How will the future college and the higher education program be? As the high technology developing, we can expect the digital technology, internet, social network will become more and more parts of the college life. There are two blogs/articles talking about the future higher education format.
In the first blog titled “The Liberal Arts for the 21st Century” (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-abernathy/liberal-arts-education_b_1472420.html), the author thinks the liberal arts colleges have to make some changes to meet the demands of a new age. Since St. Norbert is one of the liberal arts colleges he is talking about, I think it worthies to read the essay. Among the four things that the author thinks the liberal arts colleges in 21st century should do, one thing catch my attention, he says, “We must bring the world to our campuses and ensure that our students have opportunities to learn through their engagement with the world.” However, many liberal arts colleges, e.g. St. Norbert, is located at non-international cities, it will not be easy to bring the world to the campus; one way is enrolling more international students —- that is why I am here; another thing is using the internet, bringing the whole virtual world to the class, the internet has pulled the world closer, and the future technology will make the virtual world more real.
The second article is a news titled “Explosion In Free Online Classes May Change Course Of Higher Education” (http://synerzhang.visibli.com/links/deLWy2), it was tweeted by @HASTAC, too. The free online classes from the most top schools, like Stanford, Princeton, Berkeley, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan, will give more people the chances to touch the most advanced knowledge on the world., students even get the homework graded for free. And, of course, everything relays on highly developed internet technology. By the way, the free online courses do not mean that the students will not pay anything anymore, because “None of these universities are offering a degree program unless you pay”. So, if student wants a bachelor’s degree, they are still required to pay for the classes. So, the free online classes are kind of free auditing.