Note: This article When education and economics collide Is a nice technical compliment to the one below and highly recommended for the actual real-life examples it provides.

Will Social Media and the Internet Kill The University System?

Rather than making an argument for one side or the other, here are some questions that the one above brings up:

1. Can the Universities Keep Up?

   It is the nature of a university education to teach from a deep level of abstraction in order to equip students with the ability to synthesize and formulate their own models and paradigms later on in life. The problem with this, and it is a continual debate, is that such levels of abstraction are not commercially viable. For all the study that goes on in a university, none of them compare to a decent information product lasting 3 months that can deliver the real goods (Provided one is willing to put in the work). Aside from technical and financial disciplines, there is always a fear that the more humanistic studies will only end up flooding the market with baristas. This needn’t be the case. Social networks can benefit greatly from the insight gained from social, anthropological and arts related studies, but the departments are usually so divided from each other that that kind of fusion rarely happens unless students do so of their own initiative. The internet, on the other hand invites this fusion reaction all the time. Creative individuals have been joining their creative talents with automated payment and promotion systems that give them a living well beyond Walmart slave wages. Beyond that, these people are delivering beauty rather than cost savings.

2. Is holistic education right for today?

   Holistic education is based on the principle that since knowledge is power, students must learn to wield these tools with judgment and responsibility. Recent social movements, however, have come about not from Universities but from the internet. In fact, anti-war protests were remarkably absent in 2003. It was the internet that sustained anti-war sentiment since America’s students seemed to be preoccupied with getting a job and in on the housing bubble while it lasted. Becoming employable and maintaining that employ ability in an internet that makes more and more extensive use of social networks and diverse two-way marketing approaches requires humanistic understanding. In fact, an understanding of psychology, anthropology, basic business principles and aesthetics is rewarded. Even coders can no longer think simply in terms of function. As they create, they must be conscious of how a module or function works in terms of user experience and marketing message. A perfect example is how abuse of a web API can lead to the perception that one is a spammer of scammer. People using these powerful tools must consider their end users perception of intent.

3. Can society teach the values delivered by humanistic courses?

   Is there a bigger humanist right now than Bill Gates, the Harvard drop out? The university may like to argue that while he was there, they delivered enough of a ethical and moral foundation for him to look past himself and see the good for the world that all his money could do. Few would take that explanation with out a second thought though. What is more likely is that is family and social upbringing developed him into the kind of philanthropist he is today.

   It is not uncommon for a university student to take a class like Ancient Egyptian history twice, once to fulfill the African studies requirement and the other time to fulfill the non-western studies requirement. A student could probably take the course a few more times to fulfill requirements in ancient civilizations, anthropology, archeology or even as an arts requirement. What this translates to for many students is a little boondoggle set up to ensure that every student cannot get out of the system in under 5 years.

   It is pretty common knowledge that the industry applicable knowledge gained from university years can be had in about 18 months. The rest is meant to develop yound people as whole, thinking individuals, rather than as money making mercenaries.

   …And this is arguably the value of a university education, to teach a universal and global outlook capable of developing a citizen capable of contributing to their nation and species. Perhaps there is fear that without the guidance of people who are paid to think about these things, we may decend into the kind of social indifference, amorality and financial irresponsibility that allows for reckless wars and over borrowing that creates a global financial crisis, but that’s where we are now. The university system did absolutely nothing to prevent this.

4. Will we become savants without University guidance?

   It is difficult to leave the university system without hearing at least one dire warning about how a given school can save you from becoming a cold-hearted mercenary for hire in a world full of sharks. In fact, this is commonly the message delivered my a university president to students during their orientation session. Is this necessarily true today though? Universities were at one time the keepers of books and documents of higher learning. Today, you can download what you need. If there is a question to be asked, it would be ‘How do I know what to download?’ Obviously, someone older, wiser with more experience than you can be a great asset, but does that person need to be employed by a University? Wouldn’t someone else who’s accomplishments and ideals you respect be of more value than someone with a certification to teach?

5. Will the arts, literature and history be forgotten?

   Given a limited amount of time and an increasing effective approach to learning skills that lead to greater independence as well as commercial value, it is likely that people will focus solely on their own niche and neglect the classics. Interestingly, this has already happened. When students have to take the same course twice in order to fulfill two separate liberal arts requirements, they simply do not have time for Shakespeare. Besides, what is stopping the internet from hosting the ancient Greek text and classics of world literature? Project Gutenberg is already doing this and social networks allow professors to attain peer review across a wider range of people with fewer politics. Study can in fact be improved and enhanced via social media tools and that study can gain greater depth.

6. Will The Internet force professors out of the Ivory Tower?

   It is unfortunate that the term Ivory Tower has become derogatory. This should really reference the isolation from practical matters that professors are granted in order to gain insight into greater levels of abstraction which can then be converted via various design, engineering and business principles into something more pragmatic. That isolation is more of a symbiotic relationship that works well with the ‘real world’ to test, implement and improve on innovation efforts. The negative connotation has only partly come about from the tenure system that has occasionally protected the incompetent. More commonly, intellectuals have been ridiculed by fascistic minds who have decided they have found a ‘final solution’ that nullifies the need for any further thought or innovation.

   Rather than chasing professors out of their leather armchair confines to be piled along with their books onto a public bonfire, the evolution of the internet will act more as an invitation to participate more publicly with people who want to learn what they know and are themselves studying and exploring. Much like the tradition of Socrates, these professors having descended from a Ivory Tower mentality will be able to hold discourses with a wider, more engaged audience with whatever degree or fame or anonymity that they desire.

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