Anya Kamenetz, NPR's lead education writer and expert on technology and learning, delivered the opening keynote address Sunday, October 26 to kick off AACRAO’s 24th Annual Strategic Enrollment Management Conference. Named an "Educational Gamechanger" by The Huffington Post, Kamenetz joined NPR in 2014, working as part of a new initiative to coordinate on-air and online coverage of learning. Kamenetz is the author of several books about the future of education: Generation Debt(Riverhead, 2006); DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education (Chelsea Green, 2010), addressing the crises in cost, access, and quality in higher education. Previously, Kamenetz covered technology, innovation, sustainability and social entrepreneurship as a staff writer for Fast Company magazine.
Kamenetz's passion for the complexities of how we learn, work and live in the new millennium shone through in her address. She shared insights on how radical technological innovations are transforming higher education -- and how they are failing. These innovations are transformative, Kamenetz argued, but traditional brick-and-mortar institutions are still relevant. The innovations are coming at a time when many college students and universities are under pressure: education budgets are being cut and colleges have been passing along the higher costs to students. Kamenetz focused on the potential cost-cutting innovations and the emerging possibility of free and open education.
Technology offers a unique opportunity to reach underserved populations and international students. Options such as EdX, Coursera, Khan Academy and YouTube are free resources that can be adapted to contextual needs of the student. Kamenetz notes that a large percentage (68 percent) of Coursera’s users come from outside the United States, for example, India, China, Brazil, and Mexico. These new venues have resulted in the unbundling and rebundling of teaching methods, mass customization, and scalability through a networked world.
Despite these innovations, colleges and universities do have a place in society and will not disappear, Kamenetz said. While current innovations expand access to higher education, they still cannot replicate or replace the human component of education.
The interactions between institutions and students, and among students themselves, remain critically important to personal growth and development, according to Kamenetz. Empathy, critical thinking skills, mentorship, and other human interactions are most effectively conveyed on college campuses. Institutions are preparing students in critical ways to be leaders, helping them deal with the fog of uncertainty in our society, and providing caring faculty members to guide students on their educational journeys and transform their lives.