another view on the “future” of higher education

…Year's end is, traditionally, a time of reflection, taking stock and then thinking ahead, making predictions, resolutions. Needless to say, these are stock themes in blogging the Janus season, higher ed not excepted. So unless someone throws me a must blog bomb, re-blogging selected posts and, in the case of overflow, ad hoc link collections from the feed reader's bounty will be my holiday break. Time, energy and especially inclination permitting, I'll probably fit in my own reflections and 2013 wish list somewhere along the way here or elsewhere. This view is from orgtheory by fabiorojas

Average folks and higher education researchers have conflicting views of academia. Average folks believe that most college teachers are tenured professors and that most students are residential students who play ultimate Frisbee on the quad. Higher education researchers have a different view. We know that most teachers are actually part time adjuncts and graduate students. Residential college is for the top of the pool. Most students are part time commuters or community college students. The mistake that people make is that the most visible forms of higher education (e.g., elite research universities and liberal arts schools) are the most common.

This split between folk wisdom and what the experts know is evident in David Purcell’s comment:

Outing the eponymous Professor ‘Staff’

The long awaited NFM Foundation report from CFHE Center /think tank is out and fab. I really wanted to write “simply mahvelous” but fabulous is what Gary calls it, so I’ll go with ‘fab” and the awesome alliteration of “fab Foundation” report as assembled, organized, written and edited by Gary Rhoades and our own fab five. Steve Street (to whom the report is dedicated), Maria Maisto, Esther Merves, Judy Olson and Anne Wiegard. Introducing the release, Gary Rhoades writes,

Attached (linked actually, see below) is the second report of the think tank, the Center for theFuture of Higher Education, courtesy of the FABULOUS work of the NewFaculty Majority Foundation. 

"Who is Professor ‘Staff’ and how does this person teach so many classes" offers not only data about "just in time" employment and insufficient access to instructional resources for contingent faculty, it also provides a tool for redressing SOME of those problems at limited cost, though we emphasize in closing the report that there is a structural deficit in higher education that must be resolved to ensure affordable, quality higher education. 

The key points in brief [but no surprise to any contingent faculty] are as follow:

Killing -- And Reviving -- The American University in Five Easy Steps - Forbes

Debra's Famous #5Steps Makes Forbes! How often does an academic from a discipline other than business, economics or IT, an adjunct, especially one in the arts and humanities, manage that? 

Opening with HG Wells quote,"History is becoming more and more a race between education and catastrophe" (the same as Lingenfelter's report), Steve Denning (Forbes Contributor, Radical Management: Rethinking leadership and innovation) writes,

Debra Leigh Scott has written an insightful article about the decline and death of the American university. Even more important is to think through how we revive it. 

Ms. Scott starts from the period post World War II, i.e. the 1950s when the GI bill, and the affordability — and sometimes free access — to universities created an upsurge of college students across the country. This surge continued for a time. Colleges had a thriving professoriate, and students were given access to a variety of subject areas, and the possibility of broad learning. Then something went wrong. 

It happened, she says, in five easy steps.

Read the rest and commentary at Killing -- And Reviving -- The American University in Five Easy Steps - Forbes

More #FutureofHigherEd & yet another #mooc

The future of higher education & other imponderables

as posted by George Siemens at elearnspace, June 16, 2012. I was going to ramble today or be more purposeful, issuing reminders and otherwise exhorting one and sundry (July 1 Stafford deadline, petitions, UNL's EDAD adjunct survey on evals, Duquesne, TAMUSA, etc). I may still do one or both, but this caught my eye and looked like something I could turn around much easier than the baggy monster sitting in drafts. I'm still deferring final posts for #change11 (digital identities, it's a wrap so what's the takeaway).

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via OLDaily, hence the introduction by Stephen Downes, who writes...

George Siemens introduces the next open online course (aka MOOC though some people don't like the term) that we are participating in (by 'we' I mean George and myself, Dave Cormier and Bonnie Stewart, the Gates Foundation, EDUCAUSE, Desire2Learn, UBC, SOLAR, CETI, and a spare kitchen sink we found by the roadside). It will be short and intense, quite unlike our previous effort.