The Internet & Higher Education: From Fad to Worse?

Terry Heaton:

He offers an extensive list of innovations in education to which he's been exposed over the years, one of which is the internet. Each, he notes, promised to transform education.

Some of those much-heralded innovations are long forgotten. Others remain housed somewhere on the campus, but I think it is fair to say that higher education hasn't changed all that much, that none of these ideas proved to be as transformative as their advocates predicted. Compared to their advance billing, they all turned out to be short-term enthusiasms or -- more bluntly -- educational fads.

So the internet is a fad that has failed to transform higher education. This, I believe, may be the most ignorant statement I've ever heard from an academic. The internet has already altered all education forever, because a great deal of knowledge is now accessible without memorization, contemplation, research or study. That higher education "hasn't changed all that much" may be more a reflection of the self-serving nature of the institution than what he sees as the false promises of "fads." Moreover, I think it's a little early to proclaim that the internet isn't transformative.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at April 12, 2006 2:36 PM
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