise? In reviewing the extant knowledge about the disruptive technology use in tertiary education, I suggest the real promise is one of sustaining learning in tertiary education through the adoption of disruptive technologies.