Study Space: On the surface

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Reading and writing – and ‘idea work’ in general – require at minimum 4 square feet of horizontal surface.  Whether in a business office, library, classroom or coffee shop some form of the humble table is what makes high-tech highly functional.

Think of those places you “work” most often.  If your experience is like those my students and I have been observing for the last few years, a “writing” surface winds up being important to the effective use of your time, with or without digital technology.  The comfy chair is not out of style.  They still get used, as do miscellaneous window seats and floor cushions.  Such spots are used briefly for limited tasks.  But for the big stuff – engaging with the material – some form of writing is involved.  Whether by hand, keyboard or touch screen, a horizontal surface is an essential part of the technology. Continue reading →

Students as Investment Analysts

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Students know the score.

At higher education conferences, you see educators, administrators, and increasingly, vendors.  You seldom see students.  You might think that they are silent, but they are speaking.

Students can tell you how much they owe and about their concerns about repayment.  They make investment decisions every semester.  By the time they reach college, they’ve been engaged in the digital economy for years. Continue reading →

Space or Place

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Conflicting perspectives are at the core of every decision about the campus.  Is it a space or place?

Space is the domain of the facilities officers, the real estate managers.  Place is the domain of the participants, the users.  As the waves of fiscal and technological disruption wash over every corner of higher education cognitive dissonance will increase.

The Right Campus – For the facilities manager having the right campus is a question of resources and efficiencies:  minimizing operating costs per square foot, maximizing occupancy of classroom seats and eliminating under-utilized building area.  For the participants it is a question of preferences and performance:  reading in one’s own office or favorite study spot, effective learning and research environments, and convenient parking and transportation. Continue reading →

Libraries as Goog-Azon-Bucks

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NCSU.Library Concierge.for blogPeople before paper, that’s what the academic library is about.

The most effective academic libraries are informed by the idea of student and faculty members as customers.  All are served by learning commons with scores of group workspaces and reference advisors in locations modeled after the concierge desks of hip hotels.

Until recently, the quality of a library was measured by the number of volumes it held.  Now librarians strive to measure the standing of their libraries by the quality of service even as their physical print holdings are shrinking.  Their success is critical to the survival of their institutions. Continue reading →

Synchronish: Not Quite Here, Not Quite Now

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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

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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

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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

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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 →

Is Online Education as Good as Face-to-Face?

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The answer is yes and no.

Measuring the relative effectiveness of online education is difficult due to the variability in subject matter, class size, and what is meant by the term online education.  Moreover, as has been observed by Richard DeMillo (Center for 21st Century Universities) and others, forms and methods of online education are rapidly evolving.  The methods studied in the most current reports are outdated by the time they are completed.

Continue reading →