Edited by author 07-27-2002 06:32 PM
If 'The University is Dead', ought we encourage the development of 'Multi-versities' because the unifying vision, principles or philosophies, ... that have enbabled the 'faculties/schools/departments' to emerge in current universities are a long way from the original 'uni' conceptualisations?

There is no transcript of this webcast. I intend, however, to write a paper based on the presentation. When the paper is completed, I will post a note to this list.

We are publishing an interesting view of the future by Jim Shimabukuro (Rising Stars in Virtual Education: A Peek into 2010) in the November/December issue of The Technology Source. Please do not quote from this article until it is published. You can read the draft at http://ts.mivu.org/default.asp?show=article&id=1005

Enjoy!

http://www.bfranklin.edu/champions/basket.htm
John Hibbs
www.bfranklin.edu
hibbs@bfranklin.edu

Re: /m8

There is a unifying vision at work right now in the universities but it is an administrative vision: "the University of Excellence" -- where "Excellence" is a term that can refer to whatever is convenient (athletics, service to business, etc.) as long as it can be structured in accounting terms. (See http://www.hup.harvard.edu/reviews/REAUNI_R.html)

This vision has been at work for at least two decades in North American (and British?) universities, and it is what makes Morrison's title so deeply ironic. It doesn't really matter that some former ruling idea (say, that of a national culture)has passed away. All that matters (administratively, corporately) is that the accounting structure be preserved.

I'm going to be a huge pain and respond to several threads in one message and perhaps tie a grand old knot...

John Hibbs writes:
"What Phil mentions is the supposition that my seven year old grandson will be the same kind of student as was his mother, grandfather, and great grandmother. He won't be."

... Nice point & I've got to agree
And there is a connection between that supposition (focusing on students) and the piece James Morrison references:
"Rising Stars in Virtual Education: A Peek into 2010". James Shimabukuro builds an rich and imaginative world. Yet this world is fantiful, not because of the technology described, but because the course in which his characters engage is "English 100". Shimabukuro builds a supposition about stucture (focusing on the content and context of future courses)...

Interdisciplinary, problem solving learning adventures is the change in learning environments that we seem to need to speak about --carefully, perhaps loudly....

Lastly, Peter Roosen-Runge writes"there is a unifying vision at work right now in the universities but it is an administrative vision."
Peter -- I'm working to imagine an alternative...
Anyone else/everyone else?

http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference/InfoSes11.htm

Thank you
< replied-to message removed by QT >

Thank you so much for this article. I look forward to reading it and participating in a discussion concerning the issues raised therein.
Philip J. Rossomando, <prossoma@waldenu.edu>
Education Ph.D. Candidate at Walden University
3 Buck Drive, Glenmoore Pa 19343; 610-458-8549
"Quaerendo invenietis but remember"
"The Taller The Bamboo Grows, the lower it bends"

< replied-to message removed by QT >

As a member of a Task Force investigating policies regarding recognition of digital scholarship by TPR committees, I am interested in finding out if other universities have policies either at the department, college, or university level.

After some thoughts, I think in order for the university to survive, it must transform themselves. The university will not be survive as a knowledge provider because everybody can access to the internet and much training is done outside the formal education system by consultants. So how can we tell who have the knowledge and who don't have. The university will become a testing centre to test people who have certain technical skills. However, the number of university will shrink and university which can establish themselves fast and meet the needs of the industries or rather the job market will dominate the fund.

It would seem that online courses could eventually become the norm, not the exception, for higher education enrollments. Currently, the model for online learning is highly text-based, unlike the audio demonstration we just had. With video available, the paradigm may shift back to a model where instructors can videotape their lessons, along with synchronized presentations and web links to amplify their presentations. So, I am curious, if you had the choice of doing an online class as a series of text exercises (WebCT, Blackboard) with e-mail and an occasional phone call, or an online analog of an interactive audio-only, or online multimedia classroom, in which would you prefer to take part? Which do you think your students would prefer?

It would truly pain me if all education were directed at skills training. There is more to life than a job. Granted we must all eat but to be human is to be able to think and to reason. Education is much more than instruction. Lifelong instruction is not much different than life on a traadmill ever running but getting nowhere. The mind is a marvelous think and shallow instruction is a lot like eating fast food. It may satisfy for a short while but doe not enable the learner to solve the real problems we face today. Most of which have no simple solutions.

Personally, I am a Vygotskying Constructivist and I believe that we will always need a more-knowledgable-other to emotionally enspire the learning process. I have yet to see a computer do this. My question is how can we bring such emotion to the Internet. I have yet to see it being done anywhere and would like to hear from anyone who has.

The interesting thing about the change drivers is that their interaction and consequences will yield a whole range of challenging but unexpected results. Some of these with just a little foresight, I believe, can be anticipated.

Anticipation 1

The future will be with those that think and use a diferent nomenclature. The Unversity as an idea has so many implicit paradigms that it is doubtful if it can make the required transitions with the speed required to what might be called the future advanced knowledge and learning networks. [ no doubt someone will acronym it]

Anticiaption 2

New knowledge creation and diffusion, formerly the key value offering of universities will be created in many different places and universities will be just a bit player rather than the center. Like it or not most of this knowledge creation and diffusion will be in the control of private organsiations or perhaps City States as they seek to position themselves as globally attractive to the creative classes. [see Richard Florida - The rise of the Creative Class]

Anticipation 3

Future knowldege will move away from the traditional discipline paradigm to an integrated paradigm. The pardox of course being that the old way disciplines of Latin and the Classics are now in demand as they provide a thinking framework for the integrationalists.

Anticipation 4

Much of the exciting new knowledge is attractive to Commerce and NGO's as they seek to advance their various causes and will be created away from the eyes of public good and the nation state. Biotechnology and nanotechnology in all their dubious glory will not only replace many exisiting industries they may repattern entirely the way that we learn. The unthinkable and unspeakable will reign. As a result of this the changes in social institutions will be significant and perhaps even faster than the reigns of monarchs.

Anticipation 5

The race is for future relevance. The market will fragement. If I am to learn in the future I either want the "name university" as my advanced "know me, knowledge provider" or I will go with the proven but trendy - the rest will become irrelelvant.

Anticipation 6

Paradox will reign and I like many others have no idea what parts of what I've said will come true when. On line will work for some but not others. Thank God the futue is visual. And anyway what will "on line" mean in a "bio-nano" world?

Those that will succeed will be those that have some kind of scorecard.

Mike McAllum
www.globalforesight.net

Thank you James for stimulating the conversation

Has anybody else seen the website http://www.uni.ac ? They are saying they are taking pre-registering for 'uni.ac' domain names? Can they do this? Does this mean I could buy say www.education.uni.ac then have an email address educator@education.uni.ac and have a website at www.education.uni.ac? I don't know a lot about domain names but I thought only universities / colleges could have academic website addresses like this? To be fair they are saying that academic establishments will take precedence over an individual during pre-registration and they seem to have strict policies on names and websites - so if this a global academic domain name open to all, about time!, I have friends who run perfectly legitimate businesses aimed at 'academia' but are unable to get recognised because of the red tape associated with gaining the 'traditional' academic domain names . Anybody have any thoughts...

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