So much new is around us that at times, I can’t really find my own bearings. At our work as school, I bounce between just thinking about doing good work for my students and confronting rapid change at a leadership level. Nonetheless, I believe this feeling is the “new normal.” I think we must accept the fact that education is both changing AND is under pressure (should I say “attack?”) from many different fronts. So, two months ago, I was reading the annual Fast Company issue about the top innovative companies in the world and drew out these ideas.
From that, I have a riff on some new education thoughts for the future. These aren’t necessarily in order, but perhaps like Luther’s 95 Theses are more a series of points that are only loosely connected.
1. Social is not an option for more…it is a layer for everyone. This fact demands change for people like me who are afraid of the social media, instant connectivity, “always on” world. Those who have determined they do not think social is good will not be able to escape this. I do not mean, however, that everyone MUST adopt a 24/7 mindset. In fact, I think the opposite—while social is not an option, we must carve out more space for being present, whether together (lunch, coffee, walks around the campus) or merely without the technology turned on. There is some other evidence that many are starting to see the need for this sense of being dis-connected on purpose. Yet, while we need the unplugged time, the human touch time, the idea of the connection—transparency and immediacy of social is simply not an option.
2. We must, then, work to determine HOW social works for the good of education. Some ideas would be understanding the social ranking thing my friend Professor James May often talks about (seen in a variety of current websites). James speaks at length about how the new transparency found in social media allows for thin slicing videos, etc…. Academia, and professors in particular need to adopt transparency in such areas like their Student Assessment of Instruction.
3. Speed matters—this is perhaps the thought that really deserves to be considered first for academia. Colleges, professors or academic entities can no longer can sit around for months deciding things. Perhaps the best way to express this is that we really are not a Democracy in decisions. There may be better ways to get there through new governance structures. We cannot sit around for some magical day of a convergence of consensus. That consensus never happens in the real world, so there is no need to keep tilting at windmills. While we may need to be cautious at some points, not just blindly rushing into danger, but make no mistake….in almost every business I read about, speed trumps all. Maybe Colleges and Universities must determine to think like a “start up” in order to facilitate decisions more quickly.
4. Since speed matters, we should move to build governance structures that either meet often or use technology to enhance their constant communication. Groups that only meet once a month, like a general Learning Council or faculty Senates simply cannot adequately participate in the decision processes well. At the very least, they should embrace some technology to facilitate a daily communication style, but the structure probably would be enhanced by weekly, or at least bi-weekly meetings.
5. We need to clearly communicate to everyone that speed is a part of our lives. If someone wants to participate in governance, perhaps what they need to be told is “this is a choice you are making, but along with that choice comes other factors such as teaching less so you can participate in decisions made at speed.” At the very least, it must be clear that if one is going to step into a committee or leadership group in the college (whether a college-wide, campus or discipline group), then that is part of their job. It is not optional; it is not something you can simply choose to ignore or miss. It must be done well with the clear understanding that key “next steps” at the institution will be made by them. They must also realize that due to fact that “speed matters,” they do not have any luxury to take their own sweet time to communicate or participate.
6. We must attack the communication crisis that has been upon us, the entire country, for the past 10 years, but worse over the past 5 years. This will take a consistent and forced decision by the senior leadership. There must be a clear message of “from now on, we will do X to communicate” or whatever is decided. We simply will continue to struggle if a large portion of the college workforce does not embrace whatever tool that is chosen for this, if they remain outside of the information delivery that is happening. Pew Research indicates that email usage, especially with the 30-under demographic, continues to fall, while communicating through a “mini-computer” (smart phone or tablet) continues to rise. I suppose the College could decide to maintain email, but then they must create clear structures, perhaps using third party apps like Boomerang, to help mold user behavior in a way that enables and facilitates better communication. Regardless, whatever the choice made by senior leadership for Institution communication, then it is NOT AN OPTION. All must use it, with everyone trained how to do it, and then we go do it.
7. R&D pays off. We must move talented, innovative people to R&D spots now…and pay them to do stuff. This is of course suggesting some sort of model mimicking Google where everyone is encouraged to spend time innovating. At Valencia we do encourage innovation in classrooms through “Action Research Projects,” Endowed Chairs and development programs like Destination. However, in this fast-paced, ever-shifting environment we need to highlight even further deep R&D. The R&D also needs to be broadly communicated through the institution in a way that people can adopt things, or can crowd-source the best ideas. Imagine a day in May or December where everyone comes together (or maybe on each campus) to see the innovative ideas from the various R&D people.
8. We must reinvent. No one is allowed to remain static. Entropy kills.
9. The future of Higher Education will have an aspect of “College without the Rooms.” Business is already going there to some degree (30% workforce works remotely according to a report by Cisco, though of course many are aware of Yahoo’s senior leadership moving away from this trend). In academia, as I have written about extensively, the continued growth of online classes, the MOOCs idea and other things like this are pressing us this direction. If nothing else, then the continuing rising costs of buildings seem to be an unwise investment. It is true that many students (the majority for sure) still value coming to class, but due to costs (just think about the challenge of paying for personal transportation), it is easy to see the possible decline of the face-to-face class, especially for the “Commuter School.” This reality will have tremendous implication—everything from online education MUST “up its game” to perhaps a world where the face-to-face class, seen as more valuable, cost the student more, which in turn will force the professor to be EVEN BETTER. To deal with this, we need a “within the decade we will reach the moon” pressure and goal.
10. The College President and other key leadership should use technology themselves to be more “present” for the public. Imagine a College or Univertity where the President holds “town hall” meetings via tools like Youtube or regularly comments on facebook. This would be for STUDENTS AND PARENTS to have face time with the leader, to ask any question, to raise any issue. There are a myriad of permutations for this to happen such as the President alone, the President with a Campus President, the entire Senior Team, all of the academic Deans on a campus. The point is acknowledging the transparency of our current day and taking the lead in reaching out to the entire community. Angry about the rising costs of textbooks—come to the townhall and ask. Frustrated about financial aid rules–listen in at the townhall.
11. We have to embrace the change coming from technology (access, speed, remove limitations of physical space) WHILE AT THE SAME TIME, using our expertise and experience to properly defend true learning, and how good deep learning takes place, what it looks like. Here’s an article with two people who think they know; I’m not sure they do know, so the question should be that we want to know how to get this same conversation into Fast Company but with two professors deeply invested in true learning. Both of these people are somewhat “outsiders”—note, I realize “outsiders” can have value, bringing fresh eyes to a situation, but at the same time, my point is that we should be leading the conversation in such a way that a group like Fast Company would not dream of printing this without us.
12. To disrupt, we must go all in….can’t be half way about change. If we don’t disrupt, we face entropy. For far too long, academia has seemingly adopted an attitude that “we know best; leave us alone as we continue to educate the same way its been done for over hundreds of years.” But, if we are going to really change, we can’t be half-hearted. And, remember point #8 above—we MUST reinvent, we must disrupt. Or, maybe another way to say it is that higher education is ALREADY BEING DISRUPTED. The question is will experts and innovators who are INSIDE (like Valencia) going to be brave enough and move fast enough to change the current conversation. If they refuse to go all in, the speed of others will constantly outpace the stodgy old higher education system, and half-way change will be ignored by culture that will always move towards the fastest moving, deepest innovators (don’t believe me…go ask Blockbuster about Netflix or Redbox….or go ask Myspace about Facebook).
13. We need to never be satisfied with being #1. Rather, we should always look to ask, “how can I get better” and consider yourself the underdog with something to prove. Maybe this is best understood as coming only to Valencia, the first Aspen prize winner and longtime scion of excellence…but I really think it’s how all of academia should think. For decades, perhaps centuries, we have been the undisputed king of learning. Now, with this rising scrutiny and other faster, more nimble educators going straight to the masses, usually for free, academia had better take on the mentality that we are on the ropes. We have something to prove, if we really are as good as we claim.