For the seventh year Educause has conducted a survey on IT trends in higher educational institutions.  This year’s report is out, and a couple of things caught my eye: Read the rest of this entry »

From the Chronicle of Higher Education to Popular Science writers are exploring the future and place for OpenCourseWare.  The Chronicle reviews the ongoing costs, and that with budget cuts continued funding for open courses is tough.  Popular Science is writing from the perspective of an interested adult learner, wondering how interesting the courses are.  The conclusions from both perspectives indicate that the opencourseware movement is still trying to find its way.  And I think that until opencourseware initiatives are integrated into the core activities of universities and colleges, their future and purpose will remain uncertain.

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One of the new tech-memes is that the Internet brings a new information abundance, and businesses built on a model of information scarcity, like newspapers and universities, are doomed.  I think many aspects of the delivery of information and where learning takes place is changing — and it needs to given the many new opportunities offered by the internet.  But to predict that the experience of taking on-line courses replaces the in-person experience of participating in a learning community is foolish.  The experience of going to college is so much more than just the time spent in class.  Institutions that only focus on the traditional classroom are probably at risk.  But those that recognize and embrace the full value of a multifaceted learning community have a value that will endure, and will actually be enriched by the internet.

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My college career started at Middlesex Community College.  It was there when I needed it, and I had an excellent semester.  It gave me the boost I needed to get back onto the college track.  In fact it is still one of the more memorable semesters of  my many college experiences.   My professors exhibited a real commitment to teaching.  Bravo to our president for his focus on the community colleges.

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It seems like a lot of people in my immediate circle have recently discovered Facebook.  At least the friend requests are coming in pretty steadily.  And Facebook is fine.  But for my professional/career orientated communications I find LinkedIn a much better fit.  I’ve recently started utilizing the groups feature more, and am picking up consistently good information, particularly from the WordPress group.  I also just added this blog feed to my profile page, based on a suggestion in the article below.  The application makes it look like it will only work for wordpress.com accounts, but my self-hosted WordPress blog works fine.   

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In a commentary in this week’s Chronicle of Higher Education Kevin Carey finds parallels in the recent newspaper industry troubles and colleges.  He sees the most vulnerable portion of higher ed the mid-tier private institutions focused on undergraduate education.  Their market is focused on convenience, price, and service.  And they have a growing range of alternatives offered by on-line and for-profit programs.  Carey suggests that institutions that distinguish themselves by integrating technology to improve learning will survive.  And points out that free course content offered by the Yales and Stanfords (safe themselves for now due to the prestige and affiliation aspects), and organized by services like Academic Earth are helping feed the competition in this market segment.

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