Online Learning: Is College (Finally) Ready For Its Innovation Revolution? — from The Atlantic by Derek Thompson; originally saw this at one of Ray Schroeder’s blogs
“The price of college is going to fall, and the Internet is going to cause that fall. The rest of it is really difficult to figure out.”
Is Higher Education Ready for “The Education Bubble”? — from CampusTechnology.com by Trent Batson
Excerpts:
American higher education–the jewel in the global crown of universal education, with nearly a quarter of the total number of higher education institutions in the world, and including graduate programs that are the envy of the world–is facing the prospect of being the next bubble to burst. Technology is both a culprit and a promising ally.
The spread of information technology, and its infusion into our culture, has opened the world to learning opportunities–raising expectations for college graduates and changing the terms of success.
Is American higher education ready to either prevent the bubble from bursting or to weather the storm when it does burst? And what is the bubble?
…
The bubble, as we can see by all the dimensions just described, is, in fact, a potential “perfect storm.”
…
But this effort must also result from a presidential-level decree: “The learning theory that fit so well in our culture and with the dominant technology pre-1995 (print-based and paper-based technologies), now is not working very well for any of us, so we have to change. Each of you on campus has sincerely and devotedly committed yourselves fully to learning, but now we know that our learning epistemology is less and less appropriate. This is not your fault; it is simply a time of incredible human growth; it is a time of rapid evolution in our culture; a time of re-shaping our economy. We must transform or become irrelevant.”
From DSC:
Good to see I have some company in these perspectives; thanks for the article Trent. Also see:
From 5/21/09
From DSC:
Why post these things on an education-related blog? Because though entertainment is now coming to bat, learning-related applications of these technologies are on deck (if they are not already coming to bat on some occasions).
Some related resources I ran across:
Key education issues dividing public, college presidents, study finds — from the WSJ by Kevin Helliker
The general public and university presidents disagree about the purpose of college, who ought to pay for it and whether today’s students are getting their money’s worth.
But university presidents and the average American agree that the cost of higher education now exceeds the reach of most people.
Those are broad findings from a pair of surveys released late Sunday from the nonprofit Pew Research Center. The surveys took place this March and April, one posing college-related questions to 2,142 American adults, the other to 1,055 presidents of colleges large, small, public, private and for-profit. The two surveys contained some identical questions and some peculiar to each group.
As is the case with all Center reports, our research is not designed to promote any cause, ideology or policy proposal. Our only goal is to inform the public on important topics that shape their lives and their society.
Higher education is one such topic. The debate about its value and mission has been triggered not just by rising costs, but also by hard economic times; by changing demands on the nation’s workforce; by rising global competition; by growing pressures to reduce education funding; and by the ambitious goal set by President Obama for the United States to lead the world by 2020 in the share of young adults who have a college degree.
From DSC:
I submitted the following comment to the solid article “Fixing accreditation, from the inside” (from today’s InsideHigherEd.com posting by Doug Lederman)
Thank you for the article/posting here.
Re: the committee:
Re: higher ed as an industry:
I am a liberal arts grad and I work at a liberal arts college; as such, I believe in the value of liberal arts. However, I’ve been reflecting upon why the teaching and learning environment has been changing so much and why higher education has become more of a business.
Actually, I think it’s always been somewhat of a business, but even more so these days. The key reason for me involves the *cost* of obtaining an education.
It’s one thing to charge $3000/yr for tuition and it’s another to charge $25,000+/yr for tuition. If it means essentially having to pay the price of a house to obtain an education for your children, doesn’t the set of expectations change for students? For the parents of those students? For businesses who are helping pay the tuition of their employees?
If the accreditation bodies don’t respond to the growing suspicion towards them — and towards higher education as a whole — it will be like water going around a rock in a stream. People will flow right by them — whether the government assumes control or not.
From DSC:
Is there any doubt anymore that we are in a game-changing environment? This is but one of the storm fronts creating the perfect storm within higher education. The graphic I created below lays out some of the other storm fronts (and I’m sure I missed some of the other pieces, but these are some of the key drivers of change).
NOTE:
I don’t mean to be a chicken little here or a doomsdayer — rather what I’ve been saying is not speculation. It is reality. Those who choose not to deal with things as they really are — and will be — will be the ones most likely to be broadsided in the months/years to come.
Universities slash budgets nationwide — from ABC News by Teresa Lostroh
Colleges across the country are facing layoffs, program cuts, tuition hikes and possible campus closings as they brace for major reductions in state funding — again.
The leaders of Penn State University are wondering if they’ll have to close some of their branch campuses next year, and more than 400 faculty positions may be on the chopping block.
In California, class sizes are swelling while class offerings are shrinking. One community college district in San Diego has cut 90 percent of its summer courses. And in Washington, universities are increasing the enrollment of out-of-state students, who pay about three times as much as in-state students, while considering trimming resident enrollment.
Colleges and universities, which can levy revenue through tuition hikes, are a primary target for cuts when states are in a budget bind.
“This year is going to be the hardest year on record,” said Dan Hurley, director of state relations and policy analysis for the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, which has 420 member institutions. “Any new revenue at the state level is being gobbled up by Medicaid and K-12 education,” he said, and much of the federal stimulus money expires this year, setting up the perfect storm for higher education.
Also see:
Study: 30% of all US households already have TV connected to Internet
New consumer research from Leichtman Research Group, Inc. (LRG) finds that 30% of all households have at least one television set connected to the Internet via a video game system, a Blu-ray player, and/or the TV set itself — up from 24% a year ago. Overall, 10% of all adults watch video from the Internet via one of these devices at least weekly, compared to 5% last year. This increased usage is heavily driven by Netflix subscribers, with 30% of Netflix subscribers watching video from the Internet via one of these connected devices weekly, compared to 3% weekly use among all non-Netflix subscribers.
Also see:
Addendums:
From DSC:
Why post this? Because:
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
