[ExI] College 2.0

[Daniel Shown]

I pay my bills working in higher-ed (specifically, delivering courses
online).  This line of reasoning and questioning has been discussed
ad-nauseam in domain specific forums.  It is likely that technology can
continue to offer increased efficiencies, but the destruction of higher-ed
and it's incumbent institutions is far less probable than many
techvangelists might prefer.  There are, simply, more socio-cultural
dynamics at play than abrupt, naïve analyses account for.




On Sun, Dec 30, 2012 at 11:00 AM, David Lubkin <lubkin at unreasonable.com>wrote:

> There are changes afoot in college education. We've been in an obscene
> cycle for decades. Families can't afford college, so there's political
> pressure to increase government assistance. As this happens, the
> schools raise their tuition to sop up the new money and fix the level of
> pain back where it was. While adding a deferred pain in loans the
> students can never pay back through the largely useless degrees they
> obtained. Some students, facing an uncomfortable workplace, go back
> for more degrees and more debt. All adding to political pressure to
> forgive much of this debt, which in effect furthers the burden on taxpayers
> who were out working. But probably not today's taxpayers, since we'll
> just increase the federal debt even further.
>
> Meanwhile, in other industries, costs plummet, in ripples from Moore's
> Law. And more and more efforts to give you stuff for free, often in
> exchange for ads you ignore or block, or data sold off about you.
>
> With college tuition priced to compete with what you pay for your
> recreational activities, there's great potential. I never stopped after
> graduate school. I just kept on buying books and learning, and still do,
> decades later. But I don't pay tuition, buy exorbitant textbooks, listen to
> dull lectures, learn lockstep to the class, or jump through professors'
> and school administrative hoops.
>
> At the prices discussed in this article, my interest is perked. Maybe
> I'll get another degree or forty. Now, I'm an outlier. But how many
> people would take a class or two, finish their degree, or get a master's
> if it cost no more than a cable tv package?
>
> My guess is this is, at least, a billion-dollar market. That will
> ultimately
> result in the dramatic reformation of the existing model of higher
> education. The on-campus experience will survive, but largely priced
> at a point a student could afford with a part-time job with no need of
> grants or loans.
>
> <http://articles.marketwatch.**com/2012-12-10/finance/**
> 35714989_1_college-tuition-**nonprofit-colleges-public-**colleges<http://articles.marketwatch.com/2012-12-10/finance/35714989_1_college-tuition-nonprofit-colleges-public-colleges>
> >
>
>
> -- David.
>
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