Predicting the Future :-)

I love trying to predict the future and since my field of work is education this summary article called Compressing Stephen Downes interests me a great deal. I've been following Stephen Downes for a few weeks now. His area of focus tends to be online learning, but this article about his thinking is applicable beyond those boundaries. For those of you with more time on your hands here is a link to the full article: The Future of Online Learning: Ten Years On

A random thought that I had a year or so ago that has resurfaced a few times is: How will online learning impact student life? If you know me the reason I'm interested in this question is obvious - I work in student life ;-)

I ask this question because as everyone involved in education gets more comfortable with online learning our practices will obviously move more heavily in that direction. My concern (for more then my job) is that their will be less face-to-face interaction. Without this type of interaction I worry that the ability of future students to practice their communication skills in more ways then text messaging, emails, discussion boards, blogs etc will diminish. With less experience at communicating face-to-face I worry that their relationships will not be as deep.

That said, I realize that online learning and interactions can evolve in ways we simply do not understand or appreciate now. For instance, social networking was not an option 10 years ago and I believe it has a great deal of potential to enhance the level of online communication.

Beware of Social Networking?

This Inside Higher Ed article titled Frenemies on Facebook highlights a few issues for students and schools that need solutions. Basically, a marketing company created Facebook groups that targetted students. Seems reasonable. Problem was that the company acted as if they were a school and failed to mention that they were a marketing company. Fortunately, the hoax was uncovered and the company admitted that they "crossed the line."

This story points out that students (& parents) must be aware of where they get their information and schools must find ways to share their message in the Web 2.0 environment. With our communications methods changing so rapidly and with everyone, from schools to students to outside companies, having access to the same tools to share information widely it will not be easy to find solutions. In my work I'm trying to understand how we can use social networking to enhance the sense of community at our school. Any suggestions?

Dec 21 Readings

Here are some readings that may be of interest:

• Universities may face free market overhaul - This is a report commissioned by the Australian gov't to assess higher education down under. It reminds me of Ontario's Rae report from a few years ago.
• Teaching by Lying: Professor Unveils 'Last Pirate' Hoax - A creative way to teach, but the approach pushes the boundaries of what is acceptable in higher ed.
• A New Look at the Impact of Diversity - Inside Higher Ed interviews the author of The Diversity Challenge: Social Identity & Intergroup Relations on the College Campus. Two interesting findings are highlighted, which make sense as a concept, but might be harder to implement: (1) In student housing efforts should be made to places students together that are from different racial/cultural background and (2) Ideally support for groups that segregate students into racial/cultural groups should be eliminated, or at least slowed down (eg Greek societies or minority student organizations).
• Facebook vs Google - This article is not directly about higher ed, but I thought I'd include it get people think about the ways higher ed can connect to these growing services.
• We have to write the rest of the song - I discovered Karl Fisch last year when I saw this video and I now follow his blog. Fisch is a grade school teacher, but this article about the importance of reflection applies to both grade school and college or university.
  

Dec 16 Readings

Here are a few brief and not so brief readings to ponder:

• BBC: 'Aspiration gap' for white poor
• Stats Can: Study: Leaving postsecondary education without graduation
• The Nat'l Center for Public Policy and Higher Education: Measuring up 2008: A National Report Card on Higher Education
• eBook: The Tower & The Cloud

Private University... Not so much

Quest University in British Columbia is one of Canada's first, if not first, private university. Maclean's On-campus blog certainly does not paint it a pretty picture in this posting: Public vs private universities in Canada

Introducing some variety by way of a different model for a post-secondary institution to follow should be a good thing... in time. Quest University has not had a great start, but as long as we learn from their experience then we should all benefit. Let's hope someone is studying the Quest experience!

PSE Mergers?

I cannot recall hearing of two (or more) post-secondary schools merging together into one new entity. According to this BBC article it could become reality in the UK: Uni and college in merger talks

Colleges & Universities are not known for being efficiently run organizations, but searching for answers through faculty's research or through a student's self discovery as they develop should not be measured against an "efficient"yardstick. As such, it will not be easy to find the balance between an efficiently run college or university and a place where students and faculty have the freedom to take some risks to explore.

Bright Future for Ontario College & Universities?

The answer to this question would seem to be a resounding "Yes!" according to this article in the Toronto Star: Could 'mega-region' phoenix rise from economic crisis ashes?