Fast Company nails it again in this article “Adapt or Die”. When I read this part here, I was struck by how much higher education needs to grasp this:
The modern economy–global, domestic, and local–however is fast and dynamic; it’s in a constant state of change. And so the greatest overarching challenge facing leaders and their organizations today is to be able to quickly respond to market change; they must be the catalyst of organizational change that will guide their businesses to market leadership.
I was talking the other day to a friend about this. Where we are right now in higher ed is that we no longer have a clear understanding of the value proposition inherent in higher ed. My friend Chris Borglum noted this in a recent letter to the editor of the Orlando Sentinel. He noted there, “I understand the need for something as expensive as college to pay off in a career, but surely there’s more to the experience than job prep. Otherwise, why teach….anyone anything other than what one needs for one’s job? I believe that knowledge of those disciplines can help one be a better citizen and lead a richer life. That’s a value in itself. A college education…can guarantee a better understanding of the world, and one’s self.”
However, Chris’ point hints at the issue for education, and really the issue for our country. Our citizens today do NOT see the value that Chris describes. They and the culture in which we live has moved on. As Fast Company suggests, the fast constant state of change has swept through our lands and overwhelmed every industry, including education. Yet, we in the industry have long rested on old laurels, assuming everyone would just naturally understand the value we offer.
No longer!
Thus, if we do believe that education offers a value to enrich one’s life and gain deeper understanding of the world and self, we had better start doing a better job of PR. We must start to respond quickly to this market change, and yet….
Just today I was in a conversation with a peer whose division at the college proudly states that they ban laptops in the classroom, apparently under the assumption that such a ban would eliminate the evil distractions of Facebook. Sigh…I asked my friend would this group have also banned the ballpoint pen in favor of the quill, since with a ballpoint pen the student could doodle more quickly. This is just one example I could tell you. The point isn’t that some are frustrated by the invasion of technology that distracts (I worry about that too), but that the answer to the challenge is of slowness, of not seeing the culture and market change, of a stubborn refusal to realize that the student is drifting mentally (thus possibly wishing to surf the Internet rather than listen to a lecture) because she does not see the value proposition to being in the class.
Adapt or Die. Change is happening and Higher Education will indeed find itself in the same position as Blockbuster. I’ve written about this many times before. We’d better get moving on changes or….well, you know the final result.