Jonathan Mattice

Education and Issues in the 21st Century

There are a wide range of issues that currently face "Higher Education" in the 21st Century. This Executive summery will line up some of the ideas behind some of the topics currently faced in addition to topics apropos of this higher education.

Some issues within higher education are:

• Those of attendance are of variant demographics
• New enrollment patterns and combinations
• Explosion of information
• Technological revolution
• Stricter regulations
• New formats for education
• Workplace ideology and employment shift
• Major problems requiring international
• Greater civic responsibility

The Panel report suggested the following:

When creating intentional learners the goals are to:

• Have students express themselves via the written and oral
• Acquire problem solving skills
• Work in teams

The informed learner will have knowledge of the following:

• Imagination and expression
• Global and cross-cultural communities

The Responsible learner will:

• Participate in an diverse democracy
• Understand multiple identities

New academy ideology states:

• Students are capable of high level learning
• Students can handle expectations of achievement
• The focus is on equality and achievement
• Progress can be tracked via assessment and accountability
• There is joint responsibility by all stakeholders

This is all enacted by a system that

• Coordinates expectations
• Develops capacities
• Serves a diversity of learning styles
• Communicates goals and objectives
• Recognizes societies need for skilled individuals

The optimal classroom situation is viewed as:

• Asking students to apply the knowledge they have been taught
• Stressing inquiry and engagement
• Employing diversity
• Developing collaborative and individual achievement

It seems as though these comities have a strong desire to have students exit an educational setting with a finite set of skills. This seems at first dangerous and limiting. The skills that were listed are positive things yet I feel that there is a level of perfection set here that is "goal oriented" for the modern but ultimately viewed as demoralizing to the postmodern with the "wonderful student" exiting the university with these cookie-cutter attributes.

The Beginning of the article seemed to post some pressures on education such as demographics and enrollment patterns and new educational sites and non-traditional students. It would behoove the framework of this committee if these things of diversity were viewed as assets as opposed to "challenges". The wide variety and variance brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table that would otherwise not be there.

I would have liked to see these topics delved into a little bit as opposed to just stated in brief. …. But I'll take what I can get

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Postmodernism, Moderns and Education

This Executive Summary of the article "Technology And The Postmodern University" will draw out the key points discussed within the article.

The issues that were initially brought forth were the following:

• "Distance Learning" and "Technology Based Pedagogies"
• Learning processes and the human ability to interpret, accumulate and manage knowledge.
• The importance of mentoring, modeling, evaluative feedback and reinforcement.

With new technologies and their widespread adoption there are ten things that will potentially follow. They are:

• Information will become more sophisticated with accessibility to the masses.
• Knowledge and Information will be capitalized if it can be capitalized.
• High dissemination of information at low costs. Will enable public opinion as well as research and that which is theoretical to be delivered inexpensively.
• "Grass roots" and insight can also be propagated easily.
• "Junk" info is also transmitted with facility.
• Alternative points of view can also be easily accessible
• There will be opportunities for complex societal, environmental and economic systems via these new technologies.
• There will be increased span of educational function between providing learning experiences and evaluation and credentialing.
• ˇThe professor role will change in that they will become facilitators of the information

Of a typical modern university the functions are:

• Maintaining academic research
• Credentialing and competence
• Providing education to privileged adults

A typical postmodern university would be:

• Creating endless opportunities various tasks.
• Providing technology and facilitators with "open" schedules
• ˇInformal learning atmospheres
• Greatest good for the Greatest number (John Stewart Mill would be proud)

Economic parameters are threatened with the implementation of the postmodern viewpoint. Interesting irony pointed out that the democratic process is dismantling the infrastructure as we are moving into the information age. Post moderns would argue that the economic parameters are not threatened, there would rather be a shift in the allocation of funds…which would probably threaten the parameters…

There are two basic mechanisms for funding production of goods:

• Public spending
• Philanthropy

The question then becomes, "What does a quality education mean?" This question largely leaves me with many many more questions, mostly because we have not seen the actual implementation of postmodern academia in our current society. How do we know that the economic parameters would fall apart? How do we know whether a change in location is going to provide a more or less quality education. What will the role of technology actually be in a postmodern learning atmosphere. A quality education mandates competent instructors who have intense knowledge on the subject that is being taught or facilitated. A quality education will challenge and engage the learner. There should be some kind of exiting test that the student must pass demonstrating knowledge of the learned material. A quality education would be able to enable this person to pass this test. Education should be in a comfortable atmosphere which promotes the most learning.

Commentary from the reader: This is obviously a very serious issue. The effects of the culture switching from a modern perspective to a postmodern schema seem to have many unanswered questions and potentially disastrous results. The modern individual views such a shift as a decrease in output while the postmodern would like to see more of a comfortable learning, lower pressured situation that contours to their more individual needs/desires. The postmodern needs to understand that philanthropy and public spending will probably deteriorate should education become less centralized and informal. This issue can be debated till no end and society will swing where it may. For now, it is important that those in places of influence are cognizant of the pros and cons of each.