Comments on: Is the university next? (disintermediating higher education)

By: poetabook

poetabook — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:28:02 +0000

As a journalist who has migrated to higher ed, this question hits home with particular intensity. I just posed a similar question re the role of higher ed as a competing, and less efficient, system to the internet as repository, distributor of knowledge. My college-age son is quite content to download and devour Shakespeare, quantum theory and Jack Kerouac in his own user-directed path to knowledge. The “degree as commodity” seems to hold little value to him.

By: Kevin Gamble

Kevin Gamble — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:27:15 +0000

Where my comment isn’t central to the main topic of the post this did catch my attention, ” the university continues as a center of knowledge production, but ceases to matter as a center of knowledge distribution.”

I absolutely believe that the university’s role in knowledge production is ripe for disintermediation as well. It’s just a few steps behind accreditation in the process, but all of these trends are accelerating.

By: Larry Cebula

Larry Cebula — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:48:58 +0000

You have probably seen this article: College for $99 a Month http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/feature/college_for_99_a_month.php.

Of course colleges are going to get hit, and hard. Not by free knowledge (the public library could teach you everything in my courses for free) but with free college credits. And not whole degrees, but core subjects, at least at first. What happens to the economic model of the state universities when students elect to pick up all their 100 level credits online from someone else and only take the upper-level stuff on campus? Those 100 level lecture halls are the cash cows, the upper level courses are expensive to run. We’ll be screwed–and soon.

By: Grant McCracken

Grant McCracken — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:06:08 +0000

Dean Dad, a point very well taken. I wonder whether as people get better at
consuming culture they will become better at mastering knowledge. Thanks,
Grant

By: Dean Dad

Dean Dad — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 08:33:59 +0000

This may or may not work at the elite level, but assumption 3 is manifestly false for the majority. If it held any water at all, we wouldn’t need remedial math or English at the college level. At my community college, the majority of our students require at least one remedial course, and my cc is typical.

Let’s not make the classic mistake of generalizing from the top.

By: Grant McCracken

Grant McCracken — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 12:37:35 +0000

Taylor, excellent questions all. It does feel like the conventional academy
world has very robust gravitational powers for the moment. When will this
change? Before we get to a tipping point, we need that point of departure
that sides the development in motion. Thanks, Grant

By: Grant McCracken

Grant McCracken — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 11:23:59 +0000

Daria, thanks, a UC salute to you, and yes, those little UC seminars
accomplish something miraculous, they endow us with intelligence. They
accomplish this in part because they sort so well, getting the right
students with the right professors. I think the new social media should be
able to sort much better than UC does. And that means we no longer have to
get all the way of the south side of the city to access this education. to
democratize a UC education! what a thing that would be! Thanks again,
Grant

By: Taylor Davidson

Taylor Davidson — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 18:38:26 +0000

Grant: cultural, agreed. And yes, we’ve seen accreditors come and go over time, different valuations of the type and level of content and context of education. with different absolute and relative valuations of high school, A-Levels, associates / technical schools, bachelors, masters, PhD, “street education”, etc.

I’m very curious how this cultural change could happen: perhaps better data about our lives, our actions and the short- and long-term impacts will allow us to reframe our cultural heuristics and stereotypes behind education? More structured data about the inputs (education) and the outputs (success, happiness, etc.) at the individual and societal levels, perhaps, will allow us to create better stories, better heuristics, and reframe how our culture perceives and values accreditation.

(Maybe.)

By: Daria Steigman

Daria Steigman — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 17:15:13 +0000

Hi Grant,

I love posts that make me think, and this one is terrific.

While more and more learning opportunities are moving online, I still think there’s a primary role for universities in teaching people how to learn.

As a University of Chicago alumna, I’m a big proponent of small classes, critical thought, and a broad-based classical education. I realize that the cost of doing this is rapidly becoming prohibitive — but we need to figure out how to replicate that knowledge transfer so that we’re equipping young people with key thinking skills that they can then apply.

Thanks,
Daria

By: Grant McCracken

Grant McCracken — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 10:10:19 +0000

Taylor, I think the former, and if this is truly emergent, people will come
to see that accreditors XYZ deliver more value than a creditor ABC. Maybe.
Grant