From DSC:
One of my sisters shared this piece with me. She is very concerned about our society’s use of technology — whether it relates to our youth’s use of social media or the relentless pressure to be first in all things AI. As she was a teacher (at the middle school level) for 37 years, I greatly appreciate her viewpoints. She keeps me grounded in some of the negatives of technology. It’s important for us to listen to each other.
On 10/27/2025,
in 21st century, business side of he, career development, change, changing business models, colleges, community colleges, credentialing, digital learning, face-to-face, faculty/staff, funding / grants, game-changing environment, higher education, ideas, leadership, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, learning spaces, online learning, strategy, teaching & learning, United States, universities, vocational / trades,
by Daniel Christian
Ground-level Impacts of the Changing Landscape of Higher Education — from onedtech.philhillaa.com by Glenda Morgan; emphasis DSC
Evidence from the Virginia Community College System
In that spirit, in this post I examine a report from Virginia’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) on Virginia’s Community Colleges and the changing higher-education landscape. The report offers a rich view of how several major issues are evolving at the institutional level over time, an instructive case study in big changes and their implications.
Its empirical depth also prompts broader questions we should ask across higher education.
- What does the shift toward career education and short-term training mean for institutional costs and funding?
- How do we deliver effective student supports as enrollment moves online?
- As demand shifts away from on-campus learning, do physical campuses need to get smaller?
- Are we seeing a generalizable movement from academic programs to CTE to short-term options? If so, what does that imply for how community colleges are staffed and funded?
- As online learning becomes a larger, permanent share of enrollment, do student services need a true bimodal redesign, built to serve both online and on-campus students effectively? Evidence suggests this urgent question is not being addressed, especially in cash-strapped community colleges.
- As online learning grows, what happens to physical campuses? Improving space utilization likely means downsizing, which carries other implications. Campuses are community anchors, even for online students—so finding the right balance deserves serious debate.
On 09/19/2025,
in adjunct faculty, apprenticeships, business, business side of he, career development, change, changing business models, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, corporate / business world, cost of getting a degree, faculty/staff, funding / grants, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, ideas, innovation, instructional design, leadership, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, liberal arts, pace of change, parents/guardians, participation, pedagogy, real-world assignments, reinvent, skills, student-related, teaching & learning, traditional / tradition, trends, United States, universities, vision/possibilities, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
Provosts Are a ‘Release Valve’ for Campus Controversy — from insidehighered.com by Emma Whitford
According to former Western Michigan provost Julian Vasquez Heilig, provosts are stuck driving change with few, if any, allies, while simultaneously playing crisis manager for the university.
After two years, he stepped down, and he now serves as a professor of educational leadership, research and technology at Western Michigan. His frustrations with the provost role had less to do with Western Michigan and more to do with how the job is designed, he explained. “Each person sees the provost a little differently. The faculty see the provost as administration, although, honestly, around the table at the cabinet, the provost is probably the only faculty member,” Heilig said. “The trustees—they see the provost as a middle manager below the president, and the president sees [the provost] as a buffer from issues that are arising.”
Inside Higher Ed sat down with Heilig to talk about the provost job and all he’s learned about the role through years of education leadership research, conversations with colleagues and his own experience.
Brandeis University launches a new vision for American higher education, reinventing liberal arts and emphasizing career development — from brandeis.edu
Levine unveiled “The Brandeis Plan to Reinvent the Liberal Arts,” a sweeping redesign of academic structures, curricula, degree programs, teaching methods, career education, and student support systems. Developed in close partnership with Brandeis faculty, the plan responds to a rapidly shifting landscape in which the demands on higher education are evolving at unprecedented speed in a global, digital economy.
“We are living through a time of extraordinary change across technology, the economy, and society,” Levine said. “Today’s students need more than knowledge. They need the skills, experiences, and confidence to lead in a world we cannot yet predict. We are advancing a new model. We need reinvention. And that’s exactly what Brandeis is establishing.”
The Brandeis Plan transforms the student experience by integrating career preparation into every stage of a student’s education, requiring internships or apprenticeships, sustaining career counseling, and implementing a core curriculum built around the skills that employers value most. The plan also reimagines teaching. It will be more experiential and practical, and introduce new ways to measure and showcase student learning and growth over time.
Tuition Tracker from the Hechinger Report
On 09/17/2025,
in 21st century, Africa, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Asia, Australia, business, Canada, career development, change, corporate / business world, emerging technologies, Europe, experimentation, India, legislatures / government / legal, society, UK, United States, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
3 Work Trends – Issue 87 — from the World Economic Forum
1. #AI adoption is delivering real results for early movers
Three years into the generative AI revolution, a small but growing group of global companies is demonstrating the tangible potential of AI. Among firms with revenues of $1 billion or more:
- 17% report cost savings or revenue growth of at least 10% from AI.
- Almost 80% say their AI investments have met or exceeded expectations.
- Half worry they are not moving fast enough and could fall behind competitors.
The world’s first AI cabinet member — from therundown.ai by Zach Mink, Rowan Cheung, Shubham Sharma, Joey Liu & Jennifer Mossalgue
PLUS: Startup produces 3,000 AI podcast episodes weekly
The details:
- Prime Minister Edi Rama unveiled Diella during a cabinet announcement this week, calling her the first member “virtually created by artificial intelligence”.
- The AI avatar will evaluate and award all public tenders where the government contracts private firms.
- Diella already serves citizens through Albania’s digital services portal, processing bureaucratic requests via voice commands.
- Rama claims the AI will eliminate bribes and threats from decision-making, though the government hasn’t detailed what human oversight will exist.
The Rundown AI’s article links to:
- Albania appoints world’s first AI-made minister — from politico.eu by Alice Taylor
Diella, who is powered by artificial intelligence, will handle public procurement.
Anthropic Economic Index report: Uneven geographic and enterprise AI adoption — from anthropic.com
In other words, a hallmark of early technological adoption is that it is concentrated—in both a small number of geographic regions and a small number of tasks in firms. As we document in this report, AI adoption appears to be following a similar pattern in the 21st century, albeit on shorter timelines and with greater intensity than the diffusion of technologies in the 20th century.
To study such patterns of early AI adoption, we extend the Anthropic Economic Index along two important dimensions, introducing a geographic analysis of Claude.ai conversations and a first-of-its-kind examination of enterprise API use. We show how Claude usage has evolved over time, how adoption patterns differ across regions, and—for the first time—how firms are deploying frontier AI to solve business problems.
How human-centric AI can shape the future of work — from weforum.org by Sapthagiri Chapalapalli
- Last year, use of AI in the workplace increased by 5.5% in Europe alone.
- AI adoption is accelerating, but success depends on empowering people, not just deploying technology.
- Redesigning roles and workflows to combine human creativity and critical thinking with AI-driven insights is key.
Organizations are having to rapidly adapt their business models. Image: TCS
Using ChatGPT to get a job — from linkedin.com by Ishika Rawat
On 09/17/2025,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, change, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, digital learning, education technology, emerging technologies, faculty/staff, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, Google, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, learning spaces, liberal arts, lifelong learning, Microsoft, online learning, Open AI, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, skills, student-related, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, tools, training / L&D, trends, United States, universities, user experience (UX), vendors, vision/possibilities, youth,
by Daniel Christian
From EdTech to TechEd: The next chapter in learning’s evolution — from linkedin.com by Lev Gonick
A day in the life: The next 25 years
A learner wakes up. Their AI-powered learning coach welcomes them, drawing their attention to their progress and helping them structure their approach to the day. A notification reminds them of an upcoming interview and suggests reflections to add to their learning portfolio.
Rather than a static gradebook, their portfolio is a dynamic, living record, curated by the student, validated by mentors in both industry and education, and enriched through co-creation with maturing modes of AI. It tells a story through essays, code, music, prototypes, journal reflections, and team collaborations. These artifacts are not “submitted”, they are published, shared, and linked to verifiable learning outcomes.
And when it’s time to move, to a new institution, a new job, or a new goal, their data goes with them, immutable, portable, verifiable, and meaningful.
From DSC:
And I would add to that last solid sentence that the learner/student/employee will be able to control who can access this information. Anyway, some solid reflections here from Lev.
AI Could Surpass Schools for Academic Learning in 5-10 Years — from downes.ca with commentary from Stephen Downes
I know a lot of readers will disagree with this, and the timeline feels aggressive (the future always arrives more slowly than pundits expect) but I think the overall premise is sound: “The concept of a tipping point in education – where AI surpasses traditional schools as the dominant learning medium – is increasingly plausible based on current trends, technological advancements, and expert analyses.”
The world’s first AI cabinet member — from therundown.ai by Zach Mink, Rowan Cheung, Shubham Sharma, Joey Liu & Jennifer Mossalgue
The Rundown: In this tutorial, you will learn how to combine NotebookLM with ChatGPT to master any subject faster, turning dense PDFs into interactive study materials with summaries, quizzes, and video explanations.
Step-by-step:
- Go to notebooklm.google.com, click the “+” button, and upload your PDF study material (works best with textbooks or technical documents)
- Choose your output mode: Summary for a quick overview, Mind Map for visual connections, or Video Overview for a podcast-style explainer with visuals
- Generate a Study Guide under Reports — get Q&A sets, short-answer questions, essay prompts, and glossaries of key terms automatically
- Take your PDF to ChatGPT and prompt: “Read this chapter by chapter and highlight confusing parts” or “Quiz me on the most important concepts”
- Combine both tools: Use NotebookLM for quick context and interactive guides, then ChatGPT to clarify tricky parts and go deeperPro Tip: If your source is in EPUB or audiobook, convert it to PDF before uploading. Both NotebookLM and ChatGPT handle PDFs best.
Claude can now create and edit files — from anthropic.com
Claude can now create and edit Excel spreadsheets, documents, PowerPoint slide decks, and PDFs directly in Claude.ai and the desktop app. This transforms how you work with Claude—instead of only receiving text responses or in-app artifacts, you can describe what you need, upload relevant data, and get ready-to-use files in return.
Also see:
- Microsoft to lessen reliance on OpenAI by buying AI from rival Anthropic — from techcrunch.com byRebecca Bellan
Microsoft will pay to use Anthropic’s AI in Office 365 apps, The Information reports, citing two sources. The move means that Anthropic’s tech will help power new features in Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint alongside OpenAI’s, marking the end of Microsoft’s previous reliance solely on the ChatGPT maker for its productivity suite. Microsoft’s move to diversify its AI partnerships comes amid a growing rift with OpenAI, which has pursued its own infrastructure projects as well as a potential LinkedIn competitor.
Ep. 11 AGI and the Future of Higher Ed: Talking with Ray Schroeder
In this episode of Unfixed, we talk with Ray Schroeder—Senior Fellow at UPCEA and Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois Springfield—about Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and what it means for the future of higher education. While most of academia is still grappling with ChatGPT and basic AI tools, Schroeder is thinking ahead to AI agents, human displacement, and AGI’s existential implications for teaching, learning, and the university itself. We explore why AGI is so controversial, what institutions should be doing now to prepare, and how we can respond responsibly—even while we’re already overwhelmed.
Best AI Tools for Instructional Designers — from blog.cathy-moore.com by Cathy Moore
Data from the State of AI and Instructional Design Report revealed that 95.3% of the instructional designers interviewed use AI in their daily work [1]. And over 85% of this AI use occurs during the design and development process.
These figures showcase the immense impact AI is already having on the instructional design world.
If you’re an L&D professional still on the fence about adding AI to your workflow or an AI convert looking for the next best tools, keep reading.
This guide breaks down 5 of the top AI tools for instructional designers in 2025, so you can streamline your development processes and build better training faster.
But before we dive into the tools of the trade, let’s address the elephant in the room:
3 Human Skills That Make You Irreplaceable in an AI World — from gettingsmart.com/ by Tom Vander Ark and Mason Pashia
Key Points
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Update learner profiles to emphasize curiosity, curation, and connectivity, ensuring students develop irreplaceable human skills.
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Integrate real-world learning experiences and mastery-based assessments to foster agency, purpose, and motivation in students.