There can be little doubt that social networking has become a significant part of many of our everyday lives.  An article last month in Wired Magazine explains that not only has the phenomenon taken hold in our personal lives, it has become a coveted aspect of the online industry with the largest internet powerhouses vying for the opportunity to take advantage of the wealth of personal information we share everyday on such sites.

Focusing on the contentious relationship between Google and Facebook, the article seems to portray an online rivalry of sorts between social networking and the algorithmic based internet search engines.  In the fall of 2007, Google executives were excited by the prospect of obtaining if not all at least a stake in Facebook.  According to Fred Vogelstein, author of the Wired article, Google’s leadership realized that Facebook has managed to change the online behaviors of its members.  The volume and nature of personal information exchanged on Facebook is a marketing gold mine for other internet companies, including Google.  While sharing personal information on the internet has become not only taboo but an outright “no no,” Facebook users not only use their real and often full names but also their real email addresses to connect with their real friends and “share their real thoughts, tastes, and news.”  Whereas internet giants like Google have struggled to tap into such personal information, Facebook enjoys a unique privilege in which its users willingly provide substantial volumes of such information.

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Questions of access and affordability have plagued higher education for many years.  Coupled with the implications of the recent global economic downturn, these issues have received even greater consideration in the last several years.  As college administrators attempt to tackle the problems associated with providing greater access and affordability, creative ideas are being formulated.

One such idea recently gaining attention is scaling back the length of time it takes to receive a bachelors degree from the traditional four years to three.  This past February, at the annual conference of the American Council on Education, Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) addressed attendees and suggested that instead of four years, colleges should consider offering bachelor degrees that can be earned in only three.  Alexander suggested that doing so would not only obviously cut the length of time required to earn a degree by one-fourth, but also cut the cost of earning the same degree by as much as one-third.  Alexander was quoted in a February 2009 article in Inside Higher Ed as equating such a concept to the development of a fuel-efficient vehicle.

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Whenever I can find a good book or research paper on the topic of distance education, I will usually obtain a copy in order to see if there’s a trend or idea that is worth noting or pursuing.  For a few weeks, I had noted the ad in The Chronicle of Higher Education touting their new report, “The College of 2020:  Students.”  I had to pay for the report, so I’m sure that the Chronicle wouldn’t like it if I provided a blow-by-blow description of its contents.  However, I think that they would not mind someone touting the report on their blog, so my thoughts are summarized below.  (Those interested in purchasing the report can do so at the following site:  http://research.chronicle.com/asset/TheCollegeof2020ExecutiveSummary.pdf.)  

Chronicle Research Services released the first of a three part report last month that describes the characteristics they predict that we will see in college graduates of the class of 2020.  The fundamental themes of the report are that as the class of 2020 (today’s first graders) enter their college years, their demands on colleges and universities will be drastically different from what students have previously expected, forcing higher educational institutions to reconsider their curriculums, formats, and basic characteristics.

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McKinsey & Company released a report in April of this year titled, “The Economic Impact of the Achievement Gap in America’s Schools.”  The report identifies four aspects of the achievement gap in American schools: the international achievement gap, the racial achievement gap, the income achievement gap, and system-based achievement gaps.  The findings in the report are striking in their sense of urgency and are worth discussing.

The authors state that “the United States lags significantly behind other advanced nations in educational performance and is slipping further behind on some important measures.”  An interesting element of this particular analysis is that this international disparity in educational achievement affects every American student equally, regardless of race, income, or location.  Citing research published by the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), the authors provide some discouraging statistics.  For example, “American 15-year-olds are on par with students in Portugal and the Slovak Republic, rather than with students in countries that are more relevant competitors for service-sector and high-value jobs like Canada, the Netherlands, Korea and Australia.”  Additionally, the report finds that whereas 40 years ago, the United States was a world leader in high school graduation rates, today it ranks 18th out of 24 industrialized nations in this category.  Further, the report’s findings reveal that low-income students in the United States fare significantly worse than low-income students in other industrialized nations in educational attainment.

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The U.S. Department of Education released the findings of a meta-analysis conducted by its Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development on Friday that confirm what online educators have known for years: “on average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction.” 

Online education has gained tremendous momentum in the last several years.  A November 2008 report titled, “Staying the Course: Online Education in the United States, 2008” published by the Sloan Consortium notes that during the fall 2007 semester, some 3.9 million students were taking at least one course online, representing a twelve percent increase over the previous year.  During the same semester, twenty percent of all college students were taking at least one course online.  An Eduventures report from November 2006 predicted this growth; that report found that half of the 2,000 potential students surveyed indicated that they would be interested in completing a degree online.

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Tomorrow is the Fourth of July, the date on which Americans celebrate our nation’s independence.  Robert F. Kennedy once said, “It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped.  Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.”  The American revolutionaries certainly serve as support for this statement.  Without our forefathers’ courage to stand up for their own ideals, America as we know and enjoy it today might  not exist.  Our country’s all-volunteer armed forces protect and defend those same principles today and we salute their patriotism, professionalism, and commitment to serving our country.  Often, we lose track  that America’s precedence in its fight for independence and democracy  has served as encouragement for others around the world to  stand up for their ideals and force change even in the face of overwhelming odds and sacrifice.

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