Back to School for GrownUps

Patricia, over at the Communication Exchange got me to thinking today. She wrote an article about The Communication Connection Between Newspapers and Universities that raises the question of whether colleges and universities are headed the way of newspapers….  will they, too, be offered almost entirely in an online format? And if so, what will we lose as a result?

Don Tapcott, author of grown up digital , which is quickly becoming one of my most oft-quoted books, is very clear that the research done by his group shows that digital generations have very different values and expectations than those who came along before the technology. They have shorter attention spans, for starters  - and they want things when they want them, and most importantly HOW they want them. 

They take technology for granted …. and they know that they can use it to get what they want when they want and how they want it - so they are less likely to be willing to jump through the hoops that come from bad or pre-technology design or from tradition. 

grown up digital should be required reading for anyone interested or involved in teaching - and also for parents, and anyone in business that would like to stay in business over the long haul, for that matter! It really is well worth the investment.

Anyway …. back to the topic…

As Patricia rightly notes in her article , “for every improvement society makes comes loss” - and moving away from traditional on-site colleges and universities is no exception. 

For me, as much as I love my computer and the Internet, there is little doubt that I learn far better in a traditional learning environment. I need the interactions, the face to face time with classmates and professors, the challenges of having to speak my ideas out loud in the group before they are fully formed and ready to write.

I learn from my peers, and often it is a thought or question that someone else raises that gets me going off in new directions (I am called flit for a reason, after all )  I can DO online courses - and do very well in them - but they have so far been much less productive, overall.

But then, I am clearly too old to have grown up digital - so my experiences don’t really count for much, do they?  Although, given that I seem to be the biggest techno-geek in my cohort, perhaps they do :) 

Anyway ….I would love to know what you think would be the benefits - and pitfalls - of moving towards online educational offerings and away from traditional post secondary settings. 

And seriously - you should buy the book!  (And nope, this is not a paid advertisement, and I don’t receive any $$ if you do buy it - I just think it is a really important resource)