justice

Right now, universities around the world are embracing level one — course content exchange — of the Global Network for Higher Learning. But they need to move further in the next four levels.

As part of this, the academic journal should be disintermediated and the textbook industry eliminated. In fact, the word textbook is an oxymoron today. Content should be multimedia — not just text. Content should be networked and hyperlinked bits — not atoms. Moreover, interactive courseware — not separate “books” — should be used to present this content to students, constituting a platform for every subject, across disciplines, among institutions, and around the world. The textbook industry will never reinvent itself, however, since legacy cultures and business models die hard. It will be up to scholars and students to do this collectively.

via Innovating the 21st-Century University: It’s Time! (EDUCAUSE Review) | EDUCAUSE.

Abstract: In the midst of the global recession, how have national governments viewed the role of higher education in their evolving strategies for economic recovery? Demand for higher education generally goes up during economic downturns. Which nations have proactively protected funding for their universities and colleges to help maintain access, to help retrain workers, and to mitigate unemployment rates? And which nations have simply made large funding cuts for higher education in light of the severe downturn in tax revenues? This essay provides a moment-in-time review of the fate of higher education among a number of OECD nations and other countries, with a particular focus on the United States, and on California – the largest state in terms of population and in the size of its economy. Preliminary indicators show that most nations are not resorting to uncoordinated and reactionary cutting of funding, and reductions in access in many regions, such as we see in the US. Their political leaders see higher education as a key to both short-term economic recovery and long-term competitiveness. Further, although this is speculative, it appears that many nations are using the economic downturn to actually accelerate reform policies, some intended to promote efficiencies, but most focused on improving the quality of their university sector and promoting innovation in their economies. One might postulate that the decisions made today and in reaction to the “Great Recession” by nations will likely accelerate global shifts in the race to develop human capital, with the US probably losing ground.

via CSHE – HIGHER EDUCATION BUDGETS AND THE GLOBAL RECESSION: Tracking Varied National Responses and Their Consequences.

In mid-December, two calls for a national day of action to defend education were issued, building on a state-wide call for action to defend public education issued in California. On December 14th, the California Coordinating Committee released a National Call for a March 4 Strike and Day of Action To Defend Public Education. Two days later, on December 16th, an ad-hoc body comprised of students, workers, and other activists from many states, including California, released a call of their own for a March 4 National Day of Action to Defend Education. This body consisted of students who participated in the New School occupations, students and workers from across the country, student activists from ongoing campaigns in North Carolina, Chicago, Milwaukee, and various other locations.

The website you are reading is hosted by the ad hoc committee that produced the December 16th call. We do not see the two calls as being in competition or opposition with one another in any way. The dual calls were produced not out of any political, strategic or tactical disagreement, but because the two groups were not in contact with one another when they were drafting the calls. We encourage all students, teachers, workers and parents to forward the text of both calls to their friends, peers and allies, and to organize actions in their schools and communities to defend education for all. The text of both calls is reprinted below, along with a list of endorsers for the December 16th call. A form that can be used to submit endorsements for the December 16th call is located at the bottom of the page.

via Defend Education Take a Stand March 4th: National March 4th Calls for Action and Endorsements.

Howard Rheingold, writer, educator, and thinker, is renowned for tracking not just what is going on now in the digital world, but where the digital world will be going next. His books, such as Tools for Thought 1985, Virtual Reality 1991, The Virtual Community 1994 and Smart Mobs in 2002, usher in the next adventure in computer-human interaction.

In 2008 he was one of the winners of the Digital Media and Learning competition sponsored by HASTAC and the MacArthur Foundation, an award he used to fund and design the Social Media Classroom and Collaboratory, a free service that integrates social media tools like wikis, chat rooms, social bookmarking, video conferencing, and forums into a coherent solution for both students and educators. He currently teaches Digital Journalism at Stanford University and Virtual Community and Social Media at University of California-Berkeley.

Laurie Rowell: How has greater access to information changed the character of scholarship and what implications does that have going forward?

Howard Reingold: I think you have to parse greater access to information in a couple of ways. First of all, information used to be authoritative; that is, you obtained information that was authorized. A book in a library was something that was edited and published and accepted by the library by official gatekeepers, and you could pretty much accept the validity of that knowledge.

The change that the Internet has brought is that anybody is able to publish anything, so there has been an explosion of information that's available. The person whose library is inadequate but who has an Internet connection has seen a radical expansion of the information that's available to them. And that information is interconnected; there is information about information. There are search engines, metadata, and links that you don't find from isolated pieces of information in traditional libraries.

At the same time, the authority of that information is no longer unquestionable. It's up to the consumer of the information, not the publisher of the information to test the authenticity of that information. So that's a radical change—in what information is available, the way the information available is structured and how it's connected to other information, and the degree to which it is available to people outside of your university library and your traditional means of accessing information. Equally importantly, the reliability, the accuracy of the information, can no longer be assumed and must be tested.

via eLearn: Feature Article – An Interview with Howard Rheingold.

The call has gone out. On March 4th, students, workers and teachers throughout the nation and across the globe will strike. Pre K-12, adult education, community colleges, and state-funded universities will come together in an international Strike and Day of Action to resist the neoliberal destruction of public education in California and beyond. We stand beside all who wish to transform public education, and we seek to advance the struggle by generalizing the tactic that has, by far, been the strength of the movement: direct action. In keeping with the spirit of March 4th, we call upon everyone, everywhere, to occupy everything—from collapsing public universities and closed high schools to millions of foreclosed homes. We call on all concerned students and workers to escalate the fight against privatization where they are, in solidarity with the California statewide actions. We envision a network of occupied campuses in multiple states across the nation.

via Occupy Everything Fight Everywhere Strike March 4 – Infoshop News.