Wikinomics warns that non-elite colleges risk the same plight now facing newspapers. Rarely do the dominant industries lead innovation, and in the case of the papers:
[L]eaders of old paradigms have the greatest difficulty embracing the new. Why didn’t Gannett create The Huffington Post? Why didn’t NBC invent YouTube? Why didn’t AT&T launch Twitter? Yellow Pages should have built Facebook and Microsoft should have come up with Google. And Craigslist would have been a perfect venture for the New York Times.
As for the universities:
But less-selective private colleges and regional public universities, by contrast - the higher-education equivalents of the city newspaper - are in real danger. To survive and prosper… universities need to integrate technology and teaching in a way that improves the learning experience while simultaneously passing the savings on to students in the form of reduced tuition.
One thing for sure. The smartest students want to get an “A” without having ever gone to the lectures. They understand that there are better ways of learning than being the passive recipient of a one-way, one size fits all, teacher-focused model where the student is isolated in the learning process. When the cream of the crop of an entire generation is boycotting the formal model of pedagogy, the writing is in the wall.
I wonder, what is the actual value of a college education, after correcting for these effects.
(1) Colleges select for high IQ
(2) Businesses select for IQ by requiring a college degree for executive-track training.
(3) There is a cultural belief that a person cannot succeed without a college degree, limiting the success of non-graduates.
Employers and schools often dismiss the value of earlier college training, even in the case of future doctors and lawyers. The college education is regarded as an indication of dedication and interest. But, the employer or graduate school implies that the student should “forget what you have learned” and start to learn the real subject, if he can.
So, a college degree may be valuable mostly because of cultural bias, the lack of a more efficient and cheaper alternative, or the prohibition against employers giving aptitude tests (via supreme court rulings). How much does the “learning” in college really matter?
College is an Expensive IQ Test
Human interaction also plays a big part in education and afterwards in dealing with people. In a previous company I worked for, some reasonable size deals were worked out between me and our existing customers and between others and new customers, but ALL the mega deals that kept the company alive were done by the VP of Sales in person. Also. some deals that would have been reasonable size were turned into much bigger and much better deals by personal interaction.
Relationships at university can make a huge difference. So I don’t discount the value of actually showing up. A long time ago, I was in a situation where I could show up or fool around doing my own thing. I chose not to show up - big mistake.
This is so good. A few days ago, there was actually a “rally” for the Boston Globe (as reported by CEI adjunct scholar Gardner Goldsmith). Newspapers are in decline.
Higher education is struggling mightily, since it is dominated by coercively funded government institutions. Many private distance learning organizations have outpaced the government istitutions in their use of technology and improved instruction techniques. However, they have a hard time competing against the guns of government.