Number of the week: Class of 2011, most indebted ever — from The Wall Street Journal by Mark Whitehouse
Excerpt:
$22,900: Average student debt of newly minted college graduates
The Class of 2011 will graduate this spring from America’s colleges and universities with a dubious distinction: the most indebted ever.
From DSC:
Netflix reinvents itself — to its own benefit and to Blockbuster’s downfall. By the way, note how quickly this happened! There’s a lesson in this for higher ed (though perhaps the speed of such changes may be different in higher ed).
Some items on this:
New Sony TV Ad: Television Redefined, Internet TV, 4/15/11 — from electrictv.com
New Samsung Smart TV Ad: Internet TV, 4/13/11 — from electrictv.com
[WATCH]: Interactive Video Conferencing at NCSSM
How technology will disrupt learning for a lifetime, not just in the classroom — by Audrey Watters
But the Internet is doing far more than opening doors for K-12 and higher education students. It’s also a huge boon for “lifelong learners,” those students — students of any age — that are pursuing educational opportunities in informal settings and outside degree programs.
Daniel Christian:
A Vision of Our Future Learning Ecosystems
In the near future, as the computer, the television, the telephone (and more) continues to converge, we will most likely enjoy even more powerful capabilities to conveniently create and share our content as well as participate in a global learning ecosystem — whether that be from within our homes and/or from within our schools, colleges, universities and businesses throughout the world.
We will be teachers and students at the same time — even within the same hour — with online-based learning exchanges taking place all over the virtual and physical world. Subject Matter Experts (SME’s) — in the form of online-based tutors, instructors, teachers, and professors — will be available on demand. Even more powerful/accurate/helpful learning engines will be involved behind the scenes in delivering up personalized, customized learning — available 24x7x365. Cloud-based learner profiles may enter the equation as well.
The chances for creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship that are coming will be mind-blowing! What employers will be looking for — and where they can look for it — may change as well.
What we know today as the “television” will most likely play a significant role in this learning ecosystem of the future. But it won’t be like the TV we’ve come to know. It will be much more interactive and will be aware of who is using it — and what that person is interested in learning about. Technologies/applications like Apple’s AirPlay will become more standard, allowing a person to move from device to device without missing a beat. Transmedia storytellers will thrive in this environment!
Much of the professionally done content will be created by teams of specialists, including the publishers of educational content, and the in-house teams of specialists within colleges, universities, and corporations around the globe. Perhaps consortiums of colleges/universities will each contribute some of the content — more readily accepting previous coursework that was delivered via their consortium’s membership.
An additional thought regarding higher education and K-12 and their Smart Classrooms/Spaces:
For input devices…
The “chalkboards” of the future may be transparent, or they may be on top of a drawing board-sized table or they may be tablet-based. But whatever form they take and whatever is displayed upon them, the ability to annotate will be there; with the resulting graphics saved and instantly distributed. (Eventually, we may get to voice-controlled Smart Classrooms, but we have a ways to go in that area…)
Below are some of the graphics that capture a bit of what I’m seeing in my mind…and in our futures.
Alternatively available as a PowerPoint Presentation (audio forthcoming in a future version)
— from Daniel S. Christian | April 2011
Addendum on 4-14-11:
The anti-Blockbuster way: Disrupt your business rituals before someone else does — by Martin Lindstrom
Excerpt:
Over the years, I’ve worked with many companies who stubbornly believe their product couldn’t be beat. Some were right. Most were wrong. Very often, some of the world’s most iconic brands wake up to an extraordinary industry shift that takes them by surprise–but which, looking back, could have been predicted. The question is: wouldn’t it be better to intuit what the future may resemble before market forces and innovations “suddenly” wreak havoc with your company a few years down the line?
My advice? Throw a live-wire idea–or two, or three, or four–onto your boardroom table now. Get speculative. Get futuristic. Put on your Spock ears. Grab your TED microphone. There’s no other way to uncover how poised you are for a radical change in your industry’s future. If you’re a technology company, spend some time surfing the web in search of intriguing and even jarring slogans that could smash your entire category–such as Skype’s “The Whole World Can Talk for Free,” or Compaq’s “Has it Changed Your Life Yet?” Now try one or another of these slogans on for size. Do they transform the near and far edges of your business? Next question: Who got there first–you or someone else?
…
Which is why I recommend that you pre-order your own wake-up call today.
From DSC :
This goes for higher ed as well…
Some great items re: whether online learning is disruptive or not
The newsonomics of oblivion — from the Nieman Journalism Lab by Ken Doctor
Excerpt:
The threat of oblivion should be a powerful motivator, and we now see — finally — after a decade of decline, its specter moving us away from incremental, “experimental” tests to a fundamental restructuring of the business of news.
From DSC:
(I don’t mean to be full of doom and gloom here. However, a healthy respect of the disruption being caused by technology is warranted here I believe.)
I couldn’t help but think of higher education as an industry when I reviewed this particular blog posting. Those of us working within higher education need to be highly aware of how other industries are dealing with the disruptions being caused by the Internet and other technologies. Why? Because the disruption has already begun within higher education.
Does online education put traditional universities at a ‘grave risk’? — from eCampusNews.com by Denny
An expert on ‘disruptive innovation’ says ed tech could change the way powerhouse universities operate
Excerpt from article:
Christensen, a Harvard Business School professor and author of The Innovator’s Dilemma and The Innovator’s Prescription, delivered the keynote address to an audience of higher-education officials March 7 at the American Council on Education’s Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.
Christensen outlined the ways upstart, innovative businesses have toppled the giants of industry—such as Toyota’s rise coinciding with American automakers’ downfall—and how that model might translate to colleges and universities.
While online college classes have grown more available and affordable over the past decade, Christensen said a major shift had not yet occurred in higher education. Not until online learning grew in popularity was higher education even “amenable” to a major “disruption,” he said.
“When technology gets good enough, it sucks customers out of the old into the new,” he said, referring to institutions that have specialized in online learning, rather than traditional schools that have slowly adopted online college classes. “It doesn’t work the other way around.”
That move away from traditional powerhouses of education, he said, likely would happen in the next 20 years, and elite schools should be prepared.
…
National data support Christensen’s warning to traditional universities. Online student enrollment increased by 21 percent in 2010, according to the annual Sloan Survey of Online Learning. Overall, higher-education enrollment grew by 2 percent.
The survey of more than 2,500 colleges and universities showed online college classes gained 1 million students from 2009. More than 5.6 million students were enrolled in at least one web-based class in the fall 2009 semester.
Some example items from Christensen’s and Cizik’s keynote presentation:
The Innovative University: Changing the DNA of Higher Education From the Inside Out
Also relevant/see:
When the invincible become “vincible” — from HBR.org by Ron Ashkenas
Excerpt that caught my eye:
We now live in a world in which that sense of security can disappear in a heartbeat — whether your company falls off the cliff, or makes significant changes to avoid the cliff. Like an investment disclaimer for individuals, past performance is no guarantee of future success. So to keep on your guard, ask yourself these questions:
You may not need answers to these types of questions today. But better to address them now — instead of the moment when you’re falling off the cliff.
