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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What’s the world coming to when Harvard upperclass students can no longer get a hot breakfast in their dorms? “Students generally feel that if you come to Harvard, for what you’re paying, you should probably have the right to a hot breakfast,” says the President of Harvard Undergraduate Council. Students, she continues, want to “preserve the things that are at Harvard that you can’t get anywhere else.” Further, the Taekwondo club must now share space and practice time with the Crimson Dance Team. “OMG,” to borrow a phrase from the net. continue reading