Location
Daytona Beach, Florida
Description
This paper examines the impact of technological advances on American higher education in the coming decade. It is not, however, an encouraging pep talk about how fancier audiovisual aids and classroom video projectors can dress up lectures and impress students. It's too late for that.
The paper begins with a discussion about a very disturbing article from Financial Times, which claims that American professors in conventional universities are outdated; that they are selling a product that is ridiculously expensive and ill-suited to the needs of the changing society. The article cites a book by Lewis Perelman, School's Out, in which the author predicts the demise of conventional education.
According to Perelman, modern electronic technology--interactive software and multimedia technology-will replace conventional degree programs, permitting the student to begin hes professional life earlier, wait until particular knowledge or skills are needed, and then obtain them electronically. This switch to "just-in-time" learning would mean that talented people would no longer spend years preparing for employment. They would begin work early--perhaps in their mid-teens--but continue learning on the justin- time principle. In such a world "going to college" would cease to be part of the American dream. "Electronic college" would replace present-day heavily-subsidized non-profit institutions, a true market would develop, and electronic education would become a highly profitable business for the so-called "learning companies." As Perelman sees it, technological advances will not prove to be academia's new teaching tools, but their downfall.
Technological Advances in the Art and Science of Teaching
Daytona Beach, Florida
This paper examines the impact of technological advances on American higher education in the coming decade. It is not, however, an encouraging pep talk about how fancier audiovisual aids and classroom video projectors can dress up lectures and impress students. It's too late for that.
The paper begins with a discussion about a very disturbing article from Financial Times, which claims that American professors in conventional universities are outdated; that they are selling a product that is ridiculously expensive and ill-suited to the needs of the changing society. The article cites a book by Lewis Perelman, School's Out, in which the author predicts the demise of conventional education.
According to Perelman, modern electronic technology--interactive software and multimedia technology-will replace conventional degree programs, permitting the student to begin hes professional life earlier, wait until particular knowledge or skills are needed, and then obtain them electronically. This switch to "just-in-time" learning would mean that talented people would no longer spend years preparing for employment. They would begin work early--perhaps in their mid-teens--but continue learning on the justin- time principle. In such a world "going to college" would cease to be part of the American dream. "Electronic college" would replace present-day heavily-subsidized non-profit institutions, a true market would develop, and electronic education would become a highly profitable business for the so-called "learning companies." As Perelman sees it, technological advances will not prove to be academia's new teaching tools, but their downfall.