Sidenote:

OK, I have not been blogging for quite a while as that "damn" twitter and its "microblogging" service is just too easy and disruptive; the downside is that the time and thought required to write a blog post, however small, can seem quite an effort compared to a quick tweet or succession of tweets. However, all things considered I have decided that I must force myself to regularly blog more if only for the main reason of reflecting and thinking things through a little more that is required of a tweet! Also, this site is now primarily a blog and as such a rebrand and redesign will be applied over the next few weeks to reflect that.

Tech podcast This Week in Tech episode 197 had a really good discussion at the end about education and how pedagogy and the models of learning really need to change to cater to the students paying to go through the system. Joining @leolaporte on this podcast were @dtapscott, @jeffjarvis (and his son @jakejarvis) and @ginatrapani.

The podcast covered a range of topics with a particular focus on the future of newspaper publishing and also a great discussion on current and future education towards the end (from around 0:51:00 onwards).

Universities ("colleges" in the US) are often accused of "broadcast learning" but how is the pedagogy (including andragogy - how people learn) changing and does it really need to change?

Jeff's son is an active facebook developer and  entrepreneur and is accomplishing these things "on the side" whilst he attends College. Talk of Jake having a mentor (David Karp from Tumblr) who is a "college dropout" did not go down well with Jeff's wife - “above everything else make sure that Jake continues his education to that he can get a career in the future”; but is it really like this now?

For Jake following his entrepreneurial path there are many high profile and notable "college dropouts" such as Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs providing inspiration. If you are a graduate in the UK and applying to be the next Sir Alan's apprentice then being a graduate (especially a lawyer) seems to go against you based on the past few series of this reality television show (which does not bode well for "Lord" Alan's new role).

During the discussion (and one of the great things about the TWiT network podcasts compared to pre-recorded radio type broadcasts) the chat room chipped in with a couple of comments along the lines of "I want my doctor/lawyer to go to college" which led the discussion to the area of credentialing.

The future of the current process of obtaining credentials were generally viewed as “going through the motions” and only seen as being sustainable in the future if it is shown that the current way is the best way to obtain the required knowledge, competence and experience. Don then presented some fascinating stats concerning the price of obtaining education in the medical profession quoting $50K for "Heart Surgery" in the US compared to $3K (excluding flights) for the same "content" delivered by professionals with the same education and credentials in India. This led quickly to a discussion on metrics and data and how the quality of students, both pre and post training, could be assessed which reminded me a little of reputation and whuffie.

The upshot of the conversation was the agreement that the models of learning, and in particular the credentialing function will vanish over time as these prove to be no longer fit for purpose as a general model.As Don put it the 4 constituents of education: teaching; credentialing; research & socialisation may be separated and do not always need to be delivered, supported and evidenced in the same "building".

Don Tapscott had a post in the Huffington Post entitled: The Impending Demise of the University following the TWiT podcast (which referred to his earlier April post in the Edge) where he built upon this “challenge” put forward and opened up for comments and debate (the Edge post did not allow comments) – and the comments came flooding in!

In the UK funding for Universities over the next few years is certainly going to be reduced and over the last few years we have encouraged a 50% graduate population without building the infrastructure to fulfil these job expectations. Rather than thinking about "is it time to readdress this model of education" is it more a case of education is changing and we need to encourage Universities to remain the “incubators of creation” whilst respecting, encouraging, supporting and "credentialing" alternative forms of education on par with the Universities?