(First major post on the topic here. Most recent post was just yesterday.) Click on the "cost of education" tag for all relevant posts. Watching the higher ed debacle-in-the-making is like watching a train wreck in slow motion, and there's not a thing I can do about it. Also, here's some unsolicited advice: major in something useful and marketable. (Women's/Gender Studies and Religion is NOT such a major.) Good grief, even grads with marketable majors these days are facing a tough job market. What makes you think some wishy-washy, soft-core, touchy-feely major will stand a chance?
Reynolds' piece does have something very interesting in the end. It's the question of whether traditional universities are going the way of the dinosaurs:
My question is whether traditional academic institutions will be able to keep up with the times, or whether -- as Anya Kamenetz suggests in her new book, "DIY U" -- the real pioneering will be in online education and the work of "edupunks" who are more interested in finding new ways of teaching and learning than in protecting existing interests.
I'm betting on the latter. Industries seldom reform themselves, and real competition usually comes from the outside.
Oooh, I like the term "edupunk"! And I'm thinking, hey, I'm up for innovation and better teaching. Aren't you? And in a tiny way, this blog is my attempt at some personal edupunkery: scattering as many good bits of history/culture/analysis out there as I can to whomever wants it -- because you probably won't get it in a classroom!
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