Will universities stay relevant? and the rest of the wikinomics blog
- Idea: for universities to remain relevant, they will have to change their teaching styles to match the impatient and interactive internet-raised generation.
- Notable quotes:
- [College students today] want to learn, but they want to learn only from what they have to learn, and they want to learn it in a style that is best for them.
- In the old model, teachers taught and students were expected to absorb vast quantities of content. Education was about absorbing content and being able to recall it on exams. You graduated and you were set for life - just “keeping†up in your chosen field. Today when you graduate you’re set for say, 15 minutes. (heheh)
- What matters now is a student's capacity for learning. Hence colleges should teach meta-learning: learning how to learn.
- My opinion: Universities will not die, they are too useful given the collaborative nature of human learning: they bring many different people together for the purpose of learning (and perhaps doing research). This is essential, not just for professional learning, but for life-learning (learning from other's experience so you don't have to experience it). Sure, people can learn by consulting google or wikipedia, but it's not nearly as good as face-to-face lectures (where you can ask questions!) or office hours, because the teacher there has some idea what is going on in the student's mind as he/she learns, and can anticipate questions and give relevant guidance based on experience. Google and Wikipedia, for now, cannot do this as well as a good, thoughtful teacher or friend.
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