Manifesto for Higher Education

Universities UK Manifesto for HE
http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/ParliamentaryActivities/GeneralElection/Pages/default.aspx

Universities week 14-21 June

Universities UK is working with the higher education sector to co-ordinate 'Universities Week' aims to engage with the public about the future of UK higher education, culminating in a Universities Week from 14-21 June 2010. The campaign will challenge a number of popular misconceptions, by telling the hidden stories from people working in our universities as well as those people whose lives have been influenced by our universities.

Technopolis - the World Box

Rereading Technopolis by Nigel Calder written in 1969. Calder writes of a 'World Box'- a 'total information system' capable of delivering millions of words and pictures into the living room. 'The work of commercial and professional organisations will be transformed. There may be no very clear distinction between authors, scholars, publishers, librarians, television producers or anyone else who can be called an information mediator - but it will be their task to save mankind from drowning in its own information' ..'the rate at which the human being can assimilate information via his senses and his brain is strictly limited, the result of an overload of information is confusion, distraction and eclipse of thought; alternatively information presented as painlessly and agreeably as possible could become a kind of drug'. Calder discusses the social, legal and governmental issues of interaction, control and legislation. Very prescient, very interesting.

DIY U Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation…

Blogged and reviewed by Norm Friesen - A new book by Anya KamenatzDIY U Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation…

The book examinesthe crises (rising tuition, falling standards) and opportunities (cc content, blended learning) that institutions of higher learning are confronting.DIY education will grow, learners will have “personal learning paths” as central to DIY in higher ed. Rather than threaten institutions they will augment 

'The future lies in personal learning networks and paths, learning that blends experiential and digital approaches, and free and open-source educational models. Increasingly, you will decide what, when, where, and with whom you want to learn, and you will learn by doing. The university is the cathedral of modernity and rationality, and with our whole civilization in crisis, we are poised on the brink of a new Reformation'