When I was an undergraduate in 1978, I took introductory economics to burn off a general-ed social science requirement. It was what everyone else seemed to be taking so I was curious. I was taught how, if we allow free trade, “everyone gets richer.” I am now quite disappointed by this.
I don't want to seem like a naive little science nerd, but pushing free trade was very much in the interest of the economics faculty, for the personal monetary profits they'd make from investing in companies that supported it, wasn't it? That is totally unlike anything I ever encountered in my physics and math classes. There, everything I was taught was true, at least to the extent it was applicable. (Yes, I know that Newtonian mechanics breaks down at speeds approaching c, but it’s still accurate enough to navigate a spacecraft.)
Or can anyone still make a case for free trade? If I need to wait longer for the benefits to accrue to all Americans, it's been a long wait already.
Showing posts with label education as business. Show all posts
Showing posts with label education as business. Show all posts
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Monday, June 25, 2012
At least they will graduate being good at something
Sorry for that it's been a long while since I posted here at CM. Busy, busy, busy. I am laying the groundwork for a whole new business model of higher education. If you worried about becoming a whore to some education-corporation, don't worry. Now it's the students' turn.
Here's the, um, flava.
You may not think prostitution and academics are a good mix. That's what they said about NCAA football too, and my idea doesn't even require a playoff system. (Although...)
Schools provide employment as prostitutes to students in lieu of more college loans, or allowing students to pay off their loans. The latter arrangement would only be available for those students or recent grads under 27 years old, unless the customer is one of those freaks that likes sex with old people. No shit - you can actually find people like that on the internet.
The school provides safety and ease of payment for everybody and keeps a cut for themselves. By providing a revenue stream that is independent of state taxes or alumni contributions, the school can lower tuition.
Just like in sports, very well qualified high school applicants can be given scholarships with the hope of making it big at the collegiate level before going pro. The quality of a school's prostitutes can be a feature of campus recruiting. Imagine the brochures and lip-dub videos.
Let me know how awesome an idea this is in the comments.
Here's the, um, flava. You may not think prostitution and academics are a good mix. That's what they said about NCAA football too, and my idea doesn't even require a playoff system. (Although...)
Schools provide employment as prostitutes to students in lieu of more college loans, or allowing students to pay off their loans. The latter arrangement would only be available for those students or recent grads under 27 years old, unless the customer is one of those freaks that likes sex with old people. No shit - you can actually find people like that on the internet.
The school provides safety and ease of payment for everybody and keeps a cut for themselves. By providing a revenue stream that is independent of state taxes or alumni contributions, the school can lower tuition.
Just like in sports, very well qualified high school applicants can be given scholarships with the hope of making it big at the collegiate level before going pro. The quality of a school's prostitutes can be a feature of campus recruiting. Imagine the brochures and lip-dub videos.
Let me know how awesome an idea this is in the comments.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Sullivan on Online Education
I started to add this to the comments on marginalia's post below, but didn't want to hijack. So, here's my favorite line from Teresa Sullivan's statement to UVA's Board of Visitors:
Sullivan's statement (and a good compilation of other reactions to the BOV actions) is here . The Washington Post obtained and published an academic strategy memo written by Sullivan (which includes endorsement of online/hybrid education for particular practical/targeted, mostly non-glamorous, purposes) in early May. Emails exchanged among members of the Board suggest that a sense of urgency about capitalizing on the reputation-building and (supposed) cost-saving potential of online education played a role in the decision to remove Sullivan. Amanda Krauss/Worst Professor (who I sometimes find a bit annoying, but she's in a position to provide an useful perspective here) has a post up on the possibilities and limitations of MOOCs, and their connection to the UVA debacle. There's also a very funny parody of the BOV's thinking up on Crooked Timber.
There is room for carefully implemented online learning in selected fields, but online instruction is no panacea. It is surprisingly expensive, has limited revenue potential, and unless carefully managed, can undermine the quality of instruction.I agree completely. I teach online, and like it, but only because, at least for the moment, I'm free to craft labor-intensive online classes which center around activities that allow students to discover concepts for themselves, practice skills, and interact regularly and intensively with each other and me. The focus is not information delivery, and there's no mechanized assessment; feedback comes, in words written specifically for the particular student and/or class, from me and/or their peers. The vast majority of the class materials are created, and all are chosen/curated, by the instructor of record -- me -- and are updated in some way, from tweaks to wholesale revisions, every time I teach the course, based on what I observed in the last iteration. The course is an evolving, organic entity, both during the term, and from term to term. In short, it's an actual course, not a multimedia textbook with a few interactive elements.
Sullivan's statement (and a good compilation of other reactions to the BOV actions) is here . The Washington Post obtained and published an academic strategy memo written by Sullivan (which includes endorsement of online/hybrid education for particular practical/targeted, mostly non-glamorous, purposes) in early May. Emails exchanged among members of the Board suggest that a sense of urgency about capitalizing on the reputation-building and (supposed) cost-saving potential of online education played a role in the decision to remove Sullivan. Amanda Krauss/Worst Professor (who I sometimes find a bit annoying, but she's in a position to provide an useful perspective here) has a post up on the possibilities and limitations of MOOCs, and their connection to the UVA debacle. There's also a very funny parody of the BOV's thinking up on Crooked Timber.
Sunday, June 17, 2012
More on the UVA Debacle
An article by UVA professor Siva Vaidhyanathan in Slate, especially the mention of "strategic dynamism," matches what a UVA-affiliated friend described to me yesterday (which may just mean she had read the Slate article by the time we spoke; the only difference I see is that she described more resistance by the faculty to the new budgeting model).
Herewith some flava:
In the 19th century, robber barons started their own private universities when they were not satisfied with those already available. . . .In the 21st century, robber barons try to usurp control of established public universities to impose their will via comical management jargon and massive application of ego and hubris. At least that’s what’s been happening at one of the oldest public universities in the United States—Thomas Jefferson’s dream come true, the University of Virginia. . . . .
Strategic dynamism, or, as it is more commonly called, “strategic dynamics,” seems to be a method of continually altering one's short-term targets and resource allocation depending on relative changes in environment, the costs of inputs, and the price you can charge for outputs. . . .
The inappropriateness of applying concepts designed for firms and sailboats to a massive and contemplative institution as a university should be clear to anyone who does not run a hedge fund or make too much money. To execute anything like strategic dynamism, one must be able to order people to do things, make quick decisions from the top down, and have a constant view of a wide array of variables. It helps if you understand what counts as an input and an output. Universities have multiple inputs and uncountable and unpredictable outputs. And that’s how we like them. . . .
Both the Kiernan letter and Dragas’ shallow statements discuss the climate facing the university and all public universities in the United States. The problem is, everyone seems to discuss the fact that universities have too little money as if it actually were a matter of climate. . . .It’s not. It’s a matter of politics. States have been making policy decisions for 20 years, accelerating remarkably since the 2007 recession, to cut funding severely, shifting the costs to students and the federal government. . . .So as tuition peaks and federal support dries up, the only stream still flowing is philanthropy. . . .The reason folks such as Dragas and Kiernan get to call the shots at major universities is that they write huge, tax-deductable checks to them. They buy influence and we subsidize their purchases. . . .
The biggest challenge facing higher education is market-based myopia. Wealthy board members, echoing the politicians who appointed them (after massive campaign donations) too often believe that universities should be run like businesses, despite the poor record of most actual businesses in human history.
Universities do not have “business models.” They have complementary missions of teaching, research, and public service. Yet such leaders think of universities as a collection of market transactions, instead of a dynamic (I said it) tapestry of creativity, experimentation, rigorous thought, preservation, recreation, vision, critical debate, contemplative spaces, powerful information sources, invention, and immeasurable human capital.
Herewith some flava:
In the 19th century, robber barons started their own private universities when they were not satisfied with those already available. . . .In the 21st century, robber barons try to usurp control of established public universities to impose their will via comical management jargon and massive application of ego and hubris. At least that’s what’s been happening at one of the oldest public universities in the United States—Thomas Jefferson’s dream come true, the University of Virginia. . . . .
Strategic dynamism, or, as it is more commonly called, “strategic dynamics,” seems to be a method of continually altering one's short-term targets and resource allocation depending on relative changes in environment, the costs of inputs, and the price you can charge for outputs. . . .
The inappropriateness of applying concepts designed for firms and sailboats to a massive and contemplative institution as a university should be clear to anyone who does not run a hedge fund or make too much money. To execute anything like strategic dynamism, one must be able to order people to do things, make quick decisions from the top down, and have a constant view of a wide array of variables. It helps if you understand what counts as an input and an output. Universities have multiple inputs and uncountable and unpredictable outputs. And that’s how we like them. . . .
Both the Kiernan letter and Dragas’ shallow statements discuss the climate facing the university and all public universities in the United States. The problem is, everyone seems to discuss the fact that universities have too little money as if it actually were a matter of climate. . . .It’s not. It’s a matter of politics. States have been making policy decisions for 20 years, accelerating remarkably since the 2007 recession, to cut funding severely, shifting the costs to students and the federal government. . . .So as tuition peaks and federal support dries up, the only stream still flowing is philanthropy. . . .The reason folks such as Dragas and Kiernan get to call the shots at major universities is that they write huge, tax-deductable checks to them. They buy influence and we subsidize their purchases. . . .
The biggest challenge facing higher education is market-based myopia. Wealthy board members, echoing the politicians who appointed them (after massive campaign donations) too often believe that universities should be run like businesses, despite the poor record of most actual businesses in human history.
Universities do not have “business models.” They have complementary missions of teaching, research, and public service. Yet such leaders think of universities as a collection of market transactions, instead of a dynamic (I said it) tapestry of creativity, experimentation, rigorous thought, preservation, recreation, vision, critical debate, contemplative spaces, powerful information sources, invention, and immeasurable human capital.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
My graduation speech to Gregory Gradegrubber
No, I will not spend more time in my office to help you understand the extra credit assignment. Your inability to plan ahead is not my panicked emergency. You did this to yourself. The extra credit has been available since the first week of the class.
You need this class so you can graduate and get a job? Listen, Grubbers, I'm sorry that the American mythos has enshrined the piece of paper called a College Diploma as the Golden Job Ticket. I really am. Frankly, if I owned a company, and you were my employee, I would have fired you after the first week. You are unmotivated and disrespectful. Your grade in the class reflects your lack of dedication and comprehension.
I am absolutely sickened by the thought that you want to work in the medical field. I wouldn't trust you with the responsibility of unpacking tongue depressors, let alone taking someone's blood pressure.
The College Diploma will get you in the door, but your performance will get you fired.
College is about learning how to learn, how to approach and synthesize new information, and how to meet multiple expectations and deadlines. For students like you, Gregory, it is a four-year, dog and pony show. You party with your friends, come to my class reeking of booze, and never complete the most basic of tasks. You will get the College Diploma, because you managed to scrape the bottom of the barrel of your intellect to meet the bare minimum requirements.
You are not educated. You have a piece of paper. Congratulations.
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