Using Tech to Improve Graduate Education

“Do not do what I do; rather, take whatever I have to offer and do with what I could never imagine doing and then come back and tell me about it.” - Professor Mark C. Taylor, Columbia Universiy, to his students

As perhaps you know by now, I am an avid reader of the New York Times Op Ed pages. Every morning I receive the paper in its old-fashioned print format and read the news and Op Ed page while I sip my coffee. I also read blogs (thanks mainly to this course) but I think the newspaper Op Ed pages (in either print or electronic format) provide more thoughtfully considered analyses of current topics.

Today’s New York Times featured a very relevant Op Ed piece entitled End the University as We Know It by Mark Taylor.

Professor Taylor, chairman of the religion department at Columbia, points out that most graduate programs in American universities are producing candidates for teaching positions that don’t exist (i.e. a product with no market). While this might not be true for SPC’s Graduate Education Program since there are arguably very needy markets for well-trained elementary and seconday school educators, the suggestions he makes for improving graduate education in America are, in my opinion, right on target.

His suggestions are also relevant to our study of technology in the classroom. Consider, for example, these ideas as to how to transform the modern graduate university program:

• Restructure curriculums so that they are cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural “like a web or complex adaptive network;”

• Abolish permanent departments and create problem-focused programs;

• Use technologies like teleconferencing and the Internet to increase collaboration among departments and institutions;

• Replace traditional dissertation formats with analytic treatments in formats including Web sites, films, and video games.

I encourage you to read the article, but if you don’t have time at least consider these ideas. They are relevant to us graduate students and they are particularly interesting in the context of our studies of technology in school curriculums.

I look forward to receiving comments on this. In the meantime, I am going to close my blog pages, log off my computer, pour another cup of coffee, get comfortable in my overstuffed armchair, and finish today’s New York Times!