There are big questions for those who want to be part of education and for those who might be employing today’s students tomorrow. With rich information, borderless collaboration and autonomous learning available whenever and wherever an internet connection exists, and with students given the keys to unlock it, we have a seismic shift occurring in education that will reverberate in all corners of society. Listen to learners or be very afraid.
If you scroll through all the past posts you’ve written, you’ve got some real gold that is now buried and gone and you need to bring it back to the fore for both your new readers, and also to refresh the minds of your regulars.
Once a month, find an old post that was a big hit and re-communicate the truth with a new example. Remember that it’s only when you feel you’re making your point too much that people start to get it. You have to get re-iterating your ideas if people are to consider you to be the go-to person for that topic.
I recently tried to start a page on Wikipedia about MoSO - a model of sustainable organisation.
The online headline has changed. It was "What sort of role-models are Oxford and Cambridge" as in the printed version this morning. Now online it is "Change needed for Oxford and Cambridge to remain leaders". The original question is more interesting. Is there a model that others could follow? Probably not, tutorials person to person are very expensive. The model only works if they carry on getting more of the available budget.
There are three possible reactions to this display of difference. The first is simply to accept that Oxford and Cambridge are different. So they should be protected and nurtured as part of the diverse ecology of British higher education – an argument that can equally well be applied to the Royal College of Art, the Open University, Birkbeck..