{"id":1445,"date":"2009-07-01T06:11:20","date_gmt":"2009-07-01T11:11:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/?p=1445"},"modified":"2009-07-01T06:16:26","modified_gmt":"2009-07-01T11:16:26","slug":"higher-education-crisis-how-relevant-is-the-university-in-the-era-of-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/2009\/07\/01\/higher-education-crisis-how-relevant-is-the-university-in-the-era-of-free\/","title":{"rendered":"Higher Education Crisis &amp; How Relevant Is the University in the Era of Free?"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_1446\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1446\" style=\"width: 320px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/files\/2009\/07\/0_61_second_life_grad_ceremony.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1446 \" title=\"0_61_second_life_grad_ceremony\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/files\/2009\/07\/0_61_second_life_grad_ceremony.jpg\" alt=\"Bryant &amp; Stratton College Second Life Commencement\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/files\/2009\/07\/0_61_second_life_grad_ceremony.jpg 320w, https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/files\/2009\/07\/0_61_second_life_grad_ceremony-100x75.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1446\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bryant &amp; Stratton College Second Life Commencement<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A few months ago, I blogged on how <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/rhizomicomm.blogspot.com\/2009\/02\/plain-wrap-university.html\">no-frills universities<\/a><\/strong> were catching on and have been reading on how higher education may be in a <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/chronicle.com\/free\/v55\/i37\/37a05601.htm\">state of impending crisis<\/a><\/strong>. \u00a0Plus, I saw how one university was offering commencement in the online virtual realm of <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/story\/0,2933,525273,00.html\">Second Life<\/a><\/strong>. \u00a0All of this had made me think about the future of the university::<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Will the traditional &#8220;university&#8221; setting give way to the &#8220;business park&#8221; mode?<\/li>\n<li>Will online degrees become increasingly prevalent?<\/li>\n<li>How will the functions {research, teaching, community engagement, etc.} of the university change in society over time?<\/li>\n<li>Should the university be treated like any other business and at what price?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I&#8217;ve always seen universities as communities, rare places where one interacts with others about ideas and knowledge. In the mid-1990s, I had the chance to be a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley and remember it being a place open to inderdisciplinary perspectives, where interesting research was being done and intelligent conversations could be had. \u00a0I read somewhere that a few decades ago, the Stanford University Faculty Club was once a vibrant place where professors from the various schools and departments would kick around ideas. \u00a0I was talking to a recently retired computer science professor who was at my alma-mater, UC Irvine, in the 1970s, recalling conversations and debates with post-Marxist historians and scholars in the humanities. \u00a0From my perspective, it&#8217;s the community that a university creates that matters and I feel that uses of technology should be working not only on online instruction but on helping to foster a virtual intellectual community. \u00a0In terms of non-traditional settings and online instruction, I think there are challenges of legitimacy. \u00a0Online and &#8220;business park&#8221; universities taught primarily by adjuncts need to address the quality issue and ensure that the pedagogy is not just having students jump through hoops. \u00a0Students also need to adjust to learning in these environments. \u00a0I used synchronous chat in a recent class. \u00a0I heard from students I never heard from in the face-to-face discussions and it became clear who prepared and who didn&#8217;t. \u00a0Some students were quite candid in confessing this in front of everyone, virtually.<\/p>\n<p>The &#8220;crisis&#8221; that universities face in my book is not just a financial one, but also one of relevance. \u00a0Relevance to individuals and to society. \u00a0While there is a business aspect to running a university, treating it too much like a business by focusing on efficiency metrics and revenue opportunities, rather than how it fits into a community structure, is a sure-fire way to balkanize faculty. \u00a0I think it will be challenging for universities to keep an infrastructure in place and deliver value that students want. \u00a0I do expect a shakeout, especially in a globalized world connected to the Internet, unless universities adapt to being more competitive and rethink pricing.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, I think universities can learn from the writer Ray Bradbury, who thinks libraries are more important than universities and a <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/06\/20\/us\/20ventura.html?_r=1\">staunch library advocate<\/a><\/strong>::<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cLibraries raised me&#8230;I don\u2019t believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries because most students don\u2019t have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn\u2019t go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It makes me wonder how ideas like\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wired.com\/techbiz\/it\/magazine\/16-03\/ff_free\"><strong>Chris Anderson&#8217;s &#8220;free-conomics&#8221;<\/strong><\/a> could be applied to universities, an idea I&#8217;m mulling over and would love my colleagues to chime in on. \u00a0Can a university business model be created that offers up free education, but brings in revenues through non-tuition means, begging the question, what business is the university really in? \u00a0Is a degree the &#8220;product&#8221; or is &#8220;lifelong learning,&#8221; as in the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/2009\/06\/17\/cultural-capital-is-my-town-really-that-stupid\/\">building cultural capital<\/a><\/strong>? \u00a0I leave with this Anderson quote, with my mind on how free knowledge, rather than free electricity, could transform society and improve democracy::<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cWhat if electricity had in fact become virtually free? The answer is that everything electricity touched \u2014 which is to say just about everything \u2014 would have been transformed. Rather than balance electricity against other energy sources, we&#8217;d use electricity for as many things as we could \u2014 we&#8217;d waste it, in fact, because it would be too cheap to worry about.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Twitterversion:: <\/strong> What&#8217;s the future of higher ed? Can it be #Free: #ChrisAnderson #freeconomy ideas? Peddling degrees or lifelong learning? http:\/\/url.ie\/1xzu <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/Prof_K\">@Prof_K<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Song::<\/strong> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imeem.com\/artists\/the_smiths\/music\/JgGnK_H6\/the-smiths-the-headmaster-ritual\/\">The Headmaster Ritual &#8211; The Smiths<\/a><\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 300px\"><object width=\"300\" height=\"110\" data=\"http:\/\/media.imeem.com\/m\/NZqwnGZlQF\/aus=false\/\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\"><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/media.imeem.com\/m\/NZqwnGZlQF\/aus=false\/\" \/><\/object><\/p>\n<div style=\"padding:1px\">\n<div style=\"float:left;padding:4px 4px 0 0\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imeem.com\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.imeem.com\/embedsearch\/E6E6E6\/\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<form style=\"margin:0;padding:0\" action=\"http:\/\/www.imeem.com\/embedsearch\/\" method=\"post\"> <\/form>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few months ago, I blogged on how no-frills universities were catching on and have been reading on how higher education may be in a state of impending crisis. \u00a0Plus, I saw how one university was offering commencement in the online virtual realm of Second Life. \u00a0All of this had made me think about the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1593,1598,1522,1594,1591,78,1596,1595,1597,1592],"class_list":["post-1445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-chris-anderson","tag-community","tag-cultural-capital","tag-free","tag-headmaster-ritual","tag-higher-education","tag-libraries","tag-ray-bradbury","tag-second-life","tag-the-smiths"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1445"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1449,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1445\/revisions\/1449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/thickculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}