FREE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY BLOG FOR PROFESSIONALS

As educators, we craft learning experiences based on the pedagogical foundations set by those who came before us. In higher education, the student persistence and retention strategies used by institutions all over the world are built on the seminal works of great theorists such as John H. McNeely (1937), John Summerskill (1962), William G. Spady (1971), Vincent Tinto (1975), Alexander Astin (1977), and others. However, as our country continues to wage war on an invisible enemy known as COVID-19, colleges are being challenged to rethink their persistence and retention strategies, as well as their approaches to teaching and learning. To further complicate matters, statisticians have long warned of the pending “ 2025 cliff ,” which represents the abrupt reduction of potential first-time, full-time freshmen projected to arrive in 2025 to 2026 due to the drop in birth rates between the years 2008 and 2011 . And if that wasn’t enough to cause pause, older people will soon outnumber children...

This story was published in partnership with The Moonshot Catalog . In the late 1960s, Nobel Prize-winning economist Herbert Simon posed the following thought exercise: Imagine you are an alien from Mars visiting a college on Earth, and you spend a day observing how professors teach their students. Simon argued that you would describe the process as “outrageous.” “If we visited an organization responsible for designing, building and maintaining large bridges, we would expect to find employed there a number of trained and experienced professional engineers, thoroughly educated in mechanics and the other laws of nature that determine whether a bridge will stand or fall,” he wrote in a 1967 issue of Education Record . But at a university? “We find no one with a professional knowledge in the laws of learning, or the techniques for applying them,” he wrote. Teaching at colleges is often done without any formal training. Mimicry of others who are equally untrained, instinct, and what fee...

In an earlier column , I predicted that convenience will rule higher ed; today, inconvenience has overtaken it. Raised on quick responses from smartphones, social media, instant messaging and immediate-access entertainment sites, today’s students live in an on-demand world. Just try calling your college’s general number to see what happens. Good luck! Your first encounter may be: “No one is here right now to take your call, but if you leave your name and number someone will get back to you shortly”—a sign of dysfunctional inconvenience caused by school bureaucracy, with each unit’s requirements coming first, before student convenience. A fairly common occurrence at many of the nation’s colleges and universities. On the opposite end of the inconvenience spectrum are companies who have honed their customer service through thousands of interactions to create enterprise level support. Some weeks ago, I had trouble figuring out how to open an account at a nearby company, so I went online...

In many classrooms these days, student discussion can grow so heated that passion threatens to overwhelm productive conversation. A harsh debate can leave students (and instructors) feeling upset, or make them discouraged about participating in future conversations. The potential for hurt feelings, misunderstandings and stifled learning is even greater when classroom debates and campus events tackle hot-button topics like politics, race, religion and gender. And in today’s highly polarized atmosphere, when a comment taken out of context can go viral on social media, the consequences of an out-of-control conversation can be even more severe. Considering these high stakes, students and instructors may be tempted to avoid tough subjects altogether, or only discuss them with like-minded folks. But there’s another option. Today on the podcast, we’re learning about “dialogue,” a type of mediated discussion that may help students and educators tackle touchy topics more productively and us...

Just about every week new articles warn about the dangers of excessive screen time for childhood development. That can leave parents and educators feeling a sense of anxiety about technology and kids, even as more schools use iPads and Chromebooks and other tech in classrooms. Today on the podcast we're diving into the issue of screen time with a guest who for years has tracked research about the impact of screen media on children and young people. That guest is Lisa Guernsey, director of the teaching, learning and tech program at New America, a nonpartisan think tank. She even wrote a book that's called “ Screen Time ” and a more recent one called “ Tap, Click, Read: Growing Readers in a World of Screens .” I have to mention I've known Guernsey for a long time. We both worked together 20 years ago or so as reporters at The Chronicle of Higher Education, back when we were both just starting our careers. And these days we both have kids of our own, so this issue has mov...

There is no such thing as free money. For education startups, the National Science Foundation has provided what may be the closest thing: upwards of $20 million every year to support their research and development efforts. There’s plenty of paperwork involved, of course. However, unlike traditional investment terms, this funding comes without exchanging equity or promising repayment. But a recent reorganization of the NSF’s grantmaking portfolio and personnel has raised concerns about whether that support will continue—especially after a dozen edtech companies that recently applied for funding said they were all unfairly rejected. Dubbed “ America’s Seed Fund ,” the NSF money is awarded through the Small Business Innovation and Research (SBIR) program, which directs federal agencies with research budgets exceeding $100 million to allocate a small percentage to support companies in the development and commercialization of new tools. The NSF is one of 12 federal departments and agencie...