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On 01/17/2012,
in adjunct faculty, budgets, business side of he, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, faculty/staff, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, legislatures / government / legal, reinvent, staying relevant, United States,
by Daniel Christian
Excerpt:
The financial crisis that began in 2008 and the ensuing reductions in state support for higher education have led to devastating cuts at colleges and universities across the country. A growing number of institutions are eliminating majors, graduate programs, or even entire departments; the map above tracks program closures that have been reported in the media since the start of the crisis.
This map is not comprehensive. It is designed solely to highlight media coverage of program closures, which is sometimes flawed and can quickly become outdated, and does not reflect the ongoing casework of the AAUP’s Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure.
U.S. debt is now equal to economy — from ABCNews.com/USAToday.com by Richard Wolf
On 01/06/2012,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, analytics, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, communications, convergence, corporate / business world, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, disruption, distance education, e-books, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), e-readers, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, future, game-changing environment, global / globalization, human-computer interaction (HCI), internet, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, machine-to-machine communications, marketing/social marketing, marketplaces, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, mobile technologies, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, new business models, new media literacies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, pace of change, reinvent, social learning / networks, social media, staying relevant, storytelling, streams of content, tablets, technologies for your home, technology (general), telecommunications, transmedia, trends, TVs, ubiquitous learning, videoconferencing, web-based collaboration, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
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- The Always On Web
- Web of Things
- Big Data
- Next Gen Search
- Mobile Sharing
- Mobile Social Activism
- Impulse Commerce
- Brands As Partners
- The New Living Room <– From DSC: This is one of those key areas that I’m trying to keep a pulse check on for re: our learning ecosystems of the future
- Personal Data Security
Also see:
- 3 trends for 2012 — from digitaltonto.com by Greg Satell
- What trended in 2011 (and what to expect from 2012) — from techi.com by Scarlett Madison
On 01/04/2012,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, computer science, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, disruption, new business models, web-based collaboration,
by Daniel Christian
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?
- Are there a lot more people interested in programming out there but can’t afford to pay their way through an undergraduate program?
- That many people aren’t qualified to get into an undergraduate program but are hoping to gain skills anyway?
- Perhaps people are just trying it out and many won’t actually pursue this route…
- Perhaps there’s some duplication here, as some of the same undergrads are also enrolled in Codeacademy…
- Perhaps the people taking these courses won’t be qualified…but perhaps they will be qualified…
- Perhaps a student-teaching-student model will unfold here with massive FAQ’s and examples being developed over time…
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:
- How do we help educate the world at more reasonable prices?
- What opportunities does the Internet offer us?
- What new business models and transformations should we be pursuing that use the Internet?
- Are there things that we can do to better address why all of these people are not enrolling in our undergraduate CS programs?
On 12/29/2011,
in budgets, business side of he, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, disruption, funding / grants, future of higher education, game-changing environment, innovation, legislatures / government / legal, new business models, reinvent, staying relevant,
by Daniel Christian
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.
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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:
- USC pursues aggressive fundraising effort despite hard times — from the Los Angeles Times
In its quest for $6 billion in new donations by 2018, the university bolsters its staff and looks to award naming rights.
. - UC-Berkeley and other ‘public Ivies’ in fiscal peril — from The Washington Post by Daniel de Vise
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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.
On 12/19/2011,
in cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, disruption, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, innovation, leadership, Michigan, reinvent, staying relevant, strategy,
by Daniel Christian
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.
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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:
- Mary Sue Coleman’s (President of the University of Michigan) Open Letter to President Obama
Mary Sue Coleman is president of the University of Michigan and chair of the Association of American Universities.
Excerpt:
And yet college is costly – too costly for some families. To meet the myriad needs of students and society, we absolutely must find ways to provide a college education at a cost that is sustainable. President Thomas Jefferson was rightfully adamant that a cornerstone of democracy is education for all, “from the richest to the poorest.”
On 12/15/2011,
in A/V -- audio/visual, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, Microsoft, multimedia, technologies for your home, television, usability, user experience (UX),
by Daniel Christian
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From DSC:
What if educationally-related apps and services were driven by such a platform as actv8.me? If you want to leapfrog everyone else, then explore this direction.
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On 12/14/2011,
in 21st century, accreditation, budgets, business side of he, change, changing business models, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, disruption, elearning, emerging technologies, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, internet, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, new business models, online learning, reinvent, staying relevant,
by Daniel Christian
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.
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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:
- The Forthcoming Walmart of Education — from Daniel S. Christian
12/15/11 addendum re: the conversation moving away from higher ed:
- There’s a light at the End of the Tunnel #2 — from highereducationmanagement.wordpress.com by Peter Smith
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”.
On 12/12/2011,
in 21st century, curriculum, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, education reform, engineering, future, student teaching/teacher education,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
The pace of innovation continues — what does this mean for our current engineering programs? For the future curriculum of engineering-related programs? How does this rapid change of pace affect our schools of education? Should we be introducing more courses on pulse-checking/trend watching/courses in futurism? In robotics? Other?
Example:
Mitsubishi shows off what car interfaces will look like in 10 years — from dvice.com
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Image credit: DigInfo
On 11/30/2011,
in business side of he, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, funding / grants, future of higher education, game-changing environment, new business models, United States,
by Daniel Christian
Official calls for urgency on college costs— from the New York Times by Tamar Lewin
Excerpts:
As Occupy movement protests helped push spiraling college costs into the national spotlight, Education Secretary Arne Duncan urged higher-education officials Tuesday to “think more creatively — and with much greater urgency” about ways to contain costs and reduce student debt.
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“Three in four Americans now say that college is too expensive for most people to afford,” Mr. Duncan said. “That belief is even stronger among young adults — three-fourths of whom believe that graduates today have more debt than they can manage.”
Also see:
- Outrage: New York Times Reports that Ohio State’s Football Coach to Earn up to $4 Million a Year — from StraighterLine.com
Addendum later on 11/30/11:
- Our Students Deserve No Less – from ed.gov by Cameron Brenchley
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(Official Department of Education Photo by Joshua Hoover)“My chief message today is a sobering one,” said Secretary Duncan yesterday at the annual Federal Student Aid conference in Las Vegas, Nev. “I want to ask you, and the entire higher education community, to look ahead and start thinking more creatively—and with much greater urgency—about how to contain the spiraling costs of college and reduce the burden of student debt on our nation’s students.”
On 11/20/2011,
in change, corporate / business world, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, disruption, economics, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, leadership, legislatures / government / legal, political science, real-world assignments, society, United States,
by Daniel Christian
As of 11/20/11 (~2:00pm EST)
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As of 8/24/11:
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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:
- Businesses and economies around the world?
- The ability of families and individuals to afford the increasing cost of getting a degree?
- Higher educational systems — and business models — around the world?
- How do we resolve such massive problems?
- What does all of this mean for how we should be educating our students?
Addendum on 11/21/11:
- Debt committee: Why $1.2 trillion isn’t enough — from money.cnn.com by Jeanne Sahadi
Excerpts:
That’s because under the most likely scenario, reducing deficits by $1.2 trillion won’t stop the accumulated debt from growing faster than the economy.
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Thus, to stabilize the debt, Congress would need to pass a debt-reduction plan worth $4 trillion to $6 trillion, budget experts say.