I am very pleased that my most recent book, “Harnessing America’s Wasted Talent: A New Ecology of Learning” (Jossey-Bass, Jan, 2010) was published in January. Writing the book has been a journey for me: changing me in the writing and changing the book as a result of the intellectual ferment created. I have come to understand this technological revolution as more  than a set of linked events with a cumulative widespread impact on almost every facet of our lives. Indeed, I now understand it as a new ecology, a new environment for information and intellectual activity which cannot be controlled by existing hierarchical structures, such as universities and governments. continue reading

Yesterday was graduation day at Concord Law School of Kaplan University, my school. Ours is an online law school program. Anyone with continuing skepticism about whether online programs can create community; can be interactive; can be support students’ work; and can be rigorous and academically challenging should attend our ceremony. Or, go to a Kaplan University graduation or similar events conducted by other high-quality providers of online higher education programs. I suspect that your concerns will be laid to rest. What a great day it was! continue reading

I am sitting at the opening session of the Kaplan University Faculty Retreat in Miami, a biannual event that precedes KU’s graduation ceremonies, listening to my colleague and fellow Rethinking Higher Education blogger Peter Smith talking about his new book, Harnessing America’s Wasted Talent. I am proud to be his colleague and his friend. continue reading

Learning on Demand, the 2009 report on the state of online learning in the United states has been by published by Sloan-C. The news release digests the findings and links to the full report.

More than 25 percent of all college and university students - more than 4.6 million individuals - were taking at least one online class in the Fall 2008 semester. This is a 17 percent increase over Fall 2007. continue reading

On January 7-8, about 100 people, drawn from a wide variety of educational, technical, labor, non-profit, and business backgrounds, gathered at Cavallo Point, a conference center in Sausalito. Sponsored by the Lumina Foundation, the topic was “Envisioning the Future of Higher Education”. For this old warrior, it was a bright moment in time when principles and potential for the future of higher education were expressed clearly and honestly, without regard for whether they would go down easily with the traditional academy. continue reading

Yesterday (December 9), Public Agenda released With Their Whole Lives Ahead of Them, a report funded in part by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which explores the reasons why college students drop out prior to completing their studies and earning their degrees. There is an interesting YouTube companion piece that presents some personal stories that reflect the report’s themes. continue reading

David Leonhart is right. (NYT, 9/8/09, “Colleges Are Failing in Graduation Rates“). We need to graduate more of the students who currently enter college at age 18. And he is right again when he identifies the shortage of skilled college graduates as a significant threat to our social, civic, and economic welfare.

But relying on the logic in ”Not Crossing the Finish Line”, a recent book by William Bowen and Michael McPherson, doesn’t solve the problems identified. Graduating a higher percentage of current learners as Bowen and McPherson advocate is, at best, only 50% of the solution. As a Princeton Alum, president emeritus of a community college (Community College of Vermont) and a state university (Cal State Monterey Bay), I’d love to agree with them. But their proposal, getting the existing institutions to do better and graduate more 22 year olds, is neither broad enough nor deep enough to succeed.

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There is no better way to return to this blog after an absence than to report that last Saturday I had the distinct privilege of not presiding at my law school’s summer graduation. I conferred the degrees, which is probably required and is certainly one of the joys of being the dean of the school. Otherwise, Concord Law School of Kaplan University’s thirteenth graduation was led by a group of its graduates. continue reading

Last weekend, Concord Law School students Marjorie Daily and Tom Fleming prevailed in the Regional Competition Rounds of the American Constitution Society’s (ACS) Constance Baker Motley Moot Court Competition, which took place at the University of Michigan Law School. This qualifies them for the National Finals, which will take place at the ACS’s national meeting this summer in Washington, D.C. It is a terrific achievement for two non-traditional, part-time law students who attend our unique and still evolving online law school program. continue reading

Mr. President,
Thank you, once again, for your inspirational challenge, calling on all Americans to pursue some form of education beyond high school. Since I am writing a book about rethinking higher education, I have been thinking seriously about the challenge you have thrown down.

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