.
Also see:
From DSC:
I read the following quote from Codecademy signs up 97,000 people for its New Year’s resolution coding class (emphasis mine):
Codecademy, a startup that uses interactive online lessons to turn anyone into a computer programmer, has signed up 97,000 students in less than 48 hours for its New Year’s resolution class Code Year. That’s more than twice as many students as were enrolled in the 150 U.S. computer science undergraduate programs that the Computer Research Association surveyed last year.
This is both positive and troubling to me. Positive in that more people will learn how to program across the world, and thus (hopefully) becoming qualified to fill many of the open programming-related positions out there. It’s troubling in that the quote mentions that within 48 hours, the number of students signed up was already more than twice the number of students enrolled in Computer Science programs at the undergraduate level in the entire United States.
What does that statement tell us?
Hmmm…regardless, this is an excellent example of the disruption being caused by technology and the Internet. I expect many more examples in 2012. Perhaps the “Walmart of Education” that I’ve been tracking over the years will have different components to it, with one major piece of it coming from the Codeacademy’s of the world.
Some of the questions that come to my mind for those of us working within higher education are:
TVs to become ‘communications hub’ expert claims — from t3.com by Luke Johnson
.
Also see:
.
Also see:
Excerpts from An open letter to university administrators by Clayton Christensen
Defending the status quo is futile, and it’s no fun. Given fiscal realities beyond the control of university administrators, defending the operational status quo means choosing between big, focused cuts or death by a thousand small ones. Trading up to a larger school offers no escape from the grisly task of doing less with less.
…
Clinging to tradition will worsen individual and institutional disruption, while embracing innovation will hasten a new era of higher education productivity—not only of well-educated degree holders, but of new knowledge.
Also see:
.
BERKELEY, Calif. — Across the nation, a historic collapse in state funding for higher education threatens to diminish the stature of premier public universities and erode their mission as engines of upward social mobility.
Marc Andreessen: Predictions for 2012 (and beyond) — from cnet.com by Paul Sloan
Excerpt:
Software has chewed up music and publishing. It’s eaten away at Madison Avenue. It’s swallowed up retail outlets like Tower Records. The list goes on.
No area is safe–and that’s why Andreessen sees so much opportunity.
Fueling his optimism: ubiquitous broadband, cloud computing, and, above all, the smartphone revolution. In the 1990s, the Internet led to crazy predictions that simply weren’t yet possible. Now they are.
Will your college survive? –– from TechCrunch.com by John Katzman
Editor’s note: Guest contributor John Katzman is the founder and CEO of 2tor, an education startup that partners with universities to deliver selective degree programs online to students across the world. Katzman also founded the Princeton Review where he served as president and CEO from 1981-2007.
The Internet will save higher education, but it may kill your alma mater.
Peter Thiel believes smart people don’t need college, and he’s right: There have always been autodidacts who can learn without assistance. Of course, we don’t really need supermarkets and restaurants either; we could all grow and cook our own food.
Yet having professionals help us has always been a cost-benefit decision. What are the costs of a great education, including the opportunity cost of four years of work, and how do these costs balance against the impact of that education on your life?
The Internet is the first technology since the printing press, which could lower the cost of a great education and, in doing so, make that cost-benefit analysis much easier for most students. It could allow American schools to service twice as many students as they do now, and in ways that are both effective and cost-effective. For reasons that will be outlined below, however, it will probably end up doing this with half as many schools. And your school, even if it’s bumper-sticker worthy, might not make the cut.
..
Evolve or Else
Like any other disruptive transition, the move to online and blended universities will bring tremendous benefit to students—better education in more places at lower tuition. However, these changes will be painful for many schools. Most bookstores and travel agencies found themselves on the wrong side of a steadily growing force; the schools that thrive over the next two decades will do so only because they have carefully harnessed that very same force: the Internet.
Also see:
From DSC:
The tidal wave of technological change swept over Blockbuster and the article below shows how it drowned Kodak as well. These players were once at THEE top of their games…now they are either bankrupt or soon to be bankrupt (if things don’t change fast).
This relates to higher education as well, but I don’t think that we’ve seen anything yet (though 2012 may change that). Higher ed may have a limited window of time left before the conversation moves completely out of academia and higher ed as we know it gets left behind. The word “reinvent” and the phrases “staying relevant” as well as “lowering the price” should be at the top of the agendas for boards at most academic institutions of higher education throughout America (and other nations as well). I use the word most here because some folks will likely continue to pay enormous prices to get the name brands that they’ve been paying $50,000+ per year for.
If companies eventually don’t care who accredited your degree but rather what you can DO for them, watch out. The barriers to entry will plummet.
You Press the Button. Kodak Used to Do the Rest. — from technologyreview.com
Kodak saw the shift from analog to digital photography coming. Here’s why it couldn’t win.
.
Excerpt (emphasis from DSC):
But the industry landscape was completely different in the digital era. Barriers to entry were significantly lowered and the industry was flooded by entrants with a background in consumer electronics, such as Casio, Samsung, and Hewlett-Packard, not to mention Japanese camera manufacturers including Canon, Nikon, and Olympus. Large parts of Kodak’s competence base related to chemistry and film manufacturing were rendered obsolete. The vertical integration that had previously been a core asset to Kodak lost its value. Digital cameras became a commodity business with low margins. The problem facing Kodak wasn’t just that film profits had died but that those revenues could not be replaced.
Once images became digital, Kodak’s business model of “doing the rest” was effectively destroyed. Doing the rest used to entail a large and complex process that only a couple of companies in the world could master. Today, it is done by the click of a button.
Related graphic from DSC:
Also see:
12/15/11 addendum re: the conversation moving away from higher ed:
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
No single blog can adequately capture or represent what was going on at Learning 2011. But if you are intrigued, I suggest you go to www.Learning2011and see what the agenda and the presentations looked like for yourself.
.What I sensed, and what I am trying to describe here, was an accelerating transition in workforce education from a higher education-centric model to a learner-workplace-centric model. In a world where higher education institutions have dominated, controlled, and driven the conversation about quality, content, access, and results; the balance of power is shifting away from that more monolithic tendency to a far more disaggregated power structure where good information, metrics, and results that can be validated against third party standards are the “coin of the realm”.
Educational content and learning experiences wirelessly delivered to home TV console — from marketwatch.com
Excerpt:
DALLAS, Dec. 6, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Don’t touch that dial. A new variety of interactive educational content for the youngsters in the household is headed to a TV near you.
AT&T* today announced an agreement with TVTextbook to provide mobile broadband connectivity to TVTextbook’s eLearning connected device portfolio. TVTextbook (TVT) delivers high-quality K-12 curriculum that is distributed through a learning console connected to the television. Only TVTextbook leverages basic television-a product found in virtually every U.S. household-to help school districts deliver a digital education to 100% of their students. AT&T’s connectivity will bring a seamless, wireless connection between school and home.
From DSC:
Do I think this will be excellent in 2012? No. Do I think it’s innovative? Yes. Do I think it will be potentially helpful to many? Yes…and so will many apps that are coming to our living rooms in the next 1-3 years.
Also see:
As of 11/20/11 (~2:00pm EST)
.
As of 8/24/11:
.
From DSC:
With the increase in globalization — and from what I’ve seen happening in the financial systems (i.e. how what happens in Europe affects the financial systems in the U.S./Asia/other and vice versa) — it seems clear that we are all in this boat together. If that’s true, what does that mean for:
Addendum on 11/21/11:
HTML5 program promises to be game changer — from mediapost.com by Diane Mermigas
Also see:
- #1: “Next” web architecture = Hypernet + Hyperweb
- #2: The decline & fall of Windows unlocks revenue
- #3: Index search is peaking
- #4: Apple’s model threatens web
- #5: HTML5 is game changer for publishers
HTML5 is not just a programming language; enables new models of web experience
– Developers will embed audio and video directly in web pages, replacing Adobe’s Flash plug-in; enables much greater differentiation in sites, advertising, etc.
– Content publishers will redesign their sites to reduce power of Google, ad networks
HTML5 will be disruptive in ways we cannot imagine today: pendulum swinging to favor content creators and publishers. Imagine Amazon or eBay storefront as an ad.
– Everything can be an app . . . every piece of content . . . every tweet . . . every ad
– Ads: create demand and fulfill it at the same time . . . without leaving publisher’s page
– Other tech (e.g., Wordnik) enables publishers to protect and monetize text onsite and off- #6: Tablets are hugely disruptive
- #7: First wave of “social web” is over
- #8: Smartphones in US: Apple + 7 Dwarfs
- #9: Wireless infrastructure is a competitive threat to US
- #10: Integration of TV & Internet could be disruptive
From DSC:
Clayton Christensen on disruptive innovators and how to hire a milkshake.
From the University Of Phoenix Lecture Series:
http://www.phoenix.edu/lectures.html
Originally saw at Online Learning Update
Also see:
