I wanted to talk today a little bit about changes happening in

education and the world around us.

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Story of Blackboard

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The reason the chair story is relevant is because the security was only

looking at the computer, the technology, and not what was the driver –

driving it out of the building. This is not dissimilar from the education

industry today – or infact many industries – where people believe

technology is the change event and don’t realize that the technology is

being driven by the consumer.

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I am here to talk about two big issues

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Even I fall into the trap in thinking technology will change everything. I

came across this quote and I thought finally someone is recognizing that

facebook and twitter and mobile computing are going to fundamentally

change how education is delivered. Then I continued reading and saw

this quote was from 40 years ago.

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And in fact I could go back 100 years and look at the classroom and

notice it doesn’t really look that much different.

It’s often said that if Ben Franklin were alive today, the only thing he

would recognize from his own lifetime is the inside of a classroom

because it has changed so little.

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In today’s classroom we have replaced pen and paper with notebook

computers but otherwise education remains relatively unchanged.

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But that is about to change.

So let me explain why this change is coming and why it is different from

all of those other times people claimed education was going to change

and it didn’t. Let me explain what is different.

There are 2 major driving forces that are building up like a title wave:

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This change is being lead by the consumer.

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The change is taking place while there is also a bubble around education

that is about to burst.

Some of those who watch these dynamics closely have even suggested

that after crashes in real estate, the stock market, and the overall

economy, that education could be the next “bubble.”

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Let me go into each of these in more detail.

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There has been a number of technology shifts in education – but in the

past they were all lead by the institution (or system administrator)

themselves. This new technology shift of mobile and social is being lead

by the students.

So lets better understand these students and consumers:

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While we struggle with these challenges in education technology is

transforming everything around us, making it harder to keep up.

The rise of the social Web is happening faster than the changes that

came before it, and reshaping expectations and opportunities for every

industry.

Think about it: there are 7 billion people alive in the world today…

…and we already have 5 billion mobile phones worldwide. Of course I

have three different ones right now but still…that’s a lot of phones…

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Today, more people have access to a mobile phone than a clean toilet.

Which is kind of scary when you think about it…

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Thankfully some of these people are now using their phones to find a

clean toilet! Yes, there’s an app for that. Hundreds of thousands of people

have already downloaded the “Toilet Finder” app so they can find a place

to take care of business…

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In 2009 there were 300 million mobile apps downloaded. Last year there

were 5 billion.

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Did you know that 92 percent of American kids have an online presence

by the time they’re just 2 years old?

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There are 2nd graders who type 60 words a minute

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High school students who have full time jobs on the internet while they

are in high school

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Today, Kindle books now outsell all hardcover and paperback books sold

on Amazon, COMBINED.

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And all of your textbooks can fit on that single device.

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So obviously the passion people have for mobile devices is extreme –

students are now spending 9 percent more time on apps than on the

Internet. And more time on social media than they spend reading or doing

email.

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And some are not using email at all. Is your institution prepared to

communicate with a student body that uses technology but may not utilize

the web or email?

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And in higher ed, a recent study found that 80 percent of all college

admissions officers have received a friend request from applicants.

Interesting…I wonder how many accepted?

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We talk about the importance of school’s in the US News & World report

ranking. That is only the first of many tools students are using to review

your institution.

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They even rate the professors.

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But professors are using tools to.

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So now students can use their mobile devices for more than Angry Birds

or chasing food trucks. So far, over 5 million students have used our apps

to check their grades. They’ve checked their courses over 13 million

times. During back to school in September, there were over 3 million hits

on our apps in just three weeks.

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And this new consumer is causing us to change the way we look at

education. Today our product has just a course view…

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At Blackboard, we saw the way that young people were using social

networks and we heard from them that they wanted to see more of that in

their education experience. So we’re re-engineering our software to

support more socialization. Now, you’ve got blogs and wikis right in the

course. And soon, instead of going into their courses sequentially like

they have in the past, when a student logs into Blackboard, they’ll see

their own “stream” of information with news and updates from their

classmates, courses, and activities, presented in a way that’s very similar

to the way their information is presented on sites like Facebook.

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To truly appreciate how much this technology is used…

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And this changing consumer is hitting education just as the economy is

putting enormous pressure on this education bubble.

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Take a look at Borders, an institution that couldn’t really keep up with

where the world is heading. Borders had difficulty reaching the higher

expectations consumers developed in part thanks to technology.

Successful institutions must find ways to reinvent themselves to stay

relevant when the world changes. Otherwise they go away.

I think the Borders example is actually very relevant to higher education.

Because as we try to keep up, we’re facing the same changes that

Borders did, reaching with people that have become much savvier

consumers in all parts of their lives. They have much higher expectations

and are much more willing to walk if they don’t feel like those

expectations are being met.

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In some parts of the world, this may be already happening. England has

been struggling with major economic issues that forced them to make

changes in how education is funded. Higher ed in England has always

been heavily subsidized and very low cost. But starting next year, tuition

at many colleges will nearly triple. And young people have taken to the

streets in a series of protests that drew attention all over the world.

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Can that type of revolution around education happen here in the States?

Actually, the U.S. is wrestling with very similar issues and many states

are having to consider their own hard choices. Let’s look at it through the

lens of the challenges faced by just one state: Iowa.

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Iowa can be considered a bellwether state politically. In the last five

presidential elections, Iowa’s popular vote has been within a couple of

percentage points of the national popular vote. So the state’s vote has

been highly predictive of the eventual winners. But Iowa is also a

bellwether in other ways.

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Look at education. Iowa recently shared some data on their own

education performance and they rank 8th in the nation in the percentage

of high school graduates. Sounds pretty good, right?

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It does until you realize that in just seven years, over 60 percent of all

jobs in Iowa will require some postsecondary education…

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…and only 1 in four Iowa students have a Bachelor’s degree…

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… and just 8 percent have a graduate degree.

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Of course the state is looking at how this translate to areas that lead to

economic growth

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So even though they have a high graduate rate from high school because

they have low undergrade and graduate degrees they are far behind in

critical economic growth areas.

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Maybe, but the state reports that they’re now spending LESS on

technology than they did a decade ago. Now, I personally think that states

should spend BILLIONS on school technology…but most people would

agree that trying to meet the challenges of 2012 with a 1998 budget

doesn’t make a lot of sense.

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And Iowa needs more college graduates and individuals with graduate

degrees just as education has reached its most expense point ever.

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I can compare education costs to housing or to healthcare. And these

are two areas economic experts agree have been or are in a bubble –

and yet the cost of education outpaces them both.

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So these forces are reshaping the world and how people live in it. And

they pose big questions for education and its ability to keep up.

But here we can look to technology…

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Look at the music industry. It wasn’t long ago when they were in a fight

with technology and new sharing sites like Napster. There was a lot of

upheaval over digital rights management and illegal downloading. But

over time lots of people were working together to figure out new models

for delivery and engagement. And the situation is much better for users.

Today they have access to the next generation of music programs like

iTunes and Spotify and Pandora.

Napster used openness

Itunes add mobile

Spotiy used social

And Pandora used analytics (to select next song you likely want to listen

to)

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The same thing with books.

Amazon used both open (letting indpendant authors sell their books),

social (letting you review books and connect with similar people) and

analytics (recommending what you should buy based on last purchase).

Then the Kindle and the iPad added mobility.

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So we can apply this change to education to see what is likely to happen

and the direction we need to head.

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Open

Social

Analytics

Mobile

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OPENNESS -, we’ve seen pioneers like MIT experiment with making their

courses available to wide audiences outside their institution. As more

follow their example, some are wondering what we stand to lose by giving

away access to courses, content and teaching. But others are asking

what we to gain? We’re following this work closely ourselves to see how

we might make it easier for people that use our software to support open

education more broadly within and outside of their institutions.

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SOCIAL - One of our clients, Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana, is a

great example of an institution that’s going social. They’re the largest

accredited school in North America with more than 100,000 students. So

they’re Really Big. But they’re using our instant messaging and

collaboration tools to make the learning experience more personal. And to

encourage informal, peer-to-peer learning through spontaneous, instant

connections. It’s like FaceTime for learning.

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ANALITICS - One of the best stories I’ve seen is at the University of

Maryland Baltimore County, where John Fritz and his team are looking at

e-learning activity data and showing that to students so they can compare

their own activity to that of their peers. And begin to see the kinds of

changes they could make in their engagement or study habits based on a

profile of activity that can lead to greater outcomes. They believe, like I

do, that your activity data should tell you something, and that we should

figure out a better way for it to be used to improve the student

experience.

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MOBILE – tell Stanford mobile story. Let me show you what Stanford is doing

with Mobile (show iPhone add and iPad add)

I don’t know what the school of the future

will look like. I don’t know how long it will

be until students really have more control

over the learning process.

What I do know is that when you look at the

characteristics of the learner and when you

examine the economic forces that are

applying pressure around us there is a

change coming. Institutions can utilize

technology to help adapt to that change –

the technologies we have talked about

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today – Openness, Social, Analytics, and

Mobile.

We’re seeing pockets of innovation, but we need

those to be at a much broader scale. So far, the

impact of innovation on education has been

modest when you consider its overall potential,

and how innovation has already transformed

every other area of our lives.

But this change is coming – and many of you in

this room are at the forefront of this change –

the question is can we stay ahead before the

wave of the consumer and the wave of the

economy overtake us and change education for

ever.

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