Abelard to Apple : the fate of American colleges and universities / Richard A. DeMillo.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

DeMillo, Richard A.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Universities and colleges--United States.

Universities and colleges.

Education, Higher--Aims and objectives--United States.

Education, Higher.

Educational change--United States.

Educational change.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (339 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA : MIT Press, c2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

How institutions of higher learning can rescue themselves from irrelevance and marginalization in the age of iTunes U and YouTube EDU.The vast majority of American college students attend two thousand or so private and public institutions that might be described as the Middle--reputable educational institutions, but not considered equal to the elite and entrenched upper echelon of the Ivy League and other prestigious schools. Richard DeMillo has a warning for these colleges and universities in the Middle: If you do not change, you are heading for irrelevance and marginalization. In Abelard to Apple, DeMillo argues that these institutions, clinging precariously to a centuries-old model of higher education, are ignoring the social, historical, and economic forces at work in today's world. In the age of iTunes, open source software, and for-profit online universities, there are new rules for higher education.DeMillo, who has spent years in both academia and in industry, explains how higher education arrived at its current parlous state and offers a road map for the twenty-first century. He describes the evolving model for higher education, from European universities based on a medieval model to American land-grant colleges to Apple's iTunes U and MIT's OpenCourseWare. He offers ten rules to help colleges reinvent themselves (including "Don't romanticize your weaknesses") and argues for a focus on teaching undergraduates. DeMillo's message--for colleges and universities, students, alumni, parents, employers, and politicians--is that any college or university can change course if it defines a compelling value proposition (one not based in "institutional envy" of Harvard and Berkeley) and imagines an institution that delivers it.

Contents:

I. Great visions to lure them on

1. Are you teaching this summer?

2. A world of subjective judgments

3. The smartest kid in class

4. The twenty-first century

II. An abundance of choices

5. It takes a lot to get us excited

6. The computer in the cathedral

7. Do no harm

8. The factory

9. Disruption

III. A better means of expressing their goals

10. The value of a university

11. Of majors and memes

12. Threads

IV. Abelard to Apple

13. The stardom of Leonard Susskind

14. Unkept technological promises

15. A substitute for deep reflection

16. The process-centered university

17. Hacking degrees

V. The long view

18. The laws of innovation

19. Just change my title to "architect"

20. Rules for the twenty-first century.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-283-30278-0

9786613302786

0-262-29850-3

0-262-29761-2

OCLC:

756501384