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Higher education’s toughest test [Bischke & Shah]

On 04/26/2011, in accreditation, budgets, business side of he, change, changing business models, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, disruption, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, innovation, leadership, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, staying relevant, strategy, surviving, traditional / tradition, trends, UK, United States, by Daniel Christian

Higher education’s toughest test — from by Jon Bischke and Semil Shah

In the debate sparked by Peter Thiel’s “20 Under 20 Fellowship” (which pays bright students to drop out of college), one fact stands out: the cost of U.S. post-secondary education is spiraling upward, out of control. Thiel calls this a “bubble,” similar to the sub-prime mortgage crisis, where hopeful property owners over-leveraged themselves to lay claim to a coveted piece of the American dream: home ownership.

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Today, however, the credentialing provided by universities is becoming decoupled from the knowledge and skills acquired by students. The cost of obtaining learning materials is falling, with OpenCourseWare resources from MIT and iTunes U leading the charge. Classes can be taken online on sites like Udemy and eduFire, either for free or a fraction of the cost to learn similar material at a university, and sites like Veri, which recently launched at TechStars NYC Demo Day, aims to organize and spread one’s accumulated knowledge.

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The fresh cadavers from the shakeouts in the music and publishing industries should provide motivation to presidents, chancellors, and provosts to look seriously at this problem, as many of the same dynamics that disrupted those industries are now at play in higher education. As students around the world start preparing for their year-end exams, it will be interesting to see how seriously leaders of universities prepare for one of the toughest tests that they’ll ever face.

 

From DSC:
I have been trying to get these trends/warnings/messages across to others for years — more people are starting to raise the same red flags on some of these same topics as well.

There is great danger in the status quo these days. Don’t get me wrong — I’m a firm believer in education, especially liberal arts education. But the traditional model is simply not sustainable — it continually shuts more people out of the system and/or puts such a burden on students’ backs as to significantly influence — if not downright limit — their future options and experiences.

But as the saying goes, “Change is optional — survival is not mandatory.”


Addendum:

 

 

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Passion-based learning in the 21st century: An interview with Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach [Norton]

On 04/22/2011, in 21st century, communications, dangers of the status quo, education reform, education technology, K-12 related, passions, pedagogy, staying relevant, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teaching & learning, trends, by Daniel Christian

Passion-based learning in the 21st century: An interview with Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach — from plpnetworks.com by John Norton

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach often speaks of the “moral imperative” for K12 educators to assure that all students gain the skills, knowledge and dispositions they need to be successful in a connected world “where the ability to think critically, collaborate effectively and master increasingly powerful digital technologies” will determine their success in school, college and careers.

Nussbaum-Beach has been an educator for 20 years, serving as a public school classroom teacher, technology coach, charter school principal, district administrator, university instructor, and digital learning consultant. She is a frequent international speaker and the chief executive officer of Powerful Learning Practice LLC, a company she founded with educator-author Will Richardson to provide “professional development for 21st century educators.” PLP’s client list includes public, parochial and independent schools in the United States, Canada, Australia and Norway.

Nussbaum-Beach is also president of the digital consulting firm 21st Century Collaborative, LLC and a doctoral candidate at The College of William and Mary. She serves on the advisory board for the 2011 Horizon Report on trends in K12 education. Her first book, The Connected Educator, will be published by Solution Tree later this year.

In this interview, Sheryl describes the “shift” she believes must take place in teaching and learning practices if elementary and secondary schools expect to remain relevant in an era when information and communication technologies will continue to expand exponentially.

Also see:

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My reflections on 2 items re: online learning

On 03/31/2011, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, education reform, education technology, entrepreneurship, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, innovation, instructional design, leadership, learning ecosystem, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, online learning, personalized/customized learning, staying relevant, strategy, surviving, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
The first article/item I want to comment on is:

A Potential Market for Courseware Developers — from Brandon-Hall.com by Richard Nantel

First of all, thanks Richard for tackling this subject and for putting a posting out there regarding it. For years, I’ve wondered what the best way(s) is(are) to pursue the creation of professionally-done, interactive, personalized/customized, multimedia-based, engaging content. It is expensive to create well-done materials and/or the learning engines behind these materials. Also, as at the faith-based college where I work, some colleges would want a very specific kind of content or take a different slant on presenting the content.  So the content would have to be modified — which would have an associated cost to it.

Some options that I’ve thought of:

  • Outsource the content creation to a team of specialists — at educationally-focused publishing companies out there
  • Outsource the content creation to a team of specialists — at other solution providers focused on education
  • Develop the content in-house with a team of specialists
  • Don’t create content at all, but rather steer people to the streams of content that are already flowing out there. Some content may be changing so fast that it may not be worth the expense to create it.
  • Have students create the content — that’s what school becomes. Learning enough to create/teach the content to others. (This would require a great deal of cross-disciplinary collaboration and cooperation amongst faculty members.)

As a relevant aside, I have held that if an organization could raise the capital and the teams to develop this type of engaging, professionally-done content — and scale the solution — they could become the Forthcoming Walmart of Education. The attractive piece of this for families/students out there would be that this type of education will come at a 50%+ discount.

The second article/item that caused some additional reflection here was the article at The Chronicle of Higher Education by Marc Parry entitled, “Think You’ll Make Big Bucks in Online Ed? Not So Fast, Experts Say”

What if the United States could reallocate even the cost of 1-2 high-end planes in the United States Air Force? Our nation could create stunning, engaging content that could reach millions of people on any given subject — as online learning has the potential to be highly scalable (though I realize that much of this depends upon how much involvement an organization wants to integrate into the delivery/teaching of this content in terms of their instructors’/professors’ time).

Anyway, Marc highlights some important points — that creating content, marketing that content, etc. can be expensive.

But I have it that if you don’t get into this online learning game, you won’t be relevant in the years to come. People want convenience and students’ expectations will continue to rise — wanting to learn on their own pace, per their own schedule, from any place and on any device; finally, they will want to have more opportunities to participate/collaborate/control their own learning experiences. (And this doesn’t even touch upon whether it will become even more difficult to get through “the gate”  — that is, getting the student’s attention in order to make it into their short-term memory, in hopes of then moving the lesson/information into long-term memory.)


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Blockbuster’s largest shareholder calls Blockbuster worst investment ever made

On 03/23/2011, in 21st century, change, changing business models, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, disruption, future of higher education, game-changing environment, leadership, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, online learning, pace of change, staying relevant, strategy, surviving, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

Blockbuster’s largest shareholder calls Blockbuster worst investment ever made — from FastCompany.com by Austin Carr

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After years as Blockbuster’s largest shareholder, Carl Icahn, who at one point amassed some 17 million shares of the now-bankrupt company, has called Blockbuster “the worst investment I ever made.”

In a candid piece written for the Harvard Business Review, Icahn opens up about the rental giant’s struggles and failures in an ever-changing industry.

“[Blockbuster] failed because of too much debt and changes in the industry. It had too many stores, Netflix created a better business model, and then Redbox kiosks and the whole digital phenomenon eliminated the need for consumers to go to a separate DVD store,” Icahn wrote. “Maybe the board did make a mistake in picking Jim Keyes as [John] Antioco’s successor—Keyes knows retailing and did an excellent job with the stores, but he isn’t a digital guy.”

From DSC:
I write about Blockbuster — and I emphasize the items above — because Blockbuster did not respond to the changes that were occurring around them.

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What about those of us in higher education?
How’s our response(s) coming along?

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The pace has changed -- don't come onto the track in a Model T

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Staying Relevant

 

5/2/11 addendum:

4/7/11 addendum:


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From Anya Kamenetz on 3-21-11 — DIY U: The transformation of higher education

On 03/22/2011, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, accreditation, active learning, career development, change, changing business models, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, digital learning, disruption, education reform, education technology, engagement / engaging students, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, global / globalization, higher education, informal learning, innovation, learning, learning ecosystem, more voice more choice more control, motivation, new business models, participation, personalized/customized learning, presentations, professional development, relationships, social learning / networks, staying relevant, strategy, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, surviving, teaching & learning, technology (general), traditional / tradition, trends, web-based collaboration, workplace, by Daniel Christian

The transformatin of higher education -- 3-21-11 presentation by Anya Kamenetz

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The transformatin of higher education -- 3-21-11 presentation by Anya Kamenetz

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From DSC:
For those of us in more traditional institutions of higher education, if this is where things are heading — or even if pieces of Anya’s presentation come to fruition — what is our response? Strategy?

 

 

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What’s the best way for learners, employees, organizations, & publishers to deal with constantly-moving *streams* of content?

On 03/18/2011, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, active learning, adult learning, career development, change, collaboration, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital textbooks, distance education, informal learning, instructional design, learning ecosystem, learning theories, lifelong learning, microlearning, online learning, online media, pace of change, professional development, publishing, RSS, social learning / networks, social media, staying relevant, strategy, student-related, surviving, teaching & learning, textbooks, training / L&D, ubiquitous learning, workplace, by Daniel Christian

What's the best way to deal with ever-changing streams of content? When information has shrinking half-lives?

From DSC:
After looking at some items concerning Connectivism*, I’ve been reflecting upon the following questions:

  • What’s the best way for us to dip our feet into the constantly moving streams of content?
    (No matter the topic or discipline, the streams continue to flow.)
  • What’s the optimal setup for K-12 based “courses”?
  • What’s the optimal setup for “courses” within higher education?
  • How should L&D departments deal with this phenomenon?
  • How do publishers and textbook authors want to address this situation?

Thinking of Gonzalez (2004; as cited in Siemens (2005)) description of the challenges of rapidly diminishing knowledge life:

“One of the most persuasive factors is the shrinking half-life of knowledge. The “half-life of knowledge” is the time span from when knowledge is gained to when it becomes obsolete. Half of what is known today was not known 10 years ago. The amount of knowledge in the world has doubled in the past 10 years and is doubling every 18 months according to the American Society of Training and Documentation (ASTD). To combat the shrinking half-life of knowledge, organizations have been forced to develop new methods of deploying instruction.”

Stephen Downes addresses this and points to a possible solution to this phenomenon in his presentation from 3/15/11 entitled “Educational Projection: Supporting Distributed Learning Online.”

Excerpt/slides:

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I need to put more thought into this, but wanted to throw this question out there…more later…

 

 

* From DSC: Some of the items I looked at regarding Connectivism — some directly related, others indirectly-related — were:

Siemens, G.  (2005).  Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age.  Retrieved from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm.

Downes, S.  (2005).  An introduction to connective knowledge.  Retrieved from http://www.  downes.  ca/post/33034.  Downes noted that this was published in Hug, Theo (ed.  ) (2007): Media, knowledge & education – exploring new spaces, relations and dynamics in digital media ecologies.  Proceedings of the International Conference held on June 25-26, 2007.  November 27, 2007.

Kop, R.  & Hill, A.  (2008).  Connectivism: Learning theory of the future or vestige of the past? International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, v9 n3 p1-13 Oct 2008.

Tracey, R.  (2009). Instructivism, constructivism or connectivism? Training & Development in Australia, December, 2009. p08-09, 2p.  Retrieved from EBSCOhost. ISSN 0310-4664.

Kerr, B.  (2007).  A challenge to connectivism.  Retrieved at http://learningevolves.  wikispaces.  com/kerr.

Sims, R.  (2008).  Rethinking (e)learning: A manifesto for connected generations.  Distance Education Vol.  29, No.  2, August 2008, 153–164.  ISSN 0158-7919 print/ISSN 1475-0198 online.  DOI: 10.  1080/01587910802154954

Lisa Dawley.   (2009).  Social network knowledge construction: emerging virtual world pedagogy.  On the Horizon, 17(2), 109-121.   Retrieved from ProQuest Education Journals.  (Document ID: 1880656431).

Hargadon, S.  (2011).  Ugh.  Classic politics now extends to social networking in education.  Retrieved from http://www.  stevehargadon.  com/2011/03/ugh-classic-politics-now-extends-to.  html.

Cross, J.  (2001).  Crowd-inspired innovation.  Retrieved from http://www.internettime.com/2011/03/crowd-inspired-innovation.

Rogers-Estable, M..  (2009).  Web 2.0 and distance education: Tools and techniques.  Distance Learning, 6(4), 55-60.  Retrieved from ProQuest Education Journals.  (Document ID: 2017059921).

Marrotte-Newman, S..  (2009).  Why virtual schools exist and understanding their culture.  Distance Learning, 6(4), 31-35.  Retrieved from ProQuest Education Journals.  (Document ID: 2017059881).

Hilton, J., Graham, C., Rich, P., & Wiley, D. (2010). Using online technologies to extend a classroom to learners at a distance.  Distance Education, 31(1), 77-92.  Retrieved from ProQuest Education Journals.  (Document ID: 2074810921).

Attwell, G. (2010). Personal learning environments and Vygotsky. Retrieved from http://www.pontydysgu.org/2010/04/personal-learning-environments-and-vygotsky.

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Models for the Future of Learning

On 02/28/2011, in education, educational games / serious games, future, K-12 related, learning, personalized/customized learning, simulations, social learning / networks, staying relevant, by Daniel Christian

Models for the Future of Learning — from KnowledgeWorks by Katherine Prince, Jesse Moyer, Lisa Scheerer, and Jamie Feltner
January 2011
This report was prepared for, and with the support of, Yellow Springs School District as part of a series of engagements related to its Class of 2020 initiative.


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The future of business: choosing the industries that will prosper in the decade ahead

On 02/22/2011, in business, entrepreneurship, future, staying relevant, by Daniel Christian

The future of business: choosing the industries that will prosper in the decade ahead — from Trends in the Living Networks by Ross Dawson (emphasis via DSC)

The key point here is that the boundaries of industries are blurring to such an extent that it is essentially meaningless to think about an industry as defined today and wonder whether it will get bigger or smaller. If you are currently in a particular industry or looking to enter it, if you are not doing something quite different in 10 years from now, you will probably be out of business. You need to be following value, not thinking within industry boundaries.

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I said almost exactly the same things recently to another journalist who was trying to get me to tell businesspeople what they should do. Rather than looking for the answers from someone else, entrepreneurs need to be trend watchers and futurists themselves, looking around, thinking about the implications, and acting on the trends they can see.

That said, tomorrow I will share my views on industries that are likely to prosper in the decade ahead.

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The Higher Education Landscape — by Mel Netzhammer

On 02/15/2011, in accreditation, assessment, budgets, business side of he, change, curriculum, higher education, learning, legislatures / government / legal, policy, staying relevant, teaching & learning, trends, by Daniel Christian

The Higher Ed Landscape -- February 2011

From DSC:
As I was reviewing Mel’s presentation, I couldn’t help but think of the amazing amount of pressure colleges and universities will be under towards “standardization” — or at minimum, institutions may need to accept much of what has occurred at another school.  The costs are too high not to — and the expectations from parents, students, legislatures, and the general public may force this to occur.

Along these lines, I think that the dynamics of teaching and learning change when we talk about the cost of an education going from a few thousand to 150,000+ for 4 years. Expectations are one thing that change; Mel’s presentation points to this a bit. But I also wondered…how will institutions of higher education differentiate themselves if these pressures for portability continue to build? How will they keep from becoming a commodity?

Also noteworthy was Mel’s slide re: what students can ultimately DO as a result of their educations — this may become more of the Holy Grail of Assessment.


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The Control Shift: A Grassroots Education Revolution Takes Shape

On 02/12/2011, in change, education, education reform, learning, staying relevant, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, by Daniel Christian

The Control Shift: A Grassroots Education Revolution Takes Shape — from Mind/Shift by Tina Barseghian
Kids are taking charge of their own learning as educators grapple with their new roles.

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Commentary: Universities On the brink

On 02/04/2011, in colleges, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, future of higher education, game-changing environment, leadership, learning agents, learning ecosystem, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, personalized/customized learning, staying relevant, strategy, universities, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

Commentary: Universities on the brink — from Forbes.com by Louis E. Lataif
The ever-increasing cost of education is not sustainable.

From DSC:
Regular readers of this Learning Ecosystems blog can point to numerous postings that illustrate that those of us in higher education are in a game-changing environment. Alternative methods of acquiring an education are springing up more frequently now — disruption is here. The status quo is a dangerous path to be on.

If…

  • learning engines hooked into web-based learner profiles occurs — ushering in an era of unprecedented customization/personalization of learning on demand…
  • web-based educations cost a small fraction of what you have to pay elsewhere…
  • the rates of tuition increases continue in colleges and universities across the land…
  • the Internet brings the level of disruption to higher education that it has brought to other industries…

…then what are our plans for remaining relevant and accessible? How are we planning to deal with these trends? What is our response(s)? What is our vision?

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The need for innovation: Items re: how the price of higher ed is affecting students, families, communities, nations

On 01/11/2011, in budgets, business side of he, cost of getting a degree, funding / grants, future, future of higher education, legislatures / government / legal, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, staying relevant, student-related, United States, by Daniel Christian

One from DSC:


What goes up...must come down -- by Daniel S. Christian

Abstract:
A perfect storm has been building within higher education. Numerous, powerful forces have been converging that either already are or soon will be impacting the way higher education is offered and experienced. This paper focuses on one of those forces – the increasing price tag of obtaining a degree within higher education.  It will seek to show that what goes up…must come down.  Some less expensive alternatives are already here today; but the most significant changes and market “corrections” appear to be right around the corner. That is, higher education is a bubble about to burst.

One from CNBC:

Price of Admission: America's College Debt Crisis

— from CNBC on Monday, January 3, 2011

Also see:

From DSC:
Disclosure: I work for Calvin College. However, I publish the above items in the hopes that those of us at Calvin and within higher education as a whole will choose to innovate — that we will think outside the box in order to greatly lower the cost of providing a degree within higher education. It would be very helpful to future students, families, communities, nations.

No matter how you look at it, pain — but also opportunities — are ahead. Change will not be easy, nor will it be comfortable.  It will most likely be very scary and very tough. At least for me, this posting and the topic it discusses evokes major soul and heart searching for me. Nevertheless, the questions remain:

  • What changes do we need to make so that institutions of higher education can become more affordable? Stay relevant? Be sustainable over time?
  • What should we put in place of the current “status quo”?
  • Who receives the pain? Who enjoys the opportunities?

Also see:

Addendum on 1-19-11:

Student Loan Docume -- videos on Vimeo

http://www.defaultmovie.com/

Addendum on 1/22/10:
The Bubble: Higher Education’s Precarious Hold on Consumer Confidence — from National Association of Scholars

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Themes for next summer’s New Media Consortium’s (NMC) Conference

On 11/19/2010, in analytics, Augmented Reality (AR), change, dangers of the status quo, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, disruption, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, future of higher education, game-changing environment, geography / geology, higher education, immersion, innovation, internet, IT in HE, leadership, learning ecosystem, learning spaces, mobile learning, mobile technologies, multi-touch, multimedia, online learning, online media, open courseware and systems, social learning / networks, staying relevant, strategy, teaching & learning, tools, trends, ubiquitous learning, videoconferencing, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

The 2011 NMC Summer Conference includes four themes:

Threads in these themes include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Emerging uses of mobile devices and applications in any context
  • Highly innovative, successful applications of learning analytics or visual data analysis
  • Uses of augmented reality, geolocation, and gesture-based computing
  • Discipline-specific applications for emerging technologies
  • Challenges and trends in educational technology
  • Projects that employ the Horizon Report or Navigator in any capacity

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  • Challenge-based learning
  • Game-based learning
  • Digital storytelling as a learning strategy
  • Immersive learning environments
  • Open content resources and strategies
  • New media research and scholarship
  • Challenges and trends in new media and learning

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  • Fostering/Supporting/budgeting for innovation
  • Supporting new media scholarship
  • Collaboration as a strategy
  • Learning space design, in all senses of the words
  • Use, creation, and management of open content
  • Experiment and experience; gallery as lab, lab as gallery
  • Challenges and trends related to managing an educational enterprise

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  • Designing for mobile devices in any context
  • Social networking — designing, monitoring, maximizing social tools
  • Experience design
  • Creating augmented reality
  • Creating the next generation of electronic books
  • Optimizing digital workflows
  • Strategies for staying current with new media tools
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“It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.”

On 11/12/2010, in change, changing business models, dangers of the status quo, disruption, future of higher education, game-changing environment, organizational change, staying relevant, by Daniel Christian

Quote from W. Edwards Deming:
“It is not necessary to change.  Survival is not mandatory.”

— I saw this quote over at Edupunks, Distance Learning, and Biology

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Another example that supports what Clayton Christensen/Michael Horn have been saying…

On 11/06/2010, in change, changing business models, disruption, future of higher education, game-changing environment, reinvent, staying relevant, technologies for your home, trends, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
All of us must constantly reinvent ourselves — if current trends continue, this will become truer with each day that passes for the rest of our lifetimes.

The article below points out yet another example of how the entrenched incumbents who don’t reinvent themselves ultimately lose customers, and therefor relevancy. It is very difficult to make a right turn from our traditional “bread and butter” business models and methods of doing business.  But if an organization is to stay atop its field, it must reinvent itself.  This is not a message for just the corporate world — it is a message for those of us within higher education.

Cable TV Bleeds Subscribers, Internet TV Cleans Them Up — from FastCompany.com by Austin Carr

Free Internet TV

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Staying Relevant

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