From DSC:
“The Walmart of Education [Christian, 2008]” appears to be materializing in front of our eyes.
.
On 10/25/2012,
in competency-based learning/education, dangers of the status quo, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, personalized/customized learning, teaching & learning, trends,
by Daniel Christian
Three trends in higher education that defy the status quo — from onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com by Debbie Morrison
Excerpt:
Leading educators shared their insights and innovative programs – three dominant themes emerged, 1) competency based learning, 2) personalized student learning and 3) the changing role of the instructor. Each presenter shared extensive research in an area of his or her expertise and details of an innovative educational program; programs that provide a non-traditional education that defy the status quo. The summary of the trends follow, with a ‘takeaway’ for each designed to provide readers with practical ideas for application to their own area of study or work.
On 10/24/2012,
in Australia, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, future of higher education, game-changing environment, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, reinvent, staying relevant,
by Daniel Christian
.
“A thousand year old industry on the cusp of profound change”
On 10/24/2012,
in Canada, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, future of higher education, game-changing environment, online learning,
by Daniel Christian
Classroom of 2020: The future is very different than you think — from theglobeandmail.com by Erin Millar
Excerpt:
This is the brave new world of higher education, where students teach professors, technology enables digital note-passing and online courses enroll thousands of students. The pupil-tutor relationship has been turned on its head. A perfect storm — extreme financial constraints, a technological revolution, groundbreaking pedagogical research, and increased expectations from students facing weak job prospects — is forcing universities to reimagine their purpose. And all the while, a university education has never been more in demand from so many parts of the world.
.
William Johnson for The Globe and Mail
On 10/18/2012,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, convergence, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital learning, disruption, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, internet, K-12 related, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, lifelong learning, mobile learning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, online learning, online tutoring, personalized/customized learning, smart/connected TV, trends, ubiquitous learning,
by Daniel Christian
IBM’s Watson expands commercial applications, aims to go mobile — from singularityhub.com by Jason Dorrier
.
From DSC:
This relates to what I was trying to get at with the posting on mobile learning. I would add the word “Education” to the list of industries that the technologies encapsulated in Watson will impact in the future. Combine this with the convergence that’s enabling/building the Learning from the Living [Class] Room environment, and you have one heck of an individualized, data-driven, learning ecosystem that’s available 24 x 7 x 365 — throughout your lifetime!!!
.
Also relevant here are some visions/graphics I created from 2012 and from 2008:
.
![The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV](http://danielschristian.com/learning-ecosystems/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/The-Living-Class-Room-Daniel-S-Christian-July-2012.jpg "The-Living-Class-Room-Daniel-S-Christian---July-2012")
.
.
.
On 10/15/2012,
in change, changing business models, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, disruption, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, innovation, K-12 related, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, reinvent, staying relevant,
by Daniel Christian
The need for more experimentation, innovation within higher education.
By Daniel Christian for the CHFE12 MOOC
Last week, I attended the 18th Annual Sloan Consortium on Online Learning in Orlando, FL (USA). After hearing Sebastian Thrun’s excellent keynote address, I was very troubled by a couple of questions that kept arising in my mind (which I’ll get to in a minute). It turns out that Sebastian had heard Sal Kahn at a TED talk a while back, where he learned of the impact that Sal was having and the pedagogy Sal was using.
Now bear in mind that Sal was not in education. He was working in the financial services industry, putting together training-related items for his nephews/family members.
Then bear in mind that Sal Kahn has arguably had one of the most significant impacts on K-12 of any individual in recent decades – and even on institutions of higher education (in terms of professors investigating or starting to use the flipped/inverted classroom model).
Then bear in mind that Sebastian Thrun didn’t run his idea by anyone in Stanford’s administration! His email out to some folks started going viral, and within days the enrollment numbers were already in the thousands. (And at that point he got asked to drop by his Admin’s offices! 🙂 I wonder what would have happened if Sebastian would have first asked Stanford’s leadership for permission…? It may never have occurred.)
Sebastian’s and Peter Norvig’s AI course went onto graduate 23,000 people (with an initial enrollment around 160,000). Then, there’s the related Coursera organization/endeavor — again, a business that needed to be created outside of the traditional institutions of higher education.
So, recapping things:
- Sebastian didn’t run things by anyone in his administration
- He ended up needing to create his own company – outside of traditional higher ed (Udacity)
- He was significantly influenced by someone completely outside of education
- Coursera and Udacity operate outside the policies and procedures of traditional institutions of higher education
So, the following two questions arose in my mind last week:
- Why didn’t these innovations come from – or why weren’t they developed within – traditional institutions of K-12/higher education?
- Why did such influence have to occur – in great part – from outside of “the established systems”?
Any answer to these questions is troubling to me. But one plausible explanation involves leadership. Many of our leaders in higher education did not grow up with the Internet and with LANs, WANs, HTTP protocols, etc. They didn’t grow up using the tools that today’s youth are using.
As such, they don’t always appreciate the power and potential of technology. I don’t mean to point fingers and play a blame game here. That’s not the point. The point is, leaders are people with finite gifts and abilities. Like all of us, they have been shaped by their experiences and they, too, have their histories. They were moved into their positions of responsibility due to the needs of of the institutions at certain points in time. But the needs of those institutions have since changed.
The problem is, those in key leadership positions will either need to:
- Quickly come to appreciate the disruptive, powerful impact that technologies can have (i.e. be sold on them) and strategize accordingly
and/or - Find other positions (which most likely won’t be happening if normal self-preservation tendencies/principles of power continue to occur)
Blockbuster comes to mind as an organization that was once dominant, but disregarded the disruptive impact of technology and eventually had to declare bankruptcy. One can think of other examples from other industries as well (can’t we Kodak? Borders?).
Such reflections were reinforced when I read Selingo’s (2012) article from earlier today where he wrote, “It’s clear to me that the needed reforms for student financial-aid are unfortunately not going to come from higher education. Many financial-aid officials remain opposed to the model letter, as well as many other regulations.”
Like Selingo, I don’t see change coming from within the current system. I hope that I’m sorely mistaken here, but from the pulse checking I’ve been doing, the conversation seems to be continuing to move away from traditional institutions of higher education (example here and another example here). I hope that we can pick up the pace of experimentation within our organizations to find ways to lower the costs while still providing effective means of educating people.
—
Selingo, J. (2012, October 15). In a Broken Student Aid System, Colleges Are Part of the Problem. In The Quick and the Ed. Retrieved from http://www.quickanded.com/2012/10/in-a-broken-student-aid-system-colleges-are-part-of-the-problem.html
—
Addendum/also see:
On 10/02/2012,
in accreditation, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, higher education, innovation,
by Daniel Christian
On 10/01/2012,
in business side of he, change, changing business models, computer science, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, innovation, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, online learning, reinvent, staying relevant, strategy, surviving,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
Sending a special thanks out to Dr. Kate Byerwalter,
Professor at Grand Rapids Community College for this resource!
Also see:
- The crisis in higher education — from technologyreview.com by Nicholas Carr
Online versions of college courses are attracting hundreds of thousands of students, millions of dollars in funding, and accolades from university administrators. Is this a fad, or is higher education about to get the overhaul it needs?
. - The hybrid classroom: How online learning can cut costs by 57% — from edcetera.com by David LaMartina
On 09/21/2012,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, business side of he, change, changing business models, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, disruption, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, innovation, internet, learning ecosystem, lifelong learning, online learning, social learning / networks,
by Daniel Christian
![Higher education used to be on deck, but is now at bat. [Christian]](http://danielschristian.com/learning-ecosystems/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/HigherEducationNowAtBat-DanielChristian1.jpg "HigherEducationNowAtBat--DanielChristian")
From DSC:
My way of thinking about what’s happening to higher education these days borrows from the sport of baseball: Higher education used to be on deck; but now, we’re at bat.
I’ve watched as the former power brokers throughout many other industries reluctantly got out of the dugout, nervously began their warm up on deck, and then timidly moved up to bat as well. They were trying to cling to the status quo. Which didn’t work. We’ve all seen the results. There are new power brokers in those industries now. (Which is I why I assert that there is danger in the status quo — our organizations need to always be at the work of reinventing ourselves.)
…
If I had to pick the top 2 forces driving change throughout the higher education landscape, I would have to say the cost of obtaining a degree and technology-enabled innovation.
…
Control is an illusion; people will find a way.
The items below reinforced my perspectives when I saw them this morning. They inspired me to create the above graphic, something I’ve been meaning to do for quite some time now.
- The internet is happening to education — from xedbook.com by George Siemens
“How did you go bankrupt?”
“Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”
– Hemingway
Excerpt:
Our thesis with xEducation is that the internet is happening to higher education and that successful universities of the future will be those that find ways to generate value for its many stakeholders that go beyond content provision and teaching. What exactly that value proposition is remains unclear. On the one hand, content and (recorded) lectures can easily be shared with limited costs. The internet scales content exceptionally well. The human, social, processes of learning don’t scale. Research doesn’t scale (yet). Regional and national economic value generation doesn’t scale. In these spaces where scalability does not work well, universities will likely find their new roles in society. Over the next six months, we’ll explore and test this thesis and place the discussion of higher education reform on a firmer foundation than the latest tool and popular hype.
- XEducation – the real disruption isn’t online courses, it’s their business model — from xedbook.com by Bonnie Stewart
. - Do MOOCs say anything about higher ed? — from xedbook.com by Dave Cormier
On 09/14/2012,
in business, career development, corporate / business world, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, economics, education reform, future, hearts -- matters of the heart, K-12 related, student-related, surviving, United States, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
On 09/11/2012,
in budgets, business side of he, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, innovation, new business models, reinvent,
by Daniel Christian
Technology and the broken higher education cost model: Insights from the Delta Cost Project — from Educause by Rita Kirshstein and Jane Wellman
Excerpt:
Although U.S. higher education has faced numerous crises and dilemmas in its history, the situation in which colleges and universities find themselves at the moment is indeed different. Shrinking public subsidies coupled with historic rises in tuitions come at the same time that colleges and universities have been tasked to dramatically increase the number of individuals with postsecondary degrees. Additionally, many of these students need financial aid, putting further strains on the higher education system. The stratification between rich and poor institutions in their access to resources is also growing. These conditions make the current “cost model” under which higher education has typically operated no longer sustainable and have led to college and university leaders examining alternative ways to deliver both high-quality and affordable higher education. These alternatives incorporate technology and include access to distance-delivered education and services, a focus on learners’ outcomes rather than inputs, and technologically sophisticated buildings and classrooms.
The changes are welcome and largely overdue in much of higher education, but unless the use of technology, whether in instruction or in the operation of the institution, is guided by an understanding of higher education costs and cost structures, its use will not fix the problem of a broken higher education cost model. This problem is not confined to the way that instruction is funded and delivered; rather, it is much broader, including the costs of academic and administrative overhead and the largely unexamined “fixed costs” that drive so much of institutional spending. To implement technological innovations that can improve both efficiency and effectiveness, leaders must be guided in their efforts by a strong understanding of the impact of the innovations on both costs and revenues, as well as on learning outcomes. Without this understanding, leaders are likely to follow the usual model of innovation in higher education: implementing program add-ons, which are sometimes successful and sometimes not but which inevitably increase costs rather than replacing or reducing them and ultimately fail to take hold in ways that will leverage systemic improvements.
On 08/30/2012,
in corporate / business world, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, disruption, education technology, entrepreneurship, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, innovation, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, reinvent, staying relevant, student-related, vendors,
by Daniel Christian
![The Washington Monthly - The Magazine - The Siege of Academe [Kevin Carey]](http://danielschristian.com/learning-ecosystems/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/TheSiegeOfAcademy-Sept2012.jpg "TheSiegeOfAcademy-Sept2012")
Excerpt:
The ongoing carnage in the newspaper industry provides an object lesson of what can happen when a long-established, information-focused industry’s business model is challenged by low-price competitors online. The disruptive power of information technology may be our best hope for curing the chronic college cost disease that is driving a growing number of students into ruinous debt or out of higher education altogether. It may also be an existential threat to institutions that have long played a crucial role in American life.
.
From DSC:
If higher ed doesn’t respond more forcefully/significantly to the perfect storm it finds itself in, people will find other ways of getting employed and staying employed. The conversation continues to move away from institutions of traditional higher education (here’s but one example). Control is an illusion.
On 08/16/2012,
in 21st century, business side of he, change, changing business models, corporate / business world, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, disruption, hearts -- matters of the heart, publishing, technology (general),
by Daniel Christian
Key quote/lesson from “How Barnes & Noble destroyed itself” — from fool.com by John Maxfield
An unnecessary tragedy
What makes B&N’s story tragic from a shareholder’s and book-lover’s perspective is that it wasn’t inevitable. The company would be in an entirely different position if its leadership hadn’t pooh-poohed online retail in the late 1990s, when the now-dominant Amazon was in its infancy. Consider this from its 1998 annual report: “Although it is clear the World Wide Web, with its profound possibilities, will become a major component of the future of bookselling and publishing, we believe retail bookstores will remain the foundation of our industry . . . shopping and browsing in a bookstore is an irreplaceable experience, and it is woven securely into the fabric of our American culture [emphasis added].”
From DSC:
I love going to B&N; sipping some coffee and reading a book. So don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy the physical experience of going to a bookstore. But the lesson for higher ed — as well as for the corporate world — is that technology cannot be pooh-poohed and shoved aside. Those who do so will be very sorry that they chose that route. There can be danger in pursuing the status quo.
How about your organization…is there solid representation of technology on your board/executive suite/leadership team?
My last thought here relates to my posting What happens in our hearts has very practical, relevant implications in our daily lives
In 2009, the company paid its chairman of the board, Len Riggio, nearly $600 million for B&N College, an amalgamation of campus-based bookstores that controlled the rights to the parent company’s trade name and was then owned by Riggio and his wife.
At the time, it looked like a classic covetous overreach by an executive to extract capital without selling shares. When all that’s left of B&N is a Harvard case study, however, my guess is that this blatant display of avarice and disregard for minority shareholders will be characterized more ominously as the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.
.
Also relevant here:
- ReadWriteWeb DeathWatch: Barnes & Noble — from readwriteweb.com by Cormac Foster
On 07/23/2012,
in budgets, business side of he, change, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, game-changing environment, higher education, legislatures / government / legal, United States,
by Daniel Christian
Also see:
- A State-by-State Report Card on Public Postsecondary Education — from icw.uschamber.com
Excerpt:
But to reap these benefits fully, the nation clearly has a long way to go. Producing the additional degrees the United States needs would be a challenge in flush economic times; doing so in the current fiscal environment will require significant and difficult modifications.
. - A Sobering Look at College Affordability — from The Chronicle by Beckie Supiano