isaac morehouse: what will save higher ed

following up from yesterday’s thoughts on isaac morehouse’s insights from the human current…

information is more accessible than ever via computers (including cell phones) and the internet. people are more able than ever to prove their knowledge and ability by just directly showing people their work (also via the internet).

so what can/will specifically higher ed institutions do to succeed? isaac shared this thought around 17 minutes into his interview and ithink he’s dead on. get back to what they were good at before but maybe undervalued under the “information delivery narrative”: bringing groups of people together to learn and challenge and push each other’s thinking.

this is actually valuable at all levels of post-secondary education institutions, but i have a hunch that maximum value for most people can be gathered in virtual spaces. it will only make sense for a small number of institutions to actually bring people physically together for cohort-style learning processes and relationship building opportunities.

this will mean, if they’re wise, those institutions will stop implementing information delivery methods. they should/will implement learning models that support dialog and collaboration (and maybe even space for practice).

anyways, rant over.

ps - all of this only stands if higher education stops being a training ground for elites. i’m not convinced that it will ever do that and if that never happens, the whole institution will collapse before having a chance to save itself.

other thoughts in this series…