About

Despite all the agony awash in the world today, we are privileged to live during one of those rare historical times when technological and institutional innovations drive rapid economic change. Joseph Schumpeter characterized these historical periods as “creative destruction,” when the energy and enthusiasm of the new coexist with the pain and resistance of those most affected.

A classic example is the first industrial revolution in Britain when a relatively new institution (factories), repeal of anti-cotton laws, new inventions, and entrepreneurial activity made cotton cloth affordable, provided jobs to workers, increased the government tax base, and gave the country an important foreign trade advantage (see McCraw) .. but not without the sometimes violent dislocation of home spinning and weaving, traditional craftsmen, and craft guilds. More recent examples include railroads, steel, automobiles, and electric power. Today it is digital technology and information that drive change.

During periods of such change, a brief window exists when the fluidness provides opportunity. This opportunity usually gets expressed in financial terms, profit being the great motivator of entrepreneurs (as witness the incredible personal wealth generated by startups such as Google or Facebook). But opportunity is not restricted to personal financial gain. Increasingly it’s clear that the greater public good (eg, slowing climate change) is a precondition to economic and social life in an interdependent world.

Which brings me in a circuitous route to this blog. My niche is American higher education. For all but 5 of my 60+ years, I’ve lived or worked in colleges and universities. I have a doctorate in educational research and policy planning, and several decades of professional experience crafting databases for decision-support and conducting institutional policy analysis.

Learning has intrinsic value to individuals and to societies, of course. But during our current economic and social transition, centered as it is around information and knowledge, education seems likely to play a critical role in evolving our future world.

At least in the United States, however, it’s easy to make the case that higher education shows signs of aging. Cost is only the most obvious symptom of malaise. In other industries, the price exposure now presented by colleges and universities would invite low-cost competitors. And to some extent this has already happened, but not yet to the extent that new learning technologies and networks allow.

My intent in this blog is to play … to explore how the institution of education is shaped by and helps shape changes that occur during times of creative destruction. I make no apologies for trying to influence, in some small way, what happens in this window of opportunity we’ve been given. Not just in the United States, but without reference to national borders since that is now possible given the technology at hand.

Some day, I hope, life-long learning will be free as a birthright to every person everywhere.