By thedihedral Posted on

V5 (5 Things 1 Topic)

I am happy to announce that I have been granted a sabbatical in order to delve into research concerning the future of humanity with a concentration on education.  The future of education is something I have been thinking about for a long time.  In the past, my concern was about the future of a liberal education.  The talking points regarding the worthlessness of a degree in classics, philosophy, literature, etc…are nauseating.  The played out refrain has been sung since long before I was a student, and it continues today.  As a philosophy major, I had to get used to unrelenting questions regarding what I’m going to do with that (philosophy degree).  As a philosophy professor I continue to deal with similar dismissive comments.  I have an entire set of colleagues from the business department who continuously tell students to stay away from the Liberal Arts Building.  They are the same people who can’t fathom why we over here in the land of wasted time and money deserve the same funding as those who teach classes in white collars and pressed pants.  I mean they have “real” world experience after all!

Well, the sands of time are shifting, and as technology moves forward, it seems that a liberal education may be the last vestige of the contemporary educational system.  As industry and service move toward AI and automation, I’m not sure what all those glorious business degrees will amount to?  Further, what-ever will the displaced folks who have consistently shit on the liberal arts have to talk about once their water cooler has run dry?

As other disciplines begin to fall, the defense of a liberal education will not end.  In fact, what we are defending against is changing dramatically.  While the white collar dismissives will be facing a challenge previously reserved for those with their heads in the clouds, we thinkers and dreamers welcome everyone into the conversation.  Education is worth defending, no matter the discipline.  The more people who are willing to be part of the conversation the better.

There are a-lot if things to think about when it comes to the future of education, these are just five.

  1. Everything that can be digitized will be digitized1.  The information is already digital.  The classes have been moving in that direction for over a decade.  In the near future, colleges will have the opportunity to move fully online.  In fact VR is already in place at several higher-ed institutions.  I think I do a pretty good job of teaching about the philosophers of the ancient world, but can I do better than the philosophers of the ancient world?  Imagine being able to strap on an immersive headset, and from the comfort of your bed you can drop into a lecture prepared by me, but rather than watch my avatar teach in a stuffy classroom, move the setting to the agora, and instead of me teaching, why not have an avatar of Socrates?  You can immerse yourself into one of Plato’s dialogues, with avatars of each interlocutor.  Perhaps you’re a hormonal 19 year old, and you’d prefer your personalized AI to design and inject an ideal mate into the conversation.  Socrates now has a perfect physique and face to match, while talking to you in the agora, surrounded by Meletus and Glaucon (also attractive if preferred).  Who is coming to class to watch Professor Carrot try to break down the Socratic Method, when hot Socrates (Hotcrates) can do the same thing, only better?
  2. Why enroll in any class (philosophy or otherwise), if it isn’t going to land you a job, or make you some money?  It may sting, but embracing the coming wave of digital education is something we can’t avoid.  The number of on-line classes continue to grow while the number of face to face classes continue to diminish.  From a monetary perspective, why would we spend tax dollars on heating and cooling multitudes of buildings, paying for groundskeepers, roof repairs, and the continuous modernization of tech in every classroom?  Further, the incentive for an education is enmeshed with the probability of landing a career.  Futurists tend to agree that there are very few jobs that exist today that will survive the AI onslaught headed our way.  The educational messaging of “Your Future Awaits/Start, Grow, Go/Start Here, Go Far/” is moot and pointless in a world that lacks job opportunities.  But as our sisters and brothers of liberal education have displayed for thousands of years, there are reasons to acquire that worthless classics degree and that pointless philosophy degree independent of the money and the jobs.  Our approach to the value of education has to change, i.e. it must change back to the value placed on education prior to degrees, certificates, and grades.  Our messaging needs to go beyond monetary goals and job prospects to something agent centered and personal.
  3. How does climbing fit into a piece on the future of education?  Climbing, like most liberal arts degrees is often looked down upon as essentially worthless, at least by those on the outside looking in.  But climbers find value in the challenge, the growth, the community, the successes, and the failures.  Educators and administrators would do well to study the value of “pointless” activities, in order to replicate and promote similar qualities within education.  Further the model of education within climbing is still primarily akin to an apprenticeship.  We learn from each other.  Experts take beginners under their wings, until eventually that cycle can repeat.  Similarly, journeyperson philosophers, writers, rhetoricians, comedians, and poets may be the best approach to education in a world outside the comforts of our future VR pods.
  4. VR Hotcrates sounds great but what’s missing is live human interaction.  I remember sitting in a small class with few chairs next to a man so stinky I literally had to control my breathing in order to limit the number of inhales I took during the hour and a half long lecture…twice a week.  That sucked.  I also remember being in an Italian class so bad that the chair of the department had to take over midway through the semester.  The original professor was a really mean person.  That sucked too, but in both of those instances, I bonded over shared experiences with people who I would consider friends to this day.  Shared experiences, community, competition, falling in love, getting heart broken, growing up, these are all things that are part of a college education that cannot be replaced or replicated while strapped into a machine.  This rich lively experience that we call living will be lost when we decide that we no longer need education to fetch a job.  The truth is we never needed that piece of paper for a job, that was just a rule that we stumbled upon along the way.  For some (myself included), education was never about the piece of paper or the job.  It was about stank classmates, and the bad professors.  It was about the doubts and the questions, it was about learning how to learn.  It was about friendship.  It was about the value added in the corridors of The Academy.  It was about creating a life worth living.
  5. To the faculty and administrators who can’t quite hear the changing winds a-blowin’, perhaps the taxi drivers and elevator operators will be sympathetic to your future plight, but not me.  Greed, complacency, and lack of foresight have been the death knell of nearly every industry that has ever been displaced by technology. With each class that is moved to a “distance learning” format the winds get a little bit stronger.  If we’re going to navigate the coming wave with some semblance of education intact, we are going to have to change our expectations, our habits, and perhaps most importantly, our messaging.  It’s time to start being honest.  Education is more than job security, education is about getting educated!1  When that message is lost, so are we!

There are so many things to talk about when it comes to the future of education, these are just 5.

V5 (5 things 1 topic)

Carrot
  1. Quoted from Kara Swisher’s gripping book Burn Book: A Tech Love Story.
  2. Coming soon, an article focusing on future sales pitches for education.

21 Replies to “V5 (5 Things 1 Topic)”

  1. Vanmarmot's Travels's avatar
    Vanmarmot's Travels says: Reply

    “But climbers find value in the challenge, the growth, the community, the successes, and the failures.” I would add that climbing (especially mountaineering) teaches you about planning, reacting proactively to sudden changes (like in the weather), getting along with others (like on that bivy ledge), maths (like reading a compass), perseverance, etc. With a Ph.D. in toxicology, I probably learned more useful life stuff out in the hills than I did in the classroom or lab.

    Liked by 2 people

  2. Andy Zipser's avatar
    Andy Zipser says: Reply

    Best wishes for a productive step back from the quotidian. If I may offer one possible line of inquiry: it has long seemed to me that the most meaningful reason for pursuing a “higher” education is to engage in the basic question of what it means to be a human being. In large part that means reaching an understanding of the relationship between one and the many–between the individual and society–both as it actually exists and as we can conceive of it at its best. Which, of course, then raises the question of how we get from here to there.

    That higher education has failed to address this fundamental goal is evident all around us, in the (justifiable) loss of faith in our institutions, our loss of civil discourse and our loss of common values and aspirations. It’s all loss, all the time–no wonder we hear so much about the pervasiveness of loneliness, despair and suicidal ideation!

    That’s a helluva challenge awaiting you! Good luck.

    Liked by 3 people

    1. thedihedral's avatar
      thedihedral says: Reply

      That is the question for sure, and it is intensified with the level of uncertainty we currently face. I’m not sure where my explorations will lead, but I can say I will not ever push the agenda that sole purpose of education is to get a job. From there, hopefully I will be able to stumble upon some interesting clues along the way! Starting of course with help from you and others willing to raise these valuable questions!

      Liked by 1 person

      3. Martha Kennedy's avatar
        Martha Kennedy says:

        I was thinking later of how the College of Business at San Diego State — and other bidness schools — fought to get bidness to be considered an academic discipline AND then set about denigrating the humanities. When I was on the university senate I realized it wasn’t a philosophical point at all. It was money.

        Liked by 2 people

      4. thedihedral's avatar
        thedihedral says:

        I have tried my best to stay out of the senate…I went to one meeting when I first started teaching and it was adult professors acting like children, arguing about the dumbest things you could imagine, like someone taking food from a department fridge, or not having a classroom with enough light. I never went back. Maybe I should?

        Liked by 1 person

      5. Martha Kennedy's avatar
        Martha Kennedy says:

        uhhhh…. For me it was worth it just for my first appearance and it had nothing to do with the Senate. I walked into an old lecture hall in the old building. An elderly, soon-to-retire English professor I knew — thanks to a person who’d been her student and who was my friend — was sitting there. I adored her. She tried to get me hired to teach creative writing but I don’t have an MFA. They said, “No!” She said, “But Martha can WRITE!” so…

        I was sitting talking to her, holding hands, talking about beautiful writing, and a young man came in who’d been my student at a community college — one of the most talented people I’ve ever taught. He slid into the seat on the other side of me and put his arm around me. Those two people represented — for me — the very best of higher education and I was their friend. That told me everything about why I was there smack dab between the past and the future. 50 years old.

        As for “should” — my being there mattered. Not a lot, but I was representing adjunct faculty and since we had virtually no voice anywhere EVER that mattered to me. I also stood for two colleges — humanities and bidness. Whatever else, that was cool and I was honored.

        Personally, I think it’s worth keeping a liberal arts voice in that silly place. You just have to show up with no ego. You’ll learn a lot. I did.

        Liked by 1 person

  4. Eilene Lyon's avatar
    Eilene Lyon says: Reply

    Enjoy the sabbatical! I think we will be seeing a return to the liberal arts, too. And what we need more of is face-to-face relationships, instead of face-to-screen! I’m glad I live in a place that has a lot of focus on outdoor activities and many of them done in groups.

    Liked by 2 people

  5. Terry's avatar
    Terry says: Reply

    The AI future of education sounds dismal at best. Some of my fondest memories of my post secondary education are of the classroom and the face to face interactions sharing laughs, tears, hugs, experiences, and ideas with my classmates, many of whom have remained dear friends in the almost 50 years since.

    Liked by 2 people

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