Last month on the Daily Show, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty predicted the rise of "iCollege," a Web-based model of higher education that students could download for $199 rather than "haul their keister" to class. Many academics snarled back ("pedagogical dystopia," one Cornell professor called it), since the idea seems to minimize the role of live student-teacher exchanges. But Pawlenty's vision already has some lofty adherents. Pennsylvania's university system is considering making its language courses online only; Indiana recently added an "affordable" Web-based campus; and Yale Law School is sharing resources with the University of the People, a pioneering "global college" that's tuition-free and totally online.
Now my own school, New York University, is trying to become the first to fully marry 18th-century standards with 21st-century technology. We're developing interactive video courses with recorded lectures, pop-up definitions of obscure words, and live links to primary sources. Rather than minimize the professor-pupil dialogue, the idea is to free professors from lecture requirements so that they can become broader intellectual curators—modern-day Oxford dons who pull students out of their duct-taped beanbag chairs and into university life for discussion sections, guest lectures, and, especially in New York, real-world exhibits. For more traditional dialogues, of course, office hours are always available.
Conley is dean of social sciences at NYU.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
