Diana G. Oblinger the President and CEO of Educause has written a masterful essay on the purpose of higher education, where it currently stands and where it needs to move forward to be effective. I found the introduction to be the most powerful. I’ve paraphrased it below:

The purpose of higher education is to equip students for success in life — in their workplaces, in their communities, and in their personal lives. Yet though this purpose has remained constant for centuries, colleges and universities themselves are undergoing major change. The campus, the library, the refereed journal article, the classroom, and the traditional-age student — common features of higher education today—may be inadequate in describing higher education tomorrow.

• Formal, traditional boundaries are becoming more permeable and porous. Interdisciplinary fields (e.g., nanotechnology, bioethics) are increasing. Leading faculty are being recruited worldwide…
• The classroom is no longer limited to a three-dimensional space for the dissemination of knowledge (see programs like the the University of Southern California’s Master of Social Work). Students have virtually limitless access to information, faculty, tutors, and each other. Digital libraries and repositories make materials instantly accessible. And learning is increasingly facilitated by exploration, interaction, and problem-solving…
• The library is not defined as a building for books. Many disciplines rely almost exclusively on online resources — whether books, journals, data, or artifacts. Students may consider the library more as a social place than a site for the reference desk or physical books…
• The digital environment is a “place” for social interaction and community exchange. Although the value of the campus as a physical place continues, an increasing number of interactions for students, faculty, and staff happen online, including the emergence of virtual, multinational research organizations
• Scholarship and research are becoming more “conversational.” There is less reliance on communication through formal publications as an increasing number of exchanges occur through e-mail, preprints, and monitored blogs…
• Digital technology and the unprecedented scale of data, as well as the nearly limitless ability to reconstitute the data, have altered the conduct of traditional research and scholarship…
• The more traditional model of a university or college providing most of its services physically on (or near) a campus is changing. More and more services and programs originate off-site and are shared, distributed, or aggregated by other colleges and universities or outsourced agencies.

Tom Vander Ark has a column in the Huffington Post reflecting on how changes in technology have hit 15 crucial points, that “despite resilience, everything will change.” The five most important, in my opinion, focus on learning:

Learning is being transformed by five complementary changes:

• Age cohorts to individual learners: the old model of grouping student by age and teaching them all the same stuff in the same way is slowing giving way to individualized instruction and progress.

• Textbooks to digital content: print is slowing giving way to digital content as access improves.

• Sequential to adaptive: the one way slog through flat content is giving way to customized learning where students move at their own pace and learn in a mode most productive for them.

• Annual tests to instant feedback: like games, digital learning provides instant performance feedback and motivational reward mechanisms.

• Institutions to networks: purpose-built learning networks are replacing or partnering with schools that evolved over time.

The second point I see being influenced by the recent release of the iPad and the last point by high quality on line degree programs like those championed by USC: the Masters in Social Work. The rest, though, seem to be moving a bit slower without additional government reform and incentives.