…
From DSC:
I don’t know anything about this site, nor how solid their courses are. What’s important to note here is the direction things seem to be going in. Also notice the power of the Internet to set up exchanges between buyers and sellers!
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On 06/14/2010,
in future of higher education, game-changing environment,
by Daniel Christian
On 06/14/2010,
in adjunct faculty, digital learning, faculty/staff, future of higher education, game-changing environment,
by Daniel Christian
On 06/11/2010,
in disruption, game-changing environment, languages and translation,
by Daniel Christian
On 06/11/2010,
in disruption, future of higher education, game-changing environment, leadership,
by Daniel Christian
First newspapers, now universities: It’s transformation time — from WashingtonPost.com by Philip Auerswald (emphasis DSC)
All of this creates opportunities for a new set of educational leaders–the “edupunks” whose disruptive innovations are featured in an excellent new book by Anya Kamenetz titled DIY U. Online degree programs such as those offered by the University of Phoenix–which alone now enrolls as many students as the entirety of the Big Ten–represent only the first wave of competitive challenge to colleges.
…
That is, of course, until they wander over to the financial aid office. Because, as we all know (trend 2): There ain’t no money in the piggy bank. For all the blather about “saving for college,” the reality is that the average American family isn’t going to be able to put away a hundred thousand dollars for each child headed to college. This means that when tuition time comes, they’ll be borrowing. Only, guess what? That’s right (trend 3) the banks aren’t going to want to lend, because, as noted above, credit markets have tightened more-or-less permanently. And neither state governments–cue laugh track–nor the federal government is going to be able to cover the difference.
…
What all of this means for leadership in higher education is that while resistance is futile, obsolescence is far from assured. The coming transformation in higher education will be gradual, and it will be incomplete. Many of today’s elite institutions will not only survive, they will prosper. Other institutions that clearly define, measure, and communicate the value they bring to individual students–and not just to society as a whole–will prosper. As for those whose strategy is to repackage past glories as a vision for the future on forlorn trips to bankrupt legislatures, the road ahead will bear a greater resemblance to Grand Theft Auto than to The Paper Chase.
Future success in higher-ed will depend on agility, clear vision, and a willingness to deal with the world as it is–rather than as we would have it be. While learning is still in for today’s students, school’s out.
Philip E. Auerswald is Associate Professor at the School of Public Policy, George Mason University, and associate at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He co-organized the GMU-APLU Presidents’ Symposium on the Future of Collegiate Education at the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, held this month.
On 06/11/2010,
in future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education,
by Daniel Christian
From Stephen Downes:
Is the Higher Education Bubble Going to Burst?There has been more and more discussion of the education bubble, especially in light of online learning. Alison Leithner links to an editorial by Glenn Reynolds in the Washington Examiner and summarizes, “Reynolds claims that, similar to many properties sold during the housing market bubble, the value of university education today is simply not worth the amount of money people currently are paying. Reynolds also proposes that consumers are starting to realize this.” Leithner herself is sceptical. “Èmployers will still need some way to filter out the exceptional candidates for their posted positions. They will just find a new criterion upon which to judge people. If the higher education bubble burst, it will surely be because a new bubble has started to form. Alison Leithner, Change.org, June 9, 2010 4:34 p.m..
Is YouTube bursting higher education’s bubble? Not so fast… — from Education Futures by John Moravec
..
From DSC:
This link provides my thoughts on where we’re heading.
On 06/11/2010,
in digital textbooks, multimedia, publishing, tablets, textbooks,
by Daniel Christian
From Kno’s blog:
So how did this all get started? The eTextbook has been available for almost a decade now, yet has not taken off. This was our starting point – we asked the question – why haven’t eTextbooks taken off?
Students are immersed in the digital world, with their computers, access to the web, and social networking on their phones. But, most of this is an “add-on” to their 18 (or more) pounds of a physical textbooks. Textbooks are heavy, costly, and awkward to carry around, but still they are the central reference source for majority of students. Why is that? Why hasn’t a digital device taken off, providing students with a lighter, cheaper, and more functional alternative?
Answering this question was simple: talk to the students, and let them tell us what’s going on. So, that’s exactly what we did, and the answer was surprisingly clear. Students have a “relationship” with their textbooks and build their studying habits around them. Things like seeing both pages in a two page spread, the way they hold their books, using a highlighter, writing on sticky notes they’ve placed on a page, even putting their finger in the book to look something up while holding their place. Lighter and cheaper is a good start, but not enough. It’s this relationship with the textbooks that needs to be carried over to the digital world.
Also see:
Kno dual-screen tablet appears at D8, we go hands-on — from Engadget
Also see:
Dual-Screen Tablet Maker Hopes to Reinvent the Textbook — from by Priya Ganapati
Read More http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/06/kno-textbook-tablet/#ixzz0qZRvJoRW
On 06/10/2010,
in digital audio, digital video, disruption, game-changing environment, IT in HE, multimedia, online media, telecommunications, telepresence, videoconferencing, web-based collaboration,
by Daniel Christian
InfoComm 2010: Rich media driving the ‘Evolution of the Network,’ Cisco exec declares — from The Journal
“Just looking at what’s going on on networks around the world, it’s incredible. Traffic is literally exploding on networks,” de Beer told InfoComm attendees. “[Networks of the past were built] around data and [were] optimized for Web traffic. In just two or three years from now, when 90 percent of traffic is video, those networks will have to look fundamentally different.”
De Beer is predictably bullish on video and, especially, telepresence. Earlier this quarter Cisco completed a $3.3 billion buyout of videoconferencing and telepresence solutions provider Tandberg to help it stake a claim in what Cisco has estimated to be a $34 billion market for collaborative technologies.
He pointed to a future for collaboration that make it easier for users to create and manipulate rich media and for IT departments to deliver these technologies while also cutting back on the need for end-user support.
He added: “When it comes to rich human interactions, being able to easily create, find, share, consume, and manage content is very important. And we believe the network, what we now term as ‘medianet,’ which you should think of as the evolution of the network that is ready for rich media,… will play a very important part.”
On 06/10/2010,
in economics, game-changing environment, K-12 related, psychology, sociology, student-related,
by Daniel Christian
Report: Tough times ahead for children of the Great Recession — from edweek.com by Sarah Garland | The Hechinger Report
More children will live in poverty this year. More will have two parents who are unemployed. Fewer children will enroll in prekindergarten programs, and fewer teenagers will find jobs. More children are likely to commit suicide, be overweight, and be victimized by crime.
This is all according to a report
released Tuesday by the Foundation for Child Development that measures the impact of the recession on the current generation.
These are the children of the Great Recession, a cohort that will experience a decline in fortunes that erases 30 years of social progress, the report contends. Known as the Child and Youth Well-Being Index, the report predicts that in the next few years, the economy may recover and the unemployment rate may drop, but the generation growing up now could feel the harsh impact of the recession for years to come.
“These are the lasting impacts of extreme recessions,” said Kenneth Land, a professor of sociology and demography at Duke University and the author of the report.
On 06/08/2010,
in 3D, game-changing environment,
by Daniel Christian
and
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| eJamming is a collaborative network of thousands of musicians creating and performing together online in real time. | ||||
To provide a preview of the “world’s fair of ideas” that will transpire at the conference our partner, Bentley Systems, is hosting three Webinars featuring WorldFuture 2010 speakers. The Webinars are free but require advance registration. Registration here.
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The Virtualization of America (and the World)
A Conversation with Michael Rogers
Time: Tuesday, June 8, 2:00 PM EDT US (6:00 UTC)
Register Now Here
The Internet will change tremendously in the next 10 years. A more important question is, how will it change us? Children born this decade will have to learn what “offline” means, because being online will be the normal condition of life. It is an era of social reorganization equaled only by the rise of cities 6,000 years ago. But unlike urbanization, this enormous transition will take place in a matter of decades rather than centuries. At WorldFuture 2010, “practical futurist” Michael Rogers will describe what will be gained in this historic transition, what will be lost, and what challenges are ahead.
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Internet Evolution: Where Hyperconnectivity and Ambient Intimacy Take Us
A Conversation with Lee Rainie
Time: Thursday, June 17, 2:00 PM EDT (6:00 UTC)
Register Now Here
Imagine the implications of the future that most technology experts foresee: Wireless devices are embedded in everything including us; cameras record activity in all public spaces; databases catalogue our online moves; invisible, ambient networked computing makes us available to more people in more ways; software exhibits humanlike thinking; and a direct brain-to-computer interface is possible. These are just some of the future scenarios predicted by experts, as documented by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, directed by Lee Rainie. At WorldFuture 2010, Rainie will discuss the most recent, widely covered Future of the Internet Survey, which asked Internet experts from across the globe for their take on how the Web will evolve in the decade(s) ahead.
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The City Sustainable
A Conversation with Jennifer Jarratt and John Mahaffie
Time: Tuesday June 29, 2:00 PM EDT (6:00 UTC)
Register Now Here
What’s the future for the metropolis? Except for some experiments in planned communities, cities develop haphazardly over the ages. At WorldFuture 2010, leading futurists Jennifer Jarratt and John Mahaffie will introduce alternatives to the city of today, which are masses of people, buildings, and structures linked together chaotically. The tools for reinventing the city in the twenty-first century include new building technologies that bring sustainability and greater efficiency into construction and changes in the very concept of “city” from urban concrete to green communities.
On 06/02/2010,
in new business models, open courseware and systems, publishing, textbooks,
by Daniel Christian
The transformation of textbook publishing in the Digital Age — new business models — from Xplana by Rob Reynolds
Introduction
In April, we published a report on Digital Textbook Sales in U.S. Higher Education, in which we outlined sales for e-textbooks over the next five years based on current trends and variables. This series — The Transformation of Textbook Publishing in the Digital Age — provides an in-depth look at textbook publishing in Higher Education, and offers a roadmap for evolution and profitability in the industry. In this first installment, we will discuss New Business Models. In subsequent installments, we will explore New Product Models, New Authoring Models, and New Production Workflows.
My goal with this series is neither to extol nor criticize the textbook industry, but rather to provide an understanding of the business as it exists today, and to offer a digital success strategy for the companies that comprise that industry. By doing so, I hope to lay the groundwork for our subsequent summer series on The Transformation of Learning Systems, and The Transformation of Learning Content.
Strategies for New Business Models for a Digital Age
The majority of this post has been about existing practices and product/business models in the textbook publishing world. These practices and models are based on a print-centric paradigm that will be outdated within three years, and are also the result of old assumptions about Higher Education and learning in general.
While the path to digital transformation will be unique for the different publishing companies, there are some constants that will be part of any successful plan for Higher Education learning content in the coming years. The surface chatter will continue to be about e-textbooks — reaching 18%-20% of the new textbook market by 2014 — but the strategies that drive success will all take the following elements into consideration.
- The Disaggregation of Content — Future profitability will be incumbent on publishers’ ability to conceive of and produce meaningful content at a more granular level and disaggregated from the notions of textbooks. It is not that they should produce less or different content, necessarily, but rather that content must become agile, malleable, and designed to be mashed up easily by customers — institutions, instructors, and students. This means thinking at the key concept or learning objective level. It also means arriving at new revenue streams that are also disassociated from textbooks and ISBNs.
- A Focus on Lifelong Learning — New estimates have social media sites accounting for two-thirds of U.S. Web traffic withing five years. This growth and dominance is related to a sense of personal connectedness and long-term residence that users associate with such sites. Textbook publishers must find ways to move past outdated notions of students and instructors bound within narrow windows of consumer opportunity, and learn to embrace lifelong learning and see every adult citizen as a potential customer.
- Embracing Self-Publishing — In the new world order of business in publishing, self-publishing will be a primary avenue for partnership and revenue. And unlike the stigma associated with self-publishing in trade fiction, the educational content market already recognizes self-published content as valuable and embraces it. In the future, textbook publishers should plan on abandoning much of their current content authoring model in favor of aggressive self-publishing services. This will lead to broader partnerships throughout the educational community as well as to more sustainable models for revenue.
- Partner with Open Content — Make no mistake about it. Open content and open educational resources (OERs) will become leading alternatives to proprietary textbooks for at least 25% of the Higher Education market within five years. There are many services than can be offered around OERs and there is great value in mapping OERs to existing publisher content. Textbook publishers must take advantage of this opportunity to make their content and services more relevant, or they will see the value of their businesses diminish.
In next week’s installment, I will discuss specific new product models that textbook publishers will need to embrace in order to remain competitive in the coming years.
On 06/02/2010,
in 21st century, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, disruption, e-readers, education, game-changing environment, publishing, tablets, textbooks,
by Daniel Christian
On 06/01/2010,
in adjunct faculty, faculty/staff, game-changing environment, new business models, publishing, textbooks,
by Daniel Christian
On 06/01/2010,
in game-changing environment, higher education,
by Daniel Christian
10 new education companies to watch (plus 3 more for extra credit) — from Fast Company by Anya Kamenetz