The edgeless university

One of the things I've read this week is Peter Bradwell's report (95 pages, but an easy read and the actual text is maybe 60 pages long) titled The Edgeless University: Why Higher Education Must Embrace Technology. Those of you who work in higher ed might be interested in reading the report. Situated in the British system (it's a pamphlet from Demos, a British think tank), the report talks about how universities are being challenged in two key ways. First, they should bring education to more diverse populations. Second, they should reconsider the ways in which education is delivered, certified, etc and, relatedly, knowledge is owned, presented, etc. In other words, the author suggests that in order to succeed in the future universities need to explore and expand the boundaries that they've allowed to develop over the years.

This piece resonated with me because I live in a world of "courses are 15 weeks" and "students should get 3 credit hours per course." It's my job to take a topic and figure out what fits in 15 weeks at a work level that merits 3 credit hours. All of this, too, assumes that my students are students first and everything else second or less. While this system may work fine when teaching traditional undergrads who essentially go to school full-time as their jobs, it isn't always a fit for everyone else. (I assume some of you are nodding along with this post right now?)

Anyway, I've headed a bit on a personal tangent there. Back to the report. Of particular interest I thought were discussions of open content, how to merge informal learning into our institutions of formal learning, and whether the possibilities for accessing content and experts via technology in open forums eradicates the need for our formal, structured institutions (quick answer: NO).