Learning Innovation

I'm not too proud to beg Facebook to consider including educators at the table during the design of the Facebook phone.

If you read The Economist then Time to Start Thinking is your kind of book. There is something almost soothing about a book that is simultaneously well-written and depressing. Somehow learning about the decline of the U.S. from a Brit -- Luce is the Washington Bureau Chief of London's Financial Times -- feels more palatable than similar arguments made by an American.

Imagine for a moment that you are the Educator Queen (or King) of the World. You have the power to make a Royal Decree about the education app that will be created next. Everything you survey is yours, and your will we be done. What are your orders?

Over the next 5 years Netflix plans to spend about $185 million on the creation of original programming. The first show, Lilyhammer, has been launched - and 4 more are in the pipeline for this year. They are: House of Cards, Hemlock Grove, Orange Is the New Black, and a reboot of Arrested Development. Subscribers will be able to stream the whole season at anytime, bypassing the traditional episode-by-episode release schedule. Will for-profit higher ed follow the Netflix path?

Every project that technology touches (which now means most things we do in higher ed) should be looked at through the lenses of quality, access and costs. It is no longer adequate to address one or two legs of this three legged stool.

Last week I had the privilege of attending the 65th Education Writers Association (EWA) National Seminar, held this year at the University of Pennsylvania. I was invited to sit on a panel discussion with the topic "Will Open Source College Courses Roil the Waters?" The session description read:

How do you choose your books? We need to choose books that offer a high R.O.T. (return on time). The opportunity costs of reading are heavily weighted toward time rather than dollars.

Why should higher ed and ed tech people care about the valuation of Facebook? Does it really matter if a bunch of young technologists and investment bankers get fabulously rich, and if a group of wealthy, visionary or gullible investors make or lose tons of money?