TEDxVillanovaU - Michele Pistone - The Future of Higher Education

This talk discusses the future of higher education, which has been based on the same educational model for more than 100 years. But the status quo is about to be disrupted, by the Internet and those educators -- including new competitors -- who would unleash its potential. Higher education institutions at a whole have not adequately recognized the threat to the status quo, or come close to responding adequately to it. In truth, responding adequately will be very difficult, because higher ed face a classic innovator's dilemma.

Michele Pistone guides law students as they evolve from student to lawyer at the Villanova School of Law. She founded its current clinical program and is the Director of the Clinic for Asylum, Refugee and Emigrant Services (CARES). Through CARES she and her students provide free legal representation to asylum seekers fleeing persecution, torture, unlawful imprisonment and other forms of mistreatment. Her clinic's clients are survivors of human rights abuses directed at them because of their religion, their political opinions, or other beliefs and characteristics that we as a nation have always sought to protect. Among the clients that she has represented are former child soldiers from Sierra Leone and Uganda; political dissidents from Belarus, Cameroon, and Afghanistan; women's rights activists from Nepal and Kenya; children's rights activists from Peru; and religious minorities from Iraq; among countless others.
She is a lifetime learner, always curious about other cultures and ideas, and loves to create anything, from tasty meals, to crafts, to engaging scholarship.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

[bethanyadams]

Great talk! The pace of education moving online has accelerated since this talk was posted and her argument is more true today than ever before. The comment that those in academia who say an online education can never be as rich as an on-campus learning experience is a "failure of imagination" is right on point. Technology today allows for a rich learning community online and real-time interaction with classmates and professors. Online learning communities are as strong on-campus have ever been. If you don't believe this to be true today, you are more than lacking imagination, you are blind to reality. Her points on attention span are also accelerating, a reason micro-learning is a growing trend in all formats of education.

[cray]

Great lecture! I hope this is the future of higher education!

[pauljinks]

One difference from traditional (box of books and discs) distance learning is that access is increasingly free. This is access not only to materials - lectures, etc. but also to a kind of community if you want it. Attrition rates are indeed eye-watering, but when you didn't pay for the course anyway, this doesn't have the same meaning. Teachers can use existing materials rather than make their own and focus on interaction, feedback and support. But I agree, this isn't a revolution.

[iganzabissassa]

Maybe a better National Geographic analogy would be if we were to turn the magazine into a twitter only medium. That would be "progress" after all, and with an emphasis on technology. Anyone should be able to see that removing the human aspect, and replacing it with a one way communication in the form of filmed lectures and a digital library pass is NOTHING like adding images to National Geographic (even if you can compensate with e-communication with a teacher). It's more like taking them away.

[frankheppner]

I guess I'm missing something, but what's new except the big-name branding? We've had "distance education" for 25 years. The technology is better now, but the principle is the same. We learned from "distance education" that 1)The dropout rate is fierce 2)The cost of having production values that maintain attention is ferocious, 3)Not everybody who is a great classroom teacher knows how to use video, 4)A brilliant leader in the field is not necessarily a good teacher. So, where's the revolution?

[iganzabissassa]

Part of the University experience is social. You make connections, join political action groups, even become radicalized by your friendships and associations. Online universities will automize these and other human aspects of education away Like every Ted lecture I've ever seen, the lecturer seems to exist in a historical vacuum where there is no consideration or awareness of the austerity/attacks on the working class. No wonder the casualization of university staff is simply not an issue here.

[napliang]

dull and emotionless voice, low speed, waste talk...