In this article on the future of higher education, the ‘Arab Spring’ seems to be referenced purely for its cachet – the authors never make the case for the connection with transformations in higher education. It also strikes me as odd that they begin by describing free models of education (eg. Khan Academy, MIT OCW), then conclude by citing two extremely lucrative commercial ventures, Amazon and eBay. What does this have to do with the Arab Spring? Hmmm…
There is an immense pressure to do something about the prohibitive cost of higher education, immense enough to be the first key topic of the President’s post-State of the Union tour at the University of Michigan. With this speech, the President brought the 500-pound gorilla into the national conversation. In the 21st century, he said, “higher education is not a luxury — it’s an economic imperative,” and institutions should “improve affordability” and ensure “higher rates of college completion”…
The stars are aligned for this new disruption to emerge — whether you call it “the unbundling of the university,” the “modularization of education” or “eliminating the middleman” (the College)…
With Khan Academy, Sal Khan made available, free of cost, 2800+ educational videos to the whole word, all made in his own unique style, the way he wishes he had been taught. MIT Open Courseware (OCW) makes available MIT course content for free on the Web…
In any case, we think that the Arab Spring of higher education is already starting to take place, and will change the face of higher education in fundamental ways. Whether it is an Amazon model, or an eBay model, or some combination of both, we’ll have to wait and see.
An ‘Arab Spring’ of free online higher education – Washington Post