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

I am excited and pleased today because I am holding my new book, Harnessing America’s Wasted Talent: A New Ecology of Learning (Jossey-Bass, Jan. 2010), in my hands. It lives up to its title, I think, describing how our technology-rich environment, populated with platforms, networks, social sites, and downloads, makes possible a level of access and completion in higher education that has been unattainable up to this point. I illustrate this point with a number of examples. Primary among them is being able to self-assess your experiential learning and then, if you wish, get it reviewed formally for academic credit , all on-line. 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

In last week’s Newsweek, there were two articles that heralded the need for change in higher education. Yet, sadly, they promised more than they delivered. First Senator Lamar Alexander led with the cover story, “Why College Should Take Only Three Years.” This is a great idea, one that the European Union has embraced in its “Bologna Process”, among others. But then, instead of developing the educational rationale and suggesting a model for the three year BA, Alexander, a legitimate educational reformer as Governor of Tennessee, falls back on bromides: “college is expensive so let’s do it faster”, and “a three year degree is cramming four years of courses into three years”.

Then, a round-table discussion group promised us thoughts on “The Role of Higher Education” in the 21^st century. Again, sadly, the promise is clouded by disagreements about whether students need to know more or less these days, with opinions that varied from no, to yes, to reducing the four year BA would be bad. Through it all, Bob Zemsky and Michael Crow carry the heavier water, arguing for rethinking the enterprise, not just re-packaging it.

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In his recent article, “The College Calculation“, David Leonhardt chides the higher education sector for “..doing so little to measure what students learn between freshman and senior years.” He then goes on to cite an NPR segment “Is a College Education Worth the Debt?” where an economist noted that 12% of letter carriers had a BA. The implication is that they didn’t need the degree to get the job they held. He concludes that “Earnings may be a flawed measure of an education’s value, but they’re about the only tangible measure we have.” And he questions why, if we need more college success, do we accept low college success rates and why are we cutting funding in most states during this recession?

These are all good questions. And here are some answers.

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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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Two articles in today’s Chronicle (9/3/09) exemplify exactly how confused the academy is about online learning and the transformative impacts of the technological revolution on learning and higher education. First we read that professors are increasing their use of online learning even though they doubt its quality. The implication is that they are apparently reluctant participants driven by a necessity of someone else’s making. Then we are reminded that the University of Illinois is going to continue with the phase out of it Global Campus program, laying off the staff over the next 6-12 months and moving the currently independent structure back into the university in a more traditional relationship. continue reading

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

On April 24th, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan deepened the administration’s attempt to spend student loan money more effectively while increasing student persistence in higher education. Right now, the debate is focused on the lending institutions and the best way to get money to learners. continue reading

Is the crisis in higher education that we are either in or will soon be in more like what is happening in (a) the newspaper business, (b) the auto industry, or (c) the housing market?

Dr. Mark Taylor, Chair of the Department of Religion at Columbia University, leads his very thoughtful piece, “End the University as We Know It” in the New York Times today with the suggestion that the answer might be (b). continue reading