The Archives

Many online schools and universities have been paperless from the beginning, yet it’s no secret that brick and mortar college and universities plow through mountains of paper.

With the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, global warming and other signs of environmental damage, green initiatives have taken center stage for many schools. Moving beyond recycle bins, many colleges are experimenting with something corporations and U.S. state governments have been doing for some time: going paperless.

This article in a local Michigan newspaper called Michiana Thrive,  addresses this new earth-friendly trend. Notre Dame University is conducting a study of eReaders, and how classes can effectively be taught using Apple’s iPads. The school’s Project Management 101 course is now jokingly referred to as the “iPad class”, as the device replaced the course’s textbooks and paper assignments. Members of the school’s administrative team are evaluating how effective it is and whether or not it makes sense to turn more classes paperless.

Notre Dame, while a paperless pioneer, is not alone.  Framingham State College is another school preferring laptops to notepads. It was the first public college in New England to require incoming students to own laptops. Now 80% of Framingham’s courses use laptops. While paperless courses are great for the planet, they do have a downside. Laptop usage in class makes it far too easy for students to lose focus on the class at hand. With email and Internet access, who can really blame them?

Christopher Dede, a professor of learning technology for Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, says that the temptation to goof-off on the net can actually be a good thing. As he puts it, “Laptops democratize the classroom and get students to learn actively. With email and the Internet at students’ fingertips, teachers are forced to invigorate their classes to keep students engaged. I think it’s good teachers have to compete for their students’ attention,” he said. “All the research says getting students involved is the way they learn best.”

Enrollment in for-profit colleges has grown from about 365,000 students to almost 1.8 million in the last several years.  In 2009, students at these colleges received more than $4 billion in Pell Grants and more than $20 billion in federal loans provided by the Department of Education.  Earlier this month, the U.S. Government Accountability Office released findings from undercover tests that were meant to determine if for-profit colleges’ representatives engaged in “fraudulent, deceptive, or otherwise questionable marketing practices.”  The tests at 15 for-profit colleges found that 4 colleges encouraged fraudulent practices and that all 15 made “deceptive or otherwise questionable statements” to GAO’s undercover applicants.  It’s also worth noting “in some instances, undercover applicants were provided accurate and helpful information by college personnel, such as not to borrow more money than necessary.”

The full summary and report can be found at the GAO website.  I highly recommend watching the video on the right, which shows clips from hidden cameras worn by the undercover applicants.

After reading the report, one might have a negative view of the for-profit education sector. The deceptive practices that the GAO’s report have brought to light have been compared by many to the predatory tactics used by the subprime mortgage industry, and we all know the effect that has had on us.  But while deceptive practices and a blatant lack of compliance to federal regulations were uncovered, it should not imply that for-profit schools are money-grubbing shysters with no regard for others. Nor should it discredit the value that the for-profit model brings to higher education. Read More

What does it mean to be “educated?”  We sometimes talk of “book smarts” vs. “street smarts,” “theory” vs. “skills,” or “liberal” vs. “vocational” education.  Does either hold more ultimate educational value?  Assuming the goal of getting educated is to improve your standard of living, will either help a person earn a better living than the other?  If so, which?

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