US: DIY university

In the age of constant connectedness and social media, it's time for the monolithic, millennium-old, ivy-covered walls of universities to undergo a phase change into something much lighter, more permeable and fluid, according to Anya Kamenetz, author of a new book called DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education.

Kamenetz - a staff writer for Fast Company magazine who has also written for the New York Times and is author of the book Generation Debt (2006) - argues that the way higher education is delivered needs to radically change, or Americans should "resign ourselves to never having enough of it".

According to the DIY U abstract: "The price of college tuition has increased more than any other major good or service for the last 20 years. Nine out of 10 American high school seniors aspire to go to college, yet the United States has fallen from world leader to only the tenth most educated nation. Almost half of college students don't graduate; those who do have unprecedented levels of federal and private student loan debt, which constitutes a credit bubble similar to the mortgage crisis.

"The system particularly fails the first-generation, the low-income, and students of color who predominate in coming generations. What we need to know is changing more quickly than ever, and a rising tide of information threatens to swamp knowledge and wisdom. America cannot regain its economic and cultural leadership with an increasingly ignorant population.

"The future lies in personal learning networks and paths, learning that blends experiential and digital approaches, and free and open-source educational models. Increasingly, you will decide what, when, where, and with whom you want to learn, and you will learn by doing. The university is the cathedral of modernity and rationality, and with our whole civilization in crisis, we are poised on the brink of a new Reformation."

Keith Hampson, founder of the Higher Education Management Group, interviewed Anya Kamentz about DIY U, which he says has generated a great deal of discussion since its publication last month.
Interview on the Higher Education Management Group site
More on the Chelsea Green Bookstore site