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Reflections from “How students can create their own e-textbooks on an iPad” [edudemic.com]

On 09/25/2012, in Daniel S. Christian, digital textbooks, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), e-readers, education reform, education technology, game-changing environment, K-12 related, pedagogy, teaching & learning, tools, by Daniel Christian

How students can create their own e-textbooks on an iPad — from edudemic.com

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

In July, Greg Kulowiec and I taught a workshop on Creating Digital Course Content. One of our participants, a high school math teacher, initially set out to create his own textbook. However, as we started exploring BookCreator, he realized that the real value may be in the students creating their own collection of books over the course of the year.

From DSC:
I like this idea of giving students more tools to create their own content.

When talking to an ed tech contact from Ohio at this summer’s Moodlemoot, he mentioned that in his 20 districts, there’s a new paradigm now — students are creating the content.

Perhaps this is the answer to the oft-asked question, “WHO will create and maintain the content?”

  • Publishers?
  • Teams of specialists within a school district, college, or university?
  • Teachers and faculty members? 
  • Or will it be the students themselves, guided by their teachers and faculty members?
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Higher education used to be on deck, but is now at bat. [Christian]

On 09/21/2012, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, business side of he, change, changing business models, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, disruption, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, innovation, internet, learning ecosystem, lifelong learning, online learning, social learning / networks, by Daniel Christian

Higher education used to be on deck, but is now at bat. [Christian]

 

From DSC:
My way of thinking about what’s happening to higher education these days borrows from the sport of baseball:  Higher education used to be on deck; but now, we’re at bat.

I’ve watched as the former power brokers throughout many other industries reluctantly got out of the dugout, nervously began their warm up on deck, and then timidly moved up to bat as well. They were trying to cling to the status quo. Which didn’t work.  We’ve all seen the results.  There are new power brokers in those industries now.  (Which is I why I assert that there is danger in the status quo — our organizations need to always be at the work of reinventing ourselves.)

…

If I had to pick the top 2 forces driving change throughout the higher education landscape, I would have to say the cost of obtaining a degree and technology-enabled innovation.

…

Control is an illusion; people will find a way.

 

The items below reinforced my perspectives when I saw them this morning.  They inspired me to create the above graphic, something I’ve been meaning to do for quite some time now.

Excerpt:

Our thesis with xEducation is that the internet is happening to higher education and that successful universities of the future will be those that find ways to generate value for its many stakeholders that go beyond content provision and teaching. What exactly that value proposition is remains unclear. On the one hand, content and (recorded) lectures can easily be shared with limited costs. The internet scales content exceptionally well. The human, social, processes of learning don’t scale. Research doesn’t scale (yet). Regional and national economic value generation doesn’t scale. In these spaces where scalability does not work well, universities will likely find their new roles in society. Over the next six months, we’ll explore and test this thesis and place the discussion of higher education reform on a firmer foundation than the latest tool and popular hype.

 

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The changing face of the campus CIO — from University Business by Thomas Durso

On 09/19/2012, in corporate / business world, future of higher education, game-changing environment, innovation, IT in HE, leadership, strategy, by Daniel Christian

The changing face of the campus CIO - University Business September 2012

 

 

Addendums:

  • On 9/27/12 which regards the business/corporate world:
    CIO must become Chief Innovation Officer         — from innovationexcellence.com by Linda Bernardi
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  • On 10/1/12:
    The question CIO’s must really ask — from cnn.com by Jeanne G. Harris, Allan E. Alter and Aarohi Sen
    Asking whether CIOs will play a strategic or supporting role is indulging in a stale debate. The more important question is whether CIOs are prepared to lead their organizations into a future environment that could be completely unlike today.
    .
  • On 10/16/12 — but moreso on the corporate side
    The New Chief Connected Officer     — from by Gregg Garrett

Joining the brave CIO, who takes a step forward while many other IT leaders are standing still, is the motivated CEO. The adage that “it is lonely at the top” couldn’t be more true during this transition period. Most major advisors for top leadership, many of whom are part of well-recognized strategy consulting firms, understand the promise of the connected world, but aren’t pushing this advice yet.

They are putting their toes in the water with social-media practices and CMO-to-CIO forums. However, very few of them are actually broaching the sacred space of product-to-service conversations that could potentially reposition the chief information and chief technology officers to fulfill much more critical and senior roles within the organization.

The last time IT grew to such prominence in the corporate structure was the Y2K scare or the “ecommerce” movement (“brick and mortar” to “virtual”). As already discussed, “connected” is on a similar scale, if not more grandiose. A connected world both overlays a layer of relevant information-fed services on top of today’s processes, and also reformulates entire industries through disruptive innovation.

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Why online education has gained revolutionary momentum [Ward]

On 09/13/2012, in future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, innovation, online learning, trends, by Daniel Christian

Why online education has gained revolutionary momentum — from pbs.org/mediashift by Doug Ward

Excerpt:

The rush to create large, free online classes has generated anxiety at universities around the country. With finances already tight and with a surge of movement toward online learning, universities are being forced to move quickly to change centuries-old models of learning. Terms like historic, seismic and revolutionary now pop up in descriptions of the challenges that higher education faces in the coming years.

Many institutions have been preparing for these changes for years, building infrastructure and expertise, experimenting and recruiting, and integrating online learning into long-term strategies. Many others, especially traditional research universities, have been caught flat-footed as education has transformed around them.

This point of dramatic — and traumatic — change didn’t swoop in unannounced. Rather, it crept in like a series of streams meeting in a roiling confluence. Only by stepping back and looking in panoramic fashion can we truly understand how we’ve arrived at a point of transformation and how we might deal with it. Let’s take a look.

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Reflections on “College may never be the same” [Marklein]

On 09/13/2012, in 24x7x365 access, cost of getting a degree, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, innovation, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, online learning, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

College may never be the same — from USA Today by Mary Beth Marklein

Excerpt:

“The industry has operated more or less along the same business model and even the same technology for hundreds of years,” says John Nelson, managing director of Moody’s Higher Education. “MOOCS represent a rapidly developing and emerging change and that is very, very rare.”

In a new report, Moody’s Investor Service calls MOOCs a “pivotal development” that has the potential to revolutionize higher education. Questions remain whether these online courses can be profitable and whether traditional colleges will award credit for them. But if successful, MOOCs could lead to lower costs for families and access to higher-quality instruction for anyone in the world who has Internet access.

 

From DSC:
MOOCs are no doubt a very important experiment within higher education today.  It’s too early to tell what the future will bring in terms of pricing, certification/accredidation, learning effectiveness, the form(s) they may take, the corporate world’s perspective on them, etc.

However, my main point that I want to make today — September 13, 2012 — is that MOOCs provide yet another example why the question of “where’s the ROI on all of this investment in technology?” should be considered a dead question — let’s put it to rest for good.   I simply can’t take that question seriously anymore.  At minimum, MOOCs provide an extremely affordable means of gaining exposure to information and ascertaining one’s interest level in that subject. At the price of higher education these days, such knowledge of what one enjoys and would like to learn more about is worth a great deal.  MOOCs rest on the foundations set by so many other investments, technological advancements and inventions, trends, platforms, devices, and the pedagogies available to us due to these other foundational pieces.

 

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Technology and the broken higher education cost model: Insights from the Delta Cost Project [Kirshstein & Wellman]

On 09/11/2012, in business side of he, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, innovation, new business models, reinvent, by Daniel Christian

Technology and the broken higher education cost model: Insights from the Delta Cost Project — from Educause by Rita Kirshstein and Jane Wellman

Excerpt:

Although U.S. higher education has faced numerous crises and dilemmas in its history, the situation in which colleges and universities find themselves at the moment is indeed different. Shrinking public subsidies coupled with historic rises in tuitions come at the same time that colleges and universities have been tasked to dramatically increase the number of individuals with postsecondary degrees. Additionally, many of these students need financial aid, putting further strains on the higher education system. The stratification between rich and poor institutions in their access to resources is also growing. These conditions make the current “cost model” under which higher education has typically operated no longer sustainable and have led to college and university leaders examining alternative ways to deliver both high-quality and affordable higher education. These alternatives incorporate technology and include access to distance-delivered education and services, a focus on learners’ outcomes rather than inputs, and technologically sophisticated buildings and classrooms.

The changes are welcome and largely overdue in much of higher education, but unless the use of technology, whether in instruction or in the operation of the institution, is guided by an understanding of higher education costs and cost structures, its use will not fix the problem of a broken higher education cost model. This problem is not confined to the way that instruction is funded and delivered; rather, it is much broader, including the costs of academic and administrative overhead and the largely unexamined “fixed costs” that drive so much of institutional spending. To implement technological innovations that can improve both efficiency and effectiveness, leaders must be guided in their efforts by a strong understanding of the impact of the innovations on both costs and revenues, as well as on learning outcomes. Without this understanding, leaders are likely to follow the usual model of innovation in higher education: implementing program add-ons, which are sometimes successful and sometimes not but which inevitably increase costs rather than replacing or reducing them and ultimately fail to take hold in ways that will leverage systemic improvements.

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Debt collectors cashing in on student loans [Martin]

On 09/10/2012, in cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, reinvent, society, staying relevant, student-related, United States, by Daniel Christian

Debt collectors cashing in on student loans — from the New York Times by Andrew Martin

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

…many borrowers are struggling to pay off their student loans, and the debt collection industry is cashing in.

As the number of people taking out government-backed student loans has exploded, so has the number who have fallen at least 12 months behind in making payments — about 5.9 million people nationwide, up about a third in the last five years.

In all, nearly one in every six borrowers with a loan balance is in default. The amount of defaulted loans — $76 billion — is greater than the yearly tuition bill for all students at public two- and four-year colleges and universities, according to a survey of state education officials.

In an attempt to recover money on the defaulted loans, the Education Department paid more than $1.4 billion last fiscal year to collection agencies and other groups to hunt down defaulters.

 

From DSC:
Administrators throughout the country need to ask, how can we cut the price of our degrees by 50% or more?  No kidding!  I realize that sounds crazy, but if we don’t do this, cheaper — and increasingly attractive/convenient — alternatives will continue to develop. The conversation is not moving in a positive direction folks.  There is a limit to people’s incomes and patience here.

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U.S. debt $417 billion below the debt ceiling [Sahadi]

On 09/08/2012, in business, economics, funding / grants, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, legislatures / government / legal, United States, by Daniel Christian

U.S. debt $417 billion below the debt ceiling — from CNN.com by Jeanne Sahadi

Excerpt:

The debt ceiling is currently set at $16.394 trillion. At the end of August, the amount of debt subject to that limit — which excludes certain types of debt — was $15.977 trillion, roughly $417 billion below the cap. Since the government typically borrows between $100 billion and $125 billion a month, that means it’s on track to hit the ceiling sometime in December. But the Treasury Department will likely be able to use “extraordinary measures” to keep the debt just below the legal limit for a couple of months.

Bottom line:
Congress will likely need to raise the ceiling in early 2013 or Treasury will risk defaulting on the country’s legal obligations by failing to pay all of its bills in full and on time.

From DSC:
At some point, if we don’t turn things around, the vast majority of our tax dollars will go to pay for interest on our debt…and. nothing. else.

 

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The end of TV as we know it & the birth of transmedia [Scott & Doherty]

On 09/04/2012, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, Daniel S. Christian, digital storytelling, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, mirroring and/or multiple devices, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, online learning, participation, personalized/customized learning, second screen apps, social learning / networks, story, storytelling, technologies for your home, television, trends, TVs, user experience (UX), by Daniel Christian

The end of TV as we know it.

 

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From DSC:
My interest in this? All of this ultimately relates to:

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The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV

 

 

 

Addendum on 9/12/12:

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Stanford assigns Vice Provost of Online Learning [Gerth]

On 08/31/2012, in future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, leadership, online learning, strategy, by Daniel Christian

Stanford assigns Vice Provost of Online Learning — from technapex.com by Molly Gerth

Excerpt:

This week, Stanford University announced the appointment of John Mitchell to serve as Vice Provost for Online Learning. This signifies the university is getting serious about the Stanford Online initiative to reach more students around the world and to address the transforming 21st century education system.

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The Siege of Academe [Carey]

On 08/30/2012, in corporate / business world, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, disruption, education technology, entrepreneurship, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, innovation, new business models, reinvent, staying relevant, student-related, vendors, by Daniel Christian

The Washington Monthly - The Magazine - The Siege of Academe [Kevin Carey]

Excerpt:

The ongoing carnage in the newspaper industry provides an object lesson of what can happen when a long-established, information-focused industry’s business model is challenged by low-price competitors online. The disruptive power of information technology may be our best hope for curing the chronic college cost disease that is driving a growing number of students into ruinous debt or out of higher education altogether. It may also be an existential threat to institutions that have long played a crucial role in American life.

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From DSC:
If higher ed doesn’t respond more forcefully/significantly to the perfect storm it finds itself in, people will find other ways of getting employed and staying employed. The conversation continues to move away from institutions of traditional higher education (here’s but one example). Control is an illusion.

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Part of the perfect storm for higher ed in the US — “The middle class falls further behind” [Smith]

On 08/23/2012, in career development, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, economics, future of higher education, game-changing environment, online learning, reinvent, robotics, staying relevant, trends, United States, workplace, by Daniel Christian

The middle class falls further behind -- part of the perfect storm for higher ed in the US

 

From DSC:
Along with a host of other trends, this is a piece of the perfect storm in higher ed. People will find a way to make a living — whether this involves “traditional” higher education or not. From a career development side of things, robotics may make these graphics even more pronounced as jobs move from being done by humans to jobs being done by robots.

Also see:

 

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Addendums:

 

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Your future TV is not about Tele-Vision [Eaton]

On 08/17/2012, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, adult learning, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, convergence, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, disruption, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, flipping -- inverted learning, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, homeschooling/homeschoolers, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, internet, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning spaces, lifelong learning, machine-to-machine communications, mirroring and/or multiple devices, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, multimedia, Near Field Communication (NFC), online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, passions, podcasting, reading, reinvent, second screen apps, smart classrooms, social learning / networks, strategy, streams of content, technologies for your home, telepresence, television, trends, TVs, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

Your future TV is not about Tele-Vision — from FastCompany.com by Kit Eaton

Excerpt (emphasis below from DSC; also see the above categories to see how I see this as a highly-relevant component to our future learning ecosystems):

Then imagine what a hybrid of Apple’s tech and efforts like GetGlue, Shazam, and other interactive systems will be like when they’re more integrated into your 2017 smart TV. The big screen in your living room won’t be a one-way window into another world you can’t touch anymore. It’ll be a discovery engine, a way to learn facts, interact with the world, talk to people, find new and surprising content to absorb. Advertisers will love it, and companies like Nielsen–which largely has to guess all those stats about who watches which show at primetime nowadays–will be able to get accurate data…which may mean more appealing shows.

 

 

The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV

 

 

Also see:

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An open letter to students: You’re the game changer in next-generation learning [Milliron]

On 08/16/2012, in 21st century, education reform, game-changing environment, reinvent, student-related, by Daniel Christian

An open letter to students: You’re the game changer in next-generation learning — from educause by Mark David Milliron

Excerpt:

I say that because the most-needed voice in this conversation is not ours. We in the ed-tech world have been talking, visioning, and showcasing innovation for decades. Based on the results to date, I don’t think our voice is enough. I’ve come to the conclusion that the voice that will push real change is yours. Indeed, if you—the students—are willing to accept a set of key educational responsibilities as you stand up for your core educational rights, you might be the real game changer we need in catalyzing next-generation learning.

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Explore the disruptions occurring today in education with AdvancED CEO Mark Elgart [VIDEO]

On 08/16/2012, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, digital learning, disruption, education, education technology, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, K-12 related, more voice more choice more control, by Daniel Christian

[video_lightbox_vimeo5 video_id=46294572 width=800 height=600 anchor=”http://danielschristian.com/learning-ecosystems/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/ExploringDisruptions-Mark-Elgart-August2012.jpg”]

(Click on above image to see the video)

Also see:
http://www.advanc-ed.org/

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