Learning Innovation

Peter H. Diamandis, co-author of Abundance and co-founder of Singularity University, thinks that our brains are not wired to understand exponential change. We have evolved to think arithmetically rather than exponentially, and therefore have a hard time wrapping our heads around the implications of Moore's law type performance/cost improvements of digital technologies.

What can we learn about innovation in higher ed from the electric car?

How does the fear that you and your institution will get sued for copyright infringement alter the way in which you provide educational materials for your students?

This week we learned about the newest player in the online higher ed for-profit space, the Minerva Project. Check out Audrey's blog post and and Doug's article for some good background and discussion about Minerva.

Have you noticed that books are looking more and more like apps? Do you find yourself buying books from the Kindle Single store? Browsing the nonfiction selections at nowandthenreader.com? Checking out the original stories at atavist.net? Getting excited about the newest release from the TED Books?

How will edtech change the NCAA basketball tournament, March Madness, in 2013?

Remember when we all thought that the Internet would cause the car dealership to disappear? We'd all buy our cars online. We'd tell our grandchildren about the days when buying a car meant going to a "car dealership" and spending time with a "car salesperson". Life would be so sweet when car buying became a virtual, friction free experience.

Pop quiz. In what year did newspaper revenues peak? Way back before the Internet? Wrong. The answer is in the year 2000. The fall of newspaper revenue, driven by the steep decline in advertising dollars, has been as dramatic as it was unexpected. The newspaper business (as measured in everything from newsroom staff to profitability to newspapers ceasing publication) is not in good shape - or at least is a pale shadow to what it once was.