College of the Desert

I had the great privilege to speak at the College of the Desert flex week today.  We talked about the way technology has changed multiple industries and the potential impact it will have on higher education.  I challenged them to think about ways they can bring passion to their classrooms and I had some great conversations afterwards.  They were very hospitable and it was a great morning being with them.

New Charter University

I was sent an interesting article in the Chronicle of Higher Education today about a company called UniversityNow.  They are taking a different approach to education and it will be interesting to see how it develops.  Their first venture is New Charter University which has some very interesting aspects to it.  In just a few minutes I applied and had my account all ready to go.  It was no more complicated than setting up a Facebook account, and in fact I could have used my Facebook account instead of setting up a new profile.  I can take any class for free and only have to pay for it if I want the credit. All courses are self-paced and they require an initial assessment to determine if I'm ready for that class.

Obviously the lack of regional accreditation will be an issue right now for some potential students, but how long will it be before this kind of student-focused approach is the norm?

CCCApply Workshop in Santa Ana

Today I was privileged to do a presentation at the CCCApply Workshop held at Santa Ana College.  I really enjoyed my time with them and I used Prezi for the first time.  It's an alternative to PowerPoint and I've been wanting to use it for quite a while.  It was a lot of work to re-create my "Edison to Jobs" presentation but I was interested to see how the more fluid style of Prezi would work to tell a story.  As always I made a shameless plug for this blog so if you were at the session and are reading this, let me know what you thought about Prezi.  Did it help tell the story, or did it get in the way?

Higher Education Monopoly Ending?

Have you ever heard of the U.S. Leather Company?  How about American Cotton Oil?  Charles Dow created an index of the 12 leading industrial companies at the end of the 19th century and those two were on the list.  Almost none of the companies he identified exist today. 

Is higher education next in line for a disruptive innovation that will radically alter the way people learn and receive credentials?  There is a terrific article in the New Republic that I think succinctly summarizes the changes that are coming to higher education. Check it out.

Khan Academy

60 Minutes did a great story this week on the Khan Academy.  If you want to see the future of education, watch this video:

CMC3 South Conference

Yesterday I had the great privilege to speak at the CMC3 South Conference which is a group of CA community college math professors in southern California.  It was a great group, but I was very disappointed that they all looked so normal.  I told them that I was expecting the day would be like an extended episode of The Big Bang Theory!

I talked about the decentralizing trend of technology and the very real threat our current system of higher education is facing.  I encouraged them to make a difference in their students' lives because the one area we will never be able to automate is the magical connection that can occur between a teacher and a student.  I had some great conversations afterward and really enjoyed my time with them.

Great Idea

This obviously won't be a scientific study, but it should be very interesting to see the final results.  We should never be afraid to hear directly from our students.

Future U

My boss just sent me a great article about the future of higher education.  It cites a book I'm currently reading called The Innovative University by Clayton Chistensen and Henry Eyring.  Both the article and the book are worth reading for anyone interested in how higher education will have to adapt to stay relevant.

iTunes U

Oops - I jumped the gun a little bit on my last post and there was more news from Apple this morning.  They also announced a new iTunes U app that will host full courses that you can take for free or (I assume) for a fee at some point in the future.  They have had this content for a while in iTunes but they are obviously making a big push in education now and so they are breaking this out into its own app.  I just downloaded it and it pretty much works the same way it did in iTunes.

It will be very interesting to see how this develops in relationship to the burgeoning Open Courseware initiatives.  It could be a battle between an open and closed environment that we are now seeing with iOS and Android.  There is a lot to keep track of in this space and it's a really exciting time to be working in education.  Stay tuned!

iBook Textbooks

Some very exciting news coming out of Apple this morning.  They have released an upgrade for the iBook app that is geared specifically for textbooks.  This was fairly expected but the real surprise was the free authoring environment they are also releasing that will make it very easy for instructors to write their own textbooks.  Of course it only runs on Macs, but Apple isn't exactly known for making it easy to use their stuff on Windows.

I believe this has enormous potential and could revolutionize the textbook industry, just like the iTunes did for the music industry.  Textbooks from all of the major publishers are available now for $14.99 and imagine what it will be like when instructors all over the country can start producing their own materials.  The best will get voted up and the worst will get voted down and the students will be the real winners.

A Fresh Start

I realize that my blog posting in 2011 was pretty much nonexistent which I also realize was a huge disappointment to both of the faithful readers of DigitalEdu. I'm going to see if I can do something about that and will be trying to update this site more often. I've refreshed the look a bit and am exploring some of the new features Blogger is offering to see if I can make this a more interesting site to visit.

Let me know if you have any ideas, and thanks for visiting!