Major changes in the format of knowledge in society always improve the process of transmitting knowledge, but the institution of a University has not kept up. As orators pushed societies away from predominantly folk based knowledge, we gained the ability to learn by repetition, and slowly acquired rules whereby we could not only gather information, but determine if it was true. With the advent of writing came the longevity of the book. Knowledge gained in historic times suddenly became available to future learners in a way that no immortal poet could have dreamed of. With printing came mass production. Now authors could not only reach far into the future, but they could expand their audience in the present. A new freedom came with each improvement: the power of a group of devotees followed the orator, the authority of ancient knowledge settled on the author, and the economic potential of impulsive customers (twilight fans?) maintained printers. With the digital age, the improvement we now see is efficiency. We can write, edit, and print documents all from one office chair. We can distribute text, images, and videos instantly by posting to the internet. With the aid of computers we have more information and more time.
The methods of teaching have not kept up with the changes in knowledge format. Masters of rhetoric were vetted by their ability to form an argument and have it stand by itself. Today's academic papers serve much the same purpose, we just have the technology that allows us to write more of them. In the salon we discussed the downsides of simply writing more. We discussed how we, as humans, have a draw to the past that pushes us to acquire a basic written record of how we came to be. Then we discussed further how any other written work is less interesting to the public as a whole. Writing can become a bore, and therefore lose its power, if overused.
Instead of joining the tradition of written arguments, we could choose to leave school and venture out as entrepreneurs, experimenting with the various new opportunities that the digital age provides. Many men and women in our society have done so and succeeded. Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, is a College dropout. I have several friends who have been offered jobs that asked them to leave school before graduation. While these offers are tempting, they are short sighted. Brenda, in reply to a post I wrote, stated: “its amazing how much writing influences everything! A diploma, simply a piece of paper with your name and degree, determines your status in society, what jobs you get, etc, etc.” While Universities still hold a monopoly on certification, they would be wise to respond to this trend, or they may find dropping enrollment rates as students seek alternative certification options.
The future of learning in the digital age is connected and collaborative. There are communities that, even now, rally to the name of Open Source. These communities are in the process of building professional grade tools for computer usage, by simply getting many skilled people to work on them during their leisure time. Youtube.edu is a website designed to do the same for University work. If our modern Universities are to keep up, they must also strive to get students to want to spend their leisure working at their education. If they do not, Universities will quickly become places known for parties and papers, while the term education will become correlated with a more modern institution.
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