Really great observations! It seems like learning institutes are following in the footsteps of traditional media. I work for a newspaper, they are facing so many similar challenges! I think that traditional media (tv, radio, print) will have to adopt new philosophies and learn to be more agile. Traditional media and education both suffer from the one way channel thinking. They've never had to listen before. It will be interesting to see if they all grow ears and use them. Great post.
Great links Steven and thank you Patti for making the connection to traditional media.
Even though I recognize that user experience can be done with little or no money, and this is where I will focus, to do it at the level of Starbucks and the Ritz-Carlton will cost some money; I'm sure they spent a ton. Granted, we can learn from what they did in business and not spend as much money.
Keep the comments coming.
buffyjhamilton
· 4 months ago
I had just picked up my copy of Fast Company and had started to read the article on edupunks when I came across your blog post while searching for the e-copy. GREAT post---thanks for the excellent food for thought!
Best, Buffy Hamilton
stevesprinkel
· 4 months ago
We will always have books. I am reading some right now. Libraries are like banks-safety deposit banks, They maintain information securely, even if containing errors, whereas electronics, particularly the emerging, cliched, infosources like wiki are hackable, apt to be contaminated, open to too much editing, unfocused. And the info, the writing, can disappear.
I love both systems, and they should co-exist, but not at the expense of one.
And I can not read with pleasure and physical patience electronic material. I would never consider reading Robert Caro's latest book on Lyndon Johnson online, ever. It would be too tiring, and not portable, not comfortable.
Open sourcing implies the internet-based material. I am not afraid of the free-for all, but proof and hierarchy have their place. Your lucky your library is not critiqued by the sociopaths on YELP.
After educating myself for the past 40 years, post serious institutional experience, including 1 year at Harvard, I think that Harvard is not going away because its like the CIA, or the lobbyists who make sure that Westinghouse and GE get Defense Department funding. Its need is self perpetuating by past and current members of the community and the future community that will want to take advantage of the fast lane that is Harvard and the modest number of institutions like it.
How can alternatives break that clubby system ?
The wrong people are tasked with deciding whether to fund libraries. These are the same people who considered closing the state parks right before the no vacancy season.
My wife, ignorant of what I am writing right now, has just taken three books to bed with her.
But I believe that all the new ideas, critiques of longstanding systems, wondering, doubting, is fine. In the end we will decide that a laptop can not replace a book, that laptops lead more people to buy books than vice-versa, and the problems with libraries are that they are too small and not funded well.
We just got home from seeing the movie about Julia Child. It was all about a book.
And a blog.
Kenley Neufeld
· 4 months ago
I love you Steve; thank you for writing so beautifully (as usual) and singing the praises of the analog.
Daniela UoPeople
· 4 months ago
University of the People (UoPeople) is the world’s first non profit, tuition-free, online academic institution dedicated to the global advancement and democratization of higher education. The high-quality, low-cost and global pedagogical model embraces the worldwide presence of the Internet and dropping technology costs to bring collegiate level studies to even the most remote places on earth. With the support of respected academics, humanitarians and other visionaries, the UoPeople student body represents a new wave in global education. www.uopeople.org
Thank you Daniela for bringing this to my attention; I will check it out.
facebook-38307077
· 4 months ago
I agree that I am worried about higher education as a whole. We see it in the library because the shifts caused our models to break earlier than the rest of the academy, but who is going to want to pay for a class here, when they can watch world-class lecturers on YouTube for free? Or see MIT syllabi, etc. for free?
Especially since many people seem to think that college is a "product" where they sit in a class and have knowledge poured into them, and then they go get a great salary, instead of seeing education as a "process" that is going to involve at least tears, and perhaps sweat and sometimes blood, as they challenge their assumptions and work to find the truth for themselves.
Going through the process is worth paying for, but does that have to include ivy-covered buildings?
So, I think librarians need to start showing faculty web 2.0 tools. So that we get prepared for the paradigm shift. Like Michael Wesch's ideas (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4yApagnr0s as a start)
Kenley Neufeld
· 4 months ago
One element that none of the programs that highlight MIT, etc. is that we will still need the MIT's of the world to produce some of the content. Of course, if everyone/everything migrated outside an institution we would just have scholars providing content, right? It's an interesting environment.
We definitely need to start showing web 2.0; on my campus I serve on two IT-related committees and am chair of the committee on online instruction and this provides a great opportunity.
All Comments
Even though I recognize that user experience can be done with little or no money, and this is where I will focus, to do it at the level of Starbucks and the Ritz-Carlton will cost some money; I'm sure they spent a ton. Granted, we can learn from what they did in business and not spend as much money.
Keep the comments coming.
Best,
Buffy Hamilton
I love both systems, and they should co-exist, but not at the expense of one.
And I can not read with pleasure and physical patience electronic material. I would never consider reading Robert Caro's latest book on Lyndon Johnson online, ever. It would be too tiring, and not portable, not comfortable.
Open sourcing implies the internet-based material. I am not afraid of the free-for all, but proof and hierarchy have their place. Your lucky your library is not critiqued by the sociopaths on YELP.
After educating myself for the past 40 years, post serious institutional experience, including 1 year at Harvard, I think that Harvard is not going away because its like the CIA, or the lobbyists who make sure that Westinghouse and GE get Defense Department funding. Its need is self perpetuating by past and current members of the community and the future community that will want to take advantage of the fast lane that is Harvard and the modest number of institutions like it.
How can alternatives break that clubby system ?
The wrong people are tasked with deciding whether to fund libraries. These are the same people who considered closing the state parks right before the no vacancy season.
My wife, ignorant of what I am writing right now, has just taken three books to bed with her.
But I believe that all the new ideas, critiques of longstanding systems, wondering, doubting, is fine. In the end we will decide that a laptop can not replace a book, that laptops lead more people to buy books than vice-versa, and the problems with libraries are that they are too small and not funded well.
We just got home from seeing the movie about Julia Child. It was all about a book.
And a blog.
www.uopeople.org
See what the United Nations has to say about us http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=30...
Especially since many people seem to think that college is a "product" where they sit in a class and have knowledge poured into them, and then they go get a great salary, instead of seeing education as a "process" that is going to involve at least tears, and perhaps sweat and sometimes blood, as they challenge their assumptions and work to find the truth for themselves.
Going through the process is worth paying for, but does that have to include ivy-covered buildings?
So, I think librarians need to start showing faculty web 2.0 tools. So that we get prepared for the paradigm shift. Like Michael Wesch's ideas (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4yApagnr0s as a start)
We definitely need to start showing web 2.0; on my campus I serve on two IT-related committees and am chair of the committee on online instruction and this provides a great opportunity.
Do you work with my friend Cindi?