As media change, so does advertising. IBM provides a good overview of what these changes entail - The end of advertising as we know it (.pdf).
The flow of information - whether as simple as asking people to buy a product or as complex as distributed computing projects (SETI) - is of particular concern for educators. We need to be aware of changes in how information is created, validated, and shared. The music industry lost touch of how music was being created and shared. Newspapers lost track of how news was captured and shared. The list goes on. In each instance, the effect has been devastating. The message, however, is quite simple: if you lose track of how people interact with your core "product", you risk fading into obscurity. Why? People will create systems that meet their own needs. Journal publishers are already starting to feel this impact (PLoS ONE is a starting point). Many other journals are abandoning closed access and opening dialogue. Universities, as institutions, hold a unique place in society, far beyond entertainment and information sharing (core functions of music and newspapers). But their effectiveness requires awareness of how their students are interacting with each other and with information. I highly doubt we'll see informal learning networks take over formal accreditation as measure of competence (though, in many small networks, this is happening as a person's reputation may well exceed their formal education, but it is not a model that appears to be transferable broadly to the rest of society. The expectation in reputation-based accreditation of competence is founded in recognition of peers - hence the emphasis on small networks. A peer may hire an expert based only on reputation. Someone who does not have familiarity with the field with likely hire based on accredited degrees). But, for universities and colleges, it's also about missed opportunities. Those life-long learners walking out of our doors every year have learning needs far beyond the duration of a degree program. To fail to account for these learning needs is a significant problem.
A formal course in a polytechnic in New Zealand has as its goal the training of a person to enter and be employed in a certain field: be it nursing, business computing,(as a project manager, web developer, technician, system analyst, programmer, usability tester, and so on) or chef. It is immensely practical as well as theorectical. Type 2 knowledge, it has been coined.
Lave and Wenger's ( and others) concept of communities of practice, and initial peripheral participation, is a useful analytical tool to apply to what and how learning is acquired in our setting. Students, from a variety of socio-cultural backgrounds, often with less money, move from interests, hobbies, and low paid work in our fields to wanting to earn a living in that domain, and become part of its culture and expectations, and have the financial reward. Learning is a journey towards "being". All of the skills and experiences acquired in the formal learning environment, developing cognitive neural flexibility and effective people skills are the ways they gain "traction and grip" to succeed in achieving their personal goal of entering that world.
Like our own children, we support them in their learning,encourage them to be resilent and start again when they have knockbacks, and admire that they are in fact an amalgamation of all the knowledge that we have assisted them to acquire, and will go on to work in ways that they create beyond anything that we have done.
Our students are passing this way, and I wave and see them through my part in the process of becoming and beyond.
Posted by: Diane McCarthy at November 11, 2007 4:15 PMHi Diane - you express the education goals very well! I agree that formal learning can serve for "traction and grip". I do feel, though, that universities are missing opportunities to experiment in the spaces and with the tools of learners. The notion of students "becoming" is very important. All education - whether formal or informal - is concerned with this. It is not about creating a certain type of student. It is about creating a certain type of attitude and competence in students that will enable them to continue to grow and develop.
George
Posted by: George Siemens at November 13, 2007 8:41 PMThis reminds me of the recent Washington Post article on iTunes U, Apple's service that provides free podcasts of university lectures. There's some heavy stuff among the top downloads--physics lectures from MIT and so on--and the universities seem totally fine with giving it away for free. One might think of it as a promo ("Like this lecture? Try earning an entire degree from our school!"), except that MIT and Stanford (top podcasters) aren't exactly hurting for applicants. I wonder how this new flow of information might inform future learning methods...and how much of it will be offered for free, or even shared with other institutions. Nothing like a Stanford lecture to pep up your community college science course.
Posted by: Calliope at November 14, 2007 3:50 PM