[iDC] iCollege

[Blake Stimson]

Here is a related statement from Pawlenty..

Warning for MSU

Asked by a university employee about the prospects for funding for state colleges in the upcoming legislative session, Pawlenty provided a prediction for 2010 and a long-term forecast.

“It’s going to be reduced somewhat,” he said, referencing the state’s budget shortfall.

The bigger issue for colleges and college towns is the more dramatic change coming to higher education as teaching moves from classrooms to computers.

“I think higher education is going to be radically transformed in the next 20 years in a way that people in higher education don’t see coming,” Pawlenty said.

College officials are planning for new buildings — “clinging to the status quo” — even in the face of a digital revolution that offers more efficient, and possibly more effective, ways of teaching students, he said.

“You’re going to see the higher education establishment have the rug pulled out from under them in a way that totally blindsides them,” he said.

“They better get ready. If I was Mankato State University, I’d be less worried about how many undergraduate buildings I’m going to be building and more worried about how I’m going to lead the digital revolution that’s coming.”

http://mankatofreepress.com/local/x1085945956/Pawlenty-Higher-ed-is-about-to-change




On Jun 18, 2010, at 9:12 AM, Trebor Scholz wrote:

> Roughly four minutes into this conversation with Jon Stewart of "The
> Daily Show," governor of Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty, brings on the Good
> News. There really is an efficient business model for higher education
> where networked learners can simply pull down their just-in-time
> education onto their iPads, he claims. 
> 
> “Do you really think in 20 years somebody’s going to put on their
> backpack drive a half hour to the University of Minnesota from the
> suburbs, hault their keester across campus and listen to some boring
> person drone on about Spanish 101 or Econ 101? . . . Is there another
> way to deliver the service other than a one size fits all monopoly
> provided that says show up at nine o’clock on Wednesday morning for Econ
> 101, can’t I just pull that down on my iPhone or iPad whenever the heck
> I feel like it from wherever I feel like, and instead of paying
> thousands of dollars can I pay 199 for iCollege instead of 99 cents for
> iTunes, you know?” 
> 
> http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-june-10-2010/exclusive---tim-pawlenty-unedited-interview-pt--1
> 
> Quality online courses are in fact neither cheap nor easy to teach but
> such nuance does not fit into the shtick of the Republican governor. The
> subtext of his appearance on the national stage is an alarming crusade
> by for-profit online-education companies that try to activate an
> understanding of their money-making courseware as being more deserving
> of state funding than, say, liberal arts education, which is cast as
> Luddite and stuffy -if not obsolete- ivory tower where administrators
> just don't get today's "digital natives." When students default on their
> loans, for example, let's stick the debt with the government. 
> 
> Pawlenty proposes to "put the consumer in charge, whether it’s education
> whether it’s health care to the extent we can technology can help a
> lot." and Jon Stewart retorts that, well, it's “hard to disagree with
> that.” 
> 
> Really, Jon? 
> 
> 
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