"What's Going On?"

So, What’s Going On?

If you know me at all, then you know that I believe that almost every important truth can be illustrated by quoting some snippet of dialogue from one of my favorite movies…. and I have many favorites.  And, while the phrase “What’s going on?” is most certainly included within the dialogue of 100’s of movies, the one that sticks in my mind is from “The Lost Boys,” a 1987 campy, sort-of-funny-sort-of-scary horror film about young boys and vampires (and some think was an allegory about young boys and the drug culture) that has become one of my favorite cult classics.  Michael (the lead boy) asks the vampires (who he does not yet know are vampires) “What’s going on?” and from there he, and we, go on to learn the answer.

“What’s going on?” is an apt question for us in higher education.  In fact, as was true for Michael in “The Lost Boys,” it may be the most critical question for us if we are to thrive in the world to come.  There’s a lot going on “out there” in the world that has a direct bearing of the future of what goes on “in here” at our colleges, and I want to make sure we’re ready.  And, while the “goings on” have been going on for quite some time now, in just the past few weeks I have had a number of friends send me snippets of that dialogue to make sure I’m paying attention, and I want to pass the favor on to you.

First, Tim Nesbitt, a key player in the initial implementation of Governor Kitzhaber’s Education Reform policies and now with The Oregon Idea, an advocacy group of the advancement of education in Oregon, sent me this from the e-Publication, The American Interest:

The End of the University as We Know It

By Nathan Harden

From the January/February 2013 issue

“Big changes are coming, and old attitudes and business models are set to collapse as new ones rise. Few who will be affected by the changes ahead are aware of what’s coming. Severe financial contraction in the higher-ed industry is on the way, and for many this will spell hard times both financially and personally. But if our goal is educating as many students as possible, as well as possible, as affordably as possible, then the end of the university as we know it is nothing to fear. Indeed, it’s something to celebrate.”

(You can read the full article at: http://www.the-american-interest.com/article.cfm?piece=1352)

Then Curtis Johnson, co-author of one of my favorite books on the future of education, Disrupting Class, and Senior Associate for Evolving Education (www.educationevolving.org), sent me this from The Chronicle of Higher Education; an article about how the Carnegie Unit of Credit Hours has come to be used in ways that are actually impeding us:

              The Curious Birth and Harmful Legacy of the Credit Hour

             By Amy Laitinen
             Published: January 21, 2013

“As higher education becomes increasingly necessary and expensive, measuring time rather than learning is a luxury that students, taxpayers, and the nation can no longer afford. While Carnegie's free money for pensions [the original purpose of the credit hour unit] dried up long ago, the federal government is spending hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to pay for time-based credits and degrees of dubious value.  Paying for what students learn and can do, rather than how or where they spend their time, would go a long way toward providing students and the nation with desperately needed, high-quality degrees and credentials.”

(You can read the full article at: http://chronicle.com/article/The-Curious-BirthHarmful/136717/)

 And then most recently, my friend and Executive Director of the Whitewater Institute (www.white-waterinstitute.org/), Marilyn Lane, sent this to me from The New York Times:

Revolution Hits the Universities

             By Thomas L. Friedman

Published: January 26, 2013

“I can see a day soon where you’ll create your own college degree by taking the best online courses from the best professors from around the world — some computing from Stanford, some entrepreneurship from Wharton, some ethics from Brandeis, some literature from Edinburgh — paying only the nominal fee for the certificates of completion. It will change teaching, learning and the pathway to employment.”

Then, quoting M.I.T. President, L. Rafael Reif, Friedman concludes, “There is a new world unfolding, and everyone will have to adapt.”

(You can read the full article at:  http://nyti.ms/W5DuoN)

Add to these two of my favorite pieces for stirring up a conversation, the somewhat apocalyptic EPIC 2020 video (http://epic2020.org/) and the Ken Robinson piece on Changing Educational Paradigms (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U), and I think we begin to have a picture of “what’s going on.” 

 

To use Clayton Christensen’s term, “Disruptive Innovation” is "what's going on."  The combination of radical advances in technology and the fiscal dynamics of a competitive world that is no longer constrained by time or distance creates for us a new educational paradigm that we can choose to see it as either threat or opportunity…. and our place in the future depends on which we choose.