Yesterday I speculated that the open source model in the software world is going to undermine the basic delivery system for higher education in the United States (and perhaps elsewhere). Today I want to consider what, exactly, a transformed system of education might look like. What is the purpose of the college degree? It seems…
Tag: History of Digital Media
Can Higher Education Be Open Source?
This week Sun Microsystems announced the purchase of the Swedish firm MySQL for the paltry sum of $1 billion, bringing together one of America’s biggest open source software companies with the firm that makes the software that drives so much of what happens online (including WordPress, the software running this blog). Why should people in…
A Fitting Memorial for Roy
On January 16 the American Historical Association and the Center for History and New Media announced the Roy Rosenzweig Prize in History and New Media. The prize will be awarded annually for an innovative and freely available new media project that reflects thoughtful, critical, and rigorous engagement with technology and the practice of history. I…
Teens and Social Media
The Pew Internet Project released the results of its latest study–Teens and Social Media–on December 19 and this report is a must read for anyone who teaches, whether at the primary, secondary, or post-secondary level. There is a lot in this report to ponder, but from my perspective, the most interesting findings fall into five…