Comments from Martin Van Der Werf, The College of Education Blog: “Will higher education collapse in this manner? No, this is far too simplistic. But are there grains of truth and seeds of nightmares in this? I would argue Yes. This video should inspire a mixture of guffaws, inspiration, and feelings of dread in just about anyone who watches it. So, if nothing else, Sams has succeeded in starting a dialogue that any college thinking seriously about its future needs to have.”

Bill’s Blog:

I am doing a sort of weekly blog on various concepts related to education that can be found at Skilled Up. Here are summaries of the posts and direct links. For full disclosure I am also an advisor to Skilled Up.

Sensory Overload: We are genetically designed to sense colors, forms, movement and sound as well as tastes and smells. Words and numbers — creations of only a few thousand years ago — have served us well until now, but perhaps we are now approaching a point of returning to our innate senses

Knowledge: Just in Case to Just in Time: How many times can you recall having asked a teacher ‘Why do I need to know this?’ only to be told ‘because someday you will need it’? I’d argue that Just in Case knowledge is a massive waste of resources — and in my own experience a large portion of what I learned in obtaining three degrees has either never been needed or was forgotten long ago.

Accounting for Human Capital: While there are well-established principles for accounting for tangible items of production there is a gapping hole in our ability to account for intangible items of production such as people. As we move into the knowledge economy, this shortfall in our collective accounting becomes a critical problem. Without a rigorous way to do this, we cannot provide a feedback loop that enables rational and proactive decisions that enhance the value and productive application of human capital.

All You Need is Knol: There is a truism in business that you only get what you measure. When you apply this to education it’s no wonder that we have the current problems.

ISO 2020: The Importance of Standards in Education: If education were more like industry, students would be getting a better, faster and cheaper education than they now enjoy, with the data to back it up.

Holistic Enhancement: How to Value Human Capital: The idea of Holistic Enhancement, which I introduced recently, lays out a conceptual survey of the types of units and tools of measurement that should be in a definition of personal and organizational human capital.

The concept of Holistic Enhancement was introduced at a COIL Fisher Speaker Series at Penn State in March of 2013. Here is the link to my presentation.

Is a Degree an Investment? No. The degree as investment reasoning confuses selection bias with causation, ignores the depreciation rate of knowledge, and assumes that the value of a degree does not go obsolete.

2012 The Tipping Point is a short presentation in a TED like format that was given by Bill Sams in June 2012 to the Ohio Tech Angel Fund members. Where EPIC 2020 is a futurist dramatization of what might happen in education and is designed to help people break out of their paradigm of traditional education  2012 The Tipping Point is a concise overview of what has already happened. This web site contains links and additional information on every thing discussed in the presentation.

Connected Learning is a short video piece on “Might the information age free us to pursue learning centered on individuals and not institutions?” Link.