Revolution in Higher Education: How a Small Band of Innovators Will Make College Accessible and Affordable (Mit Press) - Hardcover

DeMillo, Richard A

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0262029642 ISBN 13: 9780262029643

Publisher: MIT Press, 2015

Synopsis

A report from the front lines of higher education and technology that chronicles efforts to transform teaching, learning, and opportunity.

Colleges and universities have become increasingly costly, and, except for a handful of highly selective, elite institutions, unresponsive to twenty-first-century needs. But for the past few years, technology-fueled innovation has begun to transform higher education, introducing new ways to disseminate knowledge and better ways to learn--all at lower cost. In this impassioned account, Richard DeMillo tells the behind-the-scenes story of these pioneering efforts and offers a roadmap for transforming higher education. Building on his earlier book, Abelard to Apple, DeMillo argues that the current system of higher education is clearly unsustainable. Colleges and universities are in financial crisis. Tuition rises inexorably. Graduates of reputable schools often fail to learn basic skills, and many cannot find suitable jobs. Meanwhile, student-loan default rates have soared while the elite Ivy and near-Ivy schools seem remote and irrelevant.

Where are the revolutionaries who can save higher education? DeMillo's heroes are a small band of innovators who are bringing the revolution in technology to colleges and universities. DeMillo chronicles, among other things, the invention of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) by professors at Stanford and MIT; Salman Khan's Khan Academy; the use of technology by struggling historically black colleges and universities to make learning more accessible; and the latest research on learning and the brain. He describes the revolution's goals and the entrenched hierarchical system it aims to overthrow; and he reframes the nature of the contract between society and its universities. The new institutions of a transformed higher education promise to demonstrate not only that education has value but also that it has values--virtues for the common good.

About this title

About the Author

Richard A. DeMillo has held senior positions in academia, industry, and government. He was Hewlett-Packard's first Chief Technology Officer, Director of Computing Research at the National Science Foundation and the John P. Imlay Dean of Computing at Georgia Tech. Currently Charlotte B. and Roger C. Warren Chair of Computing, Professor of Management and Director of the Center for 21st Century Universities at Georgia Tech, he is the author of Abelard to Apple: The Fate of American Colleges and Universities (MIT Press).

From the Back Cover

Cover Image: A modern tower of technologically enabled education replaces an ivory tower in a revolution that engulfs colleges and universities around the world. It soars over the ruins of the University of Harran in the modern Turkish city of Sanliurfa, whose 11,000 years of history make it the site of one of humanity's oldest settlements.

Edition details

• Publisher: MIT Press
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0262029642
• ISBN 13: 9780262029643
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 360