The Technological Revolution Reflections on the Proper Role of.doc

The Technological Revolution: Reflections on the Proper Role of Technology in Higher Education Jack M. Wilson J. Erik Jonsson ’22 Distinguished Professor Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Troy, NY 12180 Introduction There is little disagreement with the need for universities to change in response to the revolution in information technology. There is consensus agreement that the world has changed dramatically and that our students must be prepared differently to survive and thrive in the new environment. But how? Exactly how should universities change? What are the immutable values of the university? How will universities be able to afford the changes? How will the faculty change? How will the students change? How will the facilities change? How will the curriculum change? On these questions, there is little agreement. The lack of agreement does not preclude a plethora of opinions. At one extreme, faculty organizations are expressing their concerns about the effects on the academy. At the other, venture capitalists are dumping hundreds of millions of dollars, perhaps billions, into new ventures that purport to be the wave of the future. “Bricks and mortar” are viewed as passe, while everyone embraces “virtual education”. The lack of agreement about just what constitutes “virtual education” is no barrier to the rapid formation of “Virtual Universities” in every state and every region. The incompatible time scale of change for technology and for human beings simply makes the problem more intractable. The other issue that has attracted a lot of energy in higher education is diversity. While the issue of diversity is one of finally coming to grips with issues that have been with us for centuries, the issue of technology is trying to cope with issues that change faster than anyone can possibly accommodate. There is an important message there. Technology will undergo 100% change roughly every two years. People, individually or collectively, change