Higher Ed: Outdated?

Been a bit slow around here lately, hasn't it? Today I want to deviate a little from the normal political talk and discuss another passion of mine: education. This article from Utah's Deseret News piqued my interest.

Higher education in America today is, for the most part, following in the footsteps of a few hundred years of traditional university-style learning. Hour-long lectures, with (more or less) occasional discussion interspersed. Outside the classroom, studying is done individually (online or textbook) and in small groups. What I find interesting is that this professor at BYU predicts the "end of the University" in its current format.

Wiley's work in creating Open Course standards and material is laudable. I am certainly of the opinion that "information wants to be free", and the ubiquity of instant information access from a variety of channels is fascinating to me as a lover of education and knowledge in general. And from this standpoint, Wiley is correct: the model of one lecturer standing and feeding information to pupils is increasingly going to be anachronistic. The iPod/laptop generation (which will give way in a decade or so to even smaller, ever-connected devices) changes what can be done in the educational realm. My university, I am proud to say, is on the bleeding edge of this paradigm shift. Certainly, it is not widespread on campus yet but the always-on lifestyle of students does have an effect, and that effect will grow to change things in the university world even further.

What I disagree with Wiley about is his thesis that universities will be irrelevant. Perhaps he means, universities that do not change to meet the times will be irrelevant. That is true. Universities, as businesses, must adapt and change if they are to continue viability.

Some things, however, I believe will not change. For one thing, college students are social creatures. The university campus is ideally suited for promoting and nurturing the creative common nature of college students. That is an aspect that can never, and should never, be replaced or subsumed in a pervasive online culture. The world is global, sure, but face-to-face interactions are very much local. Even the emergence of cheap teleconferencing technology (skype, webcams, etc) do not compare with sitting in a classroom or around a table or in a dorm room learning with (and from) experts and peers. The social aspect of learning manifests itself both in the sharing of ideas and in the sense of teaching social graces, independence, critical thinking, the importance of a diversity of ideas, and other unquantifiable lifestyle markers.

I do not want to get into the left-leaning politics of universities or the generally sorry state of primary and secondary public education. Those topics have been discussed at length before, and by smarter people. What I'm discussing is the need for the continued relevance of formal higher education. Universities, staffed by very intelligent people, should foresee the changing technology trends and rise to meet them: forging a link between the traditional lecture and the instant research available online. I would love to think that Socratic teaching methods will return, but Americans have been ingrained to avoid conflict and "hurting someone's feelings" - which equates to not debating ideas, which is the same as "what's right for me is not necessarily what's right for you". That being said, professors in the classroom no longer have absolute moral or factual authority, because it is very easy to check facts online via iPod or laptop while the professor is still speaking. Students so inclined may challenge stated beliefs and have instant backup from numerous online sources. This will require the professor (and other students) to be able to logically defend their position. I think this is all to the good.

The rub for universities isn't just in recognizing the challenges of new technologies - and the predilection of students to adopt those technologies quickly and efficiently, then wonder why in the world everyone else doesn't use them - but in understanding how and when to implement them in the learning environment. I would argue that in many cases, technology should not be a mere supplement to traditional education, but should in fact be the means (and sometimes the ends) of future higher education. Like most businesses, universities that meet the challenge will gain new students and prosper. Those that do not, will indeed become irrelevant.