Date post: | 18-Dec-2014 |
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Education |
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I wanted to talk today a little bit about changes happening in
education and the world around us.
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Story of Blackboard
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The reason the chair story is relevant is because the security was only
looking at the computer, the technology, and not what was the driver –
driving it out of the building. This is not dissimilar from the education
industry today – or infact many industries – where people believe
technology is the change event and don’t realize that the technology is
being driven by the consumer.
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I am here to talk about two big issues
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Even I fall into the trap in thinking technology will change everything. I
came across this quote and I thought finally someone is recognizing that
facebook and twitter and mobile computing are going to fundamentally
change how education is delivered. Then I continued reading and saw
this quote was from 40 years ago.
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And in fact I could go back 100 years and look at the classroom and
notice it doesn’t really look that much different.
It’s often said that if Ben Franklin were alive today, the only thing he
would recognize from his own lifetime is the inside of a classroom
because it has changed so little.
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In today’s classroom we have replaced pen and paper with notebook
computers but otherwise education remains relatively unchanged.
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But that is about to change.
So let me explain why this change is coming and why it is different from
all of those other times people claimed education was going to change
and it didn’t. Let me explain what is different.
There are 2 major driving forces that are building up like a title wave:
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This change is being lead by the consumer.
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The change is taking place while there is also a bubble around education
that is about to burst.
Some of those who watch these dynamics closely have even suggested
that after crashes in real estate, the stock market, and the overall
economy, that education could be the next “bubble.”
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Let me go into each of these in more detail.
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There has been a number of technology shifts in education – but in the
past they were all lead by the institution (or system administrator)
themselves. This new technology shift of mobile and social is being lead
by the students.
So lets better understand these students and consumers:
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While we struggle with these challenges in education technology is
transforming everything around us, making it harder to keep up.
The rise of the social Web is happening faster than the changes that
came before it, and reshaping expectations and opportunities for every
industry.
Think about it: there are 7 billion people alive in the world today…
…and we already have 5 billion mobile phones worldwide. Of course I
have three different ones right now but still…that’s a lot of phones…
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Today, more people have access to a mobile phone than a clean toilet.
Which is kind of scary when you think about it…
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Thankfully some of these people are now using their phones to find a
clean toilet! Yes, there’s an app for that. Hundreds of thousands of people
have already downloaded the “Toilet Finder” app so they can find a place
to take care of business…
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In 2009 there were 300 million mobile apps downloaded. Last year there
were 5 billion.
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Did you know that 92 percent of American kids have an online presence
by the time they’re just 2 years old?
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There are 2nd graders who type 60 words a minute
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High school students who have full time jobs on the internet while they
are in high school
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Today, Kindle books now outsell all hardcover and paperback books sold
on Amazon, COMBINED.
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And all of your textbooks can fit on that single device.
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So obviously the passion people have for mobile devices is extreme –
students are now spending 9 percent more time on apps than on the
Internet. And more time on social media than they spend reading or doing
email.
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And some are not using email at all. Is your institution prepared to
communicate with a student body that uses technology but may not utilize
the web or email?
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And in higher ed, a recent study found that 80 percent of all college
admissions officers have received a friend request from applicants.
Interesting…I wonder how many accepted?
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We talk about the importance of school’s in the US News & World report
ranking. That is only the first of many tools students are using to review
your institution.
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They even rate the professors.
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But professors are using tools to.
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So now students can use their mobile devices for more than Angry Birds
or chasing food trucks. So far, over 5 million students have used our apps
to check their grades. They’ve checked their courses over 13 million
times. During back to school in September, there were over 3 million hits
on our apps in just three weeks.
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And this new consumer is causing us to change the way we look at
education. Today our product has just a course view…
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At Blackboard, we saw the way that young people were using social
networks and we heard from them that they wanted to see more of that in
their education experience. So we’re re-engineering our software to
support more socialization. Now, you’ve got blogs and wikis right in the
course. And soon, instead of going into their courses sequentially like
they have in the past, when a student logs into Blackboard, they’ll see
their own “stream” of information with news and updates from their
classmates, courses, and activities, presented in a way that’s very similar
to the way their information is presented on sites like Facebook.
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To truly appreciate how much this technology is used…
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And this changing consumer is hitting education just as the economy is
putting enormous pressure on this education bubble.
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Take a look at Borders, an institution that couldn’t really keep up with
where the world is heading. Borders had difficulty reaching the higher
expectations consumers developed in part thanks to technology.
Successful institutions must find ways to reinvent themselves to stay
relevant when the world changes. Otherwise they go away.
I think the Borders example is actually very relevant to higher education.
Because as we try to keep up, we’re facing the same changes that
Borders did, reaching with people that have become much savvier
consumers in all parts of their lives. They have much higher expectations
and are much more willing to walk if they don’t feel like those
expectations are being met.
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In some parts of the world, this may be already happening. England has
been struggling with major economic issues that forced them to make
changes in how education is funded. Higher ed in England has always
been heavily subsidized and very low cost. But starting next year, tuition
at many colleges will nearly triple. And young people have taken to the
streets in a series of protests that drew attention all over the world.
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Can that type of revolution around education happen here in the States?
Actually, the U.S. is wrestling with very similar issues and many states
are having to consider their own hard choices. Let’s look at it through the
lens of the challenges faced by just one state: Iowa.
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Iowa can be considered a bellwether state politically. In the last five
presidential elections, Iowa’s popular vote has been within a couple of
percentage points of the national popular vote. So the state’s vote has
been highly predictive of the eventual winners. But Iowa is also a
bellwether in other ways.
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Look at education. Iowa recently shared some data on their own
education performance and they rank 8th in the nation in the percentage
of high school graduates. Sounds pretty good, right?
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It does until you realize that in just seven years, over 60 percent of all
jobs in Iowa will require some postsecondary education…
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…and only 1 in four Iowa students have a Bachelor’s degree…
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… and just 8 percent have a graduate degree.
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Of course the state is looking at how this translate to areas that lead to
economic growth
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So even though they have a high graduate rate from high school because
they have low undergrade and graduate degrees they are far behind in
critical economic growth areas.
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Maybe, but the state reports that they’re now spending LESS on
technology than they did a decade ago. Now, I personally think that states
should spend BILLIONS on school technology…but most people would
agree that trying to meet the challenges of 2012 with a 1998 budget
doesn’t make a lot of sense.
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And Iowa needs more college graduates and individuals with graduate
degrees just as education has reached its most expense point ever.
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I can compare education costs to housing or to healthcare. And these
are two areas economic experts agree have been or are in a bubble –
and yet the cost of education outpaces them both.
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So these forces are reshaping the world and how people live in it. And
they pose big questions for education and its ability to keep up.
But here we can look to technology…
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Look at the music industry. It wasn’t long ago when they were in a fight
with technology and new sharing sites like Napster. There was a lot of
upheaval over digital rights management and illegal downloading. But
over time lots of people were working together to figure out new models
for delivery and engagement. And the situation is much better for users.
Today they have access to the next generation of music programs like
iTunes and Spotify and Pandora.
Napster used openness
Itunes add mobile
Spotiy used social
And Pandora used analytics (to select next song you likely want to listen
to)
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The same thing with books.
Amazon used both open (letting indpendant authors sell their books),
social (letting you review books and connect with similar people) and
analytics (recommending what you should buy based on last purchase).
Then the Kindle and the iPad added mobility.
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So we can apply this change to education to see what is likely to happen
and the direction we need to head.
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Open
Social
Analytics
Mobile
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OPENNESS -, we’ve seen pioneers like MIT experiment with making their
courses available to wide audiences outside their institution. As more
follow their example, some are wondering what we stand to lose by giving
away access to courses, content and teaching. But others are asking
what we to gain? We’re following this work closely ourselves to see how
we might make it easier for people that use our software to support open
education more broadly within and outside of their institutions.
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SOCIAL - One of our clients, Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana, is a
great example of an institution that’s going social. They’re the largest
accredited school in North America with more than 100,000 students. So
they’re Really Big. But they’re using our instant messaging and
collaboration tools to make the learning experience more personal. And to
encourage informal, peer-to-peer learning through spontaneous, instant
connections. It’s like FaceTime for learning.
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ANALITICS - One of the best stories I’ve seen is at the University of
Maryland Baltimore County, where John Fritz and his team are looking at
e-learning activity data and showing that to students so they can compare
their own activity to that of their peers. And begin to see the kinds of
changes they could make in their engagement or study habits based on a
profile of activity that can lead to greater outcomes. They believe, like I
do, that your activity data should tell you something, and that we should
figure out a better way for it to be used to improve the student
experience.
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MOBILE – tell Stanford mobile story. Let me show you what Stanford is doing
with Mobile (show iPhone add and iPad add)
I don’t know what the school of the future
will look like. I don’t know how long it will
be until students really have more control
over the learning process.
What I do know is that when you look at the
characteristics of the learner and when you
examine the economic forces that are
applying pressure around us there is a
change coming. Institutions can utilize
technology to help adapt to that change –
the technologies we have talked about
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today – Openness, Social, Analytics, and
Mobile.
We’re seeing pockets of innovation, but we need
those to be at a much broader scale. So far, the
impact of innovation on education has been
modest when you consider its overall potential,
and how innovation has already transformed
every other area of our lives.
But this change is coming – and many of you in
this room are at the forefront of this change –
the question is can we stay ahead before the
wave of the consumer and the wave of the
economy overtake us and change education for
ever.
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