From DSC:
Some potential scenarios of our future. Are there implications for how we educate today’s students? For our curriculum?
Citing IT skills shortage, IBM wants to expand presence at universities — from wiredacademic.com
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
“We want to be the scale up partner of choice for these universities,” said Jim Sporher, head of IBM’s university programs. “We want to make sure they have access to technology and understand our strategy.” He also sees massive open online courses (MOOCs) as a mega-trend and will be considering ways for IBM to be part of the MOOC trend in the future, particularly as many of the MOOC providers such as Udacity and Coursera offer classes in computer science.
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As a big blue-chip progenitor of the tech industry, IBM is worth listening to in many regards. For one, corporate computing trends often filter down into the education space. The corporate world often has the money to purchase and deploy game-changing technologies. IBM sees that it also works the other way too, where computing at the university level creates new businesses and ideas that move up into the corporate realm.
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From DSC:
I wonder…will the corporations develop their own MOOCs? Their own digital “playlists” and associated exams? (i.e. that someone needs to go through and pass in order to work for them…show me what you can do.) Hmmm…
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Excerpt:
Around the world, educators are fostering creative thinking with their students. We see this every day across both K-12 and higher education in compelling, engaging ways. I remembera 4th grade reading class that I attended where the teacher read aloud to students while sitting around a “virtual campfire” she’d created with iMovie – the students loved it. At the same time, we hear a lot about a growing emphasis on, “teaching to the test” that can sometimes result in a decreased focus on creativity – we think this is a huge problem for our students and for the global economy. College-educated professionals agree. I wanted to share newly-released results of what more than 1000 college graduates say about the importance of creativity in education.
Keynote Address: Democratizing Higher Education by Sebastian Thrun, VP & Fellow Google
From DSC:
Sebastian Thrun gave a great keynote at last week’s Sloan-C Conference in Orlando, Fl. An especially interesting item:
One of the business models Sebastian is considering is to have Udacity act as a job placement organization. That is, Udacity can run courses, identify the top performers worldwide, and then match employers up with employees. Udacity would get ___% of these placements’ first year salaries. Very interesting model.
Five ways to improve the job prospects of recent college grads — from LinkedIn.com by Jeff Selingo
Excerpt:
The first question in last night’s town-hall presidential debate came from a college student, Jeremy Epstein, who asked the candidates how they would reassure him that he’d be able to support himself after graduation.
Unemployment among recent college graduates remains above 6 percent (although it has dropped in the last year and is still much lower than for those with only a high-school education). If you listen to many economists, presidents have little control over creating jobs.
Here are five ways to put more college graduates to work: