College Disintermediation

I awoke this morning with a buzz in my ear. I heard a voice say, Obama was still president, we had not fallen off the fiscal cliff, Rachel Maddow was still on TV, Karl Rove was no where to be seen, as was Romney, James Carvelle admitted the leading democrats were all sheep- in other words, nothing had changed. As americans we get hyper-excited about the race for president, we vote, then sit back and watch sports. Me too.

To make matters worse, my local congressman sent a survey to all his constituents. He asked if we were for raising  or lowering taxes? I assumed it was a trick question so I failed to weigh in as if it made a difference.

Trending however was the change in education. Almost without notice to most, the education landscape is being dramatically altered by the Internet. Students are doing their part by posting content-rich lectures for free access by anyone from anywhere at anytime. On-line education has silently moved into the forefront and traditional universities are struggling to keep up. Broad accreditation, driven by the outrageous expense of classroom education, is the next step toward absolute disintermediation of traditional college education. Ironically, it is happening first at the college level, but it will almost certainly trickle down to high school.

As soon as corporations embrace formal on-line education graduates, and they will, then the traditional required BS college degree will be an historical icon. My grandchildren will read this blog in 20 years and wonder why anyone would sit in a classroom and listen to a boring instructor-when they can scan the educational networks until they find a professor on-line that infuses the subject with a fascinating spin. 

Spin your own education of the future vision. I only wish I could help it all come true. It is the most exciting thing to come along since computers.