Synchronish: Not Quite Here, Not Quite Now

Time and place have fallen apart.

Howard Mansfield says that time and place began to fall apart, as time zones were introduced 1892 severing clock time from solar time.  The gap between time and place has been growing since then.  By 1953 computer scientists were using the term “real time” to distinguish between their clock time and the different time that existed in the processes of the machines they were building.

Place and time continue to move further apart.  Digital media are literally placeless.  In higher education, it is possible to access the sound and image of the best presentations on any subject at any moment.  Place means less.  We can pause or “rewind” at will, thus manipulating time without regard for place. Continue reading

Faculty Office – Part 1

Office rectangle.square
The faculty office is the third rail of university facilities planning.  It is heresy to say that all faculty members do not need a private office.  Parking is the only aspect of campus life that’s more contentious.

Truth is all faculty members do not need private offices, but not all faculty work can be done in open office environments.  There’s the rub.

Many will believe this to be heresy, just as did most who commented on Lawrence Biemiller’s article “Do All Faculty Members Really Need Private Offices” [Chronicle of Higher Education, July 30, 2010].  He speculated on the advantages of open offices, and some of the comments called the writer’s intelligence into question and others attacked institutional “bean counters” for daring to challenge the hereditary rights of the faculty. Continue reading

Studying Alone

The irreplaceable value of campuses lies in building community.  Without that they will gradually become hollow shells.

Robert Putnam wrote Bowling Alone about the decline of community involvement over the last 50 years, including the demise of many civic organizations and bowling alleys that once were common fixtures of American life.  He documented waves of technological change from television to two-earner households, and the fraying of community activities.

Perhaps the college campus is the vanishing bowling alley of the 21st century.  Many have documented the waves of technological change from Internet to MITx and Udacity, and the lone student at laptop is a common image. Continue reading

Different Bricks

The shifts being felt by colleges and universities are not limited to evolving educational technology.  The challenges to higher education include threats to business models, questions of legitimacy, and doubts about cost effectiveness.  Even if the promise of digital transformation is overstated, the consequences of the changing context will require campuses to adapt as rapidly as they ever have.

The bricks will need to be different, and in most cases fewer bricks will be needed. Continue reading