Jeff Nighman

2/6/04

Psy 423 Community Psychology

Executive Summaries:

1) Technology and the Postmodern University - Arthur Warmoth

In this paper, Dr. Warmoth describes how recent advances in Information Processing Technology and Electronic Communication are impacting academia. He weaves a complex social, psychological, political, and economic tapestry around these technological changes and makes predictions about how they might play out in the transformation of the educational system now and in the future.

As information technologies mature, Warmoth envisions a “university society” developing that moves much of higher education beyond the present physical and budgetary constraints of campuses and out into the social arena and workplace, with “both technology and learning facilitators widely available”. He proposes, in Figure 1(p. 9 & 10), a framework or “scenario” for how the post modern university would be structured into “old colleges”(1A.) and “new colleges” (1B.). Old colleges would provide “a continuing base of conventional modern educational resources” with their three principal functions being: Foundational Knowledge, Discipline-Based (Cumulative) Knowledge, and Degree-Based Competency Assessment. While New colleges would provide “Flexible learning systems designed to maximize both the application of information technology and the range of educational opportunities for a diverse student population”. The three principal functions of the new colleges being: Self-Directed Self-Awareness, Interest- and Competency-Based Learning, and Whole Person, Skill-Based Teaching and Assessment. The components of these two colleges are then outlined.

The economic issues involved in realizing a university society are then addressed. First, he outlines the importance of public and non-governmental funding the “public good” that this kind of education represents. He then describes the overall context of our present competitive and wasteful economic system and how it is a fundamental barrier to such a university - which would be best served by economic principles of cooperation and collaboration rather than laissez-faire capitalism.

He concludes by stating the “heroic proportions” of the task before us if we are to “fully realize the benefits of the information age” and create the institutions needed to do so.

2) Excerpts from

Greater Expectations - A report of The Association of American Colleges & Universities

This report outlines the state of our present higher educational system, the challenges facing it, and the prospects of, and recommendations for its further development.

The excerpts are largely a series of charts that break down important points and issues in areas such as the “Pressures on Higher Education”, “Teaching to Create Intentional Learners”, Promoting Greater Expectations on Campus”, and “Organizing Educational Principles: From the Present to the New Academy”. This term, “New Academy”, describes a progressive model of higher education which is described point by point on a list titled “The Greater Expectations New Academy includes...” with the following headings:

- A rigorous, practical liberal education for all students built on...

- Enacted through... (An educational system that..., Colleges and universities that..., Faculty members who..., A curriculum that..., Classroom practices that...).

Next, is a list of recommendations and “Important Action Steps” made by the Greater Expectations National Panel under five broad headings. These headings emphasize the challenges facing higher education in our increasingly knowledge-intensive society. Under each of these headings are lists of who exactly would be the “Initiators of Action”. The final excerpts are a “call to action” exploring the “urgency” of implementing the proposed recommendations to transform our educational system within the context of our rapidly changing times. This is followed and concluded by a pledge of the Panel to contribute to the creation of this proposed New Academy and a “learning society” around it, and also an invitation to readers to join them in this effort.