The Road Ahead: In Search of a Free Ride
Posted September 5, 2012.
In 1999, Columbia University and five prestigious partner organizations created a for-profit education company called Fathom. The initial partners included The London School of Economics and Political Science, Cambridge University Press, The British Library, The Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History and The New York Public Library. Other equally powerful partners joined the enterprise with the goal of launching a web environment that would be the hub of knowledge and education on the internet.
When Cyclical Events Become Structural Realities
Posted August 31, 2012.
We say things come and go. Sometimes they ebb and flow. Perhaps what goes around comes around. But what happens if something important stops following a cyclical pattern and becomes permanently structural? There are a few situations in life when fluctuation eventually turns to rigidity. Health is one example. Many of us fluctuate in body […]
Olympic Lessons for Educators
Posted August 15, 2012.
Olympic athletes always inspire me. It’s easy to be impressed by the natural abilities they possess and the finely-tuned skills they have developed. It would be an incredible experience to be among them, but alas my sport is not yet included in the games – power napping. My family tells me if medals were […]
The Road Ahead: Evolutionary or Revolutionary?
Posted August 13, 2012.
I think there is something much deeper behind this resistance to change, and it’s not the bureaucracy – it’s the market. The difference for the market is a distinction between models of learning that are primarily relational vs. transactional; models of learning that are formative vs. summative; and models of learning that pursue knowledge vs. certify credentials.
Finding Optimism in Curiosity
Posted July 31, 2012.
Whenever I want to find optimism in the face of overwhelming challenge I look to NASA. This organization lives on the edge – probably a risk manager’s worst nightmare. Most of what they do is absolutely crazy by traditional standards. Take for example, the current mission to send an improved rover to Mars. The lab […]
The Road Ahead: Debunking the Demise of the Residential Liberal Arts College
Posted July 20, 2012.
Failure of colleges was not something that grew from macroeconomic and demographic patterns, but from interpretations and responses that were found on the micro scale. Institutions fail for a combination of three reasons: money, mismanagement and mattering.
A Distorted Culture
Posted July 12, 2012.
It will be many years before the implications of the child sexual abuse perpetrated by Jerry Sandusky will be fully understood. As details continue to emerge in the present we find a horrifying pattern of abuse over many years and an organizational culture that enabled individuals at multiple levels of leadership to look the other […]
Private Enterprise in the Public Interest
Posted July 9, 2012.
As young kid in the 1960s, I was very aware of astronauts and rockets. It was the era of the space race. I never really wanted to be an astronaut or ride in a rocket, though I have admired those who do. My appreciation for the launch of a rocket when I was young had […]
Just Between Us
Posted July 8, 2012.
There are unforeseen consequences when a communication or a transaction we assume to be private becomes public. The challenge for us is recognizing boundaries that continue to change as information technology, digital communication and freedom of information reshape societal interests and expectations. I still find it amazing we are sometimes blind to situations that are […]
The Interdependence of Leadership and Governance
Posted June 28, 2012.
Many years ago I knew a young college basketball coach. As I listened to him describe his philosophy of coaching, I was impressed by one tenet – the system is more important than the individual players. He found a way to overcome a deficit in talent by organizing a strong collective system.