Who Needs Harvard?

Today’s Tuesday Reading takes a look at Higher Ed 2.0.  Our reading is “Who Needs Harvard?” from the September 2009 issue of Fast Company.  The article’s subheading says it all:  “Free online courses, wiki universities, Facebook-style tutoring networks – American higher education is being transformed by a cadre of web-savvy edupunks.”  

This piece makes the point that the university as we know it came into existence around the year 1100 when communities formed around a scarce, precious information technology, the handwritten book.  Today, we are still educating on a model based on the scarcity of knowledge when we have gone to unimaginable abundance.  New information technologies have the potential of radically changing the way we do higher education.  This piece argues that the new university can’t be far away.

Whether you agree with the author’s premise or not, this is a must read.  .  .  .   jim