Why Education Will Be Cut
Cue the angry crowds. Light the torches. Sharpen the pikes and pitchforks. Just give me a 15 minute head start; but I won’t be using it to run. I need it to reason with you.
UF is getting the word that there are deep cuts to their budgets due to revenue shortfalls. Panic ensues. Everyone wants to preserve the status quo; only with more money than last year. Is this reasonable in the digital age, the Age of Information?
Brick and mortar retail stores are struggling to stay in business as they compete with Internet shopping. Paper and ink news organizations are falling to blogs and Craigslist. The recording industry is overwhelmed by file sharing. And education can now be gotten anywhere at any time, any way you want it, if you don’t care about ivy covered walls and parchment.
In the very near future, if it isn’t here already, no employer will care about your credentials and your certification. They will only care about results. If you are a graduate of UF with an MBA, and you are using your talents to fight the inevitable instead of driving the wave of progress, you’ll have a nice pink slip to go with that degree.
We are in a global economy, and that cannot be stopped. We are outsourcing jobs to people who get results and live in foreign countries. Freelancers from countries with lower infrastructure costs are doing our graphic design work, building our databases, shooting our tech troubles and doing it in English. Why don’t we think it is reasonable that other people in the education business will do the same?
Online learning is to Universities what Tivo is to traditional television programming. People get what they want when they want it, and can even eliminate the commercials. Then there is YouTube. The best thing about YouTube is that I don’t have to watch all of David Letterman to see the good parts. I have eliminated all the parts that don’t matter. That is what will happen to education. The time wasters. The bureacracy. The downtime. Outta here.
If “The Last Lecture” gave you the warm fuzzies, consider how much it terrified the people who saw this as the end of captive audiences paying high tuition. Not evereyone does see it, but they will. Our brick and mortar education system will have For Rent signs some day because people will not have to apply, be accepted, get aid, commute or leap through other hoops to learn. The poor and the inattentive, who finally come to terms with their futures, will be able to exploit an instant learning system that does not care what is on your permanent record.
Will this Brave New World education cost something? Some of it will. Some of it will be free. But all of it will be streamlined so you get exactly what you need, and don’t have to spend an entire semester mining that one nugget you were after when you could have gotten it from a one hour podcast.
Personally, I think this is a great thing. I didn’t finish my education whe I was young. I resisted going back because I didn’t think I could afford to while working to support a family. But I always wanted more. Now I am getting it and I didn’t have to go back to school. Several years ago, in the comfort of my home, in the wee hours when professors are still in bed, I taught myself basic web design by using free online tutorials. I keep myself up to date with the latest Internet developments by downloading free tech podcasts. I download audiobooks on business and technology, and get all of them for free, without violating anyone’s copyrights. I am continuing my education while education is trying to stay put.
If you are in the field of education, you cannot rely on the lumbering government bureacracies to keep up with the latest technolgies and market trends. They have a vested interest in atrophy. I recommend that you find a business model for your skills, and start selling them in consumable forms to consumers. If you stand still long enough, the ivy will start to grow on you.
One good place for us to focus education skills in on the kids who still have no discipline and study skills. The scenario I have been showing you is one that will continue to favor the well-off because their parents are most involved in their cultivation and their success. Lower-middle class and lower class parents who are too busy to prepare their kids for the future, and let the media raise them. They are learning to be consumers, but not creators. That needs to change, and if you can figure out a business model that motivates young kids to learn now, you will have a product with a ready market.
Feel free to weigh in. This is a local issue because it affects us all. What’s a University town to do if it is unprepared for the future?
