Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer unleashed a new policy on February 25 saying employees would no longer be available to work from home. In an internal memo she stated, “To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side,” the memo said. “That is why it is critical that we are all present in our offices.”

Hello… does anyone see the irony in this? The company that has given us Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger to allow us to connect with others remotely now says that employees must be face to face to communicate and collaborate.

WOW and backwards WOW.

Never mind the studies that say employees working from home are more productive and work more hours than their in-office counterparts. Then at an all-staff meeting several weeks ago a staffer asked Mayer whether her rigorous hiring practices had caused the company to miss out on top engineering talent in Silicon Valley’s hyper-competitive job market. She personally interviews all candidates applying for a job. Mayer dismissed the complaint that she had refused good candidates because they did not have degrees from
prestigious universities, and instead she challenged her staff to get better at recruiting.

Kind of reminds me of traditional academe. Despite the studies showing students in online and hybrid classes acquire knowledge better than their traditional in-seat counterparts, faculty and administrators are still resisting online education at many institutions. “I think some classes are ok online, but for those classes where students need to interact with a professor, there is not substitute for the face to face classroom.” This comment came from a community college faculty member at a faculty training I attended a couple of months ago.

Again…. WOW.

Many colleges are quickly trying to figure out how to get into the “online game” in an attempt to bolster failing traditional enrollments and to adjust to the changing marketplace of higher education. Just this week, I have had two inquires from institutions wanting eduKan to help them bring their programs online, to use our expertise and learning management system. Just like many are speculating that more and more traditional institutions who don’t embrace change are not going to be in business in the future, many in the tech world are speculating based on the decisions of Yahoo!’s CEO they are not going to be in business in the near future.

Next blog I will address Marissa’s hiring practices and how they parallel the hiring practices of traditional institutions.

Yahoo!

I recently attended the International Academy of Web Television Awards, where I walked the red carpet as the host of eduKanTV. At first, I considered this event the red-headed step-sister to the iconic Academy Awards, but once I saw the quality of these programs, I quickly revised my Wayne’s World- inspired preconceived notion of web television programs. As I worked the crowd at the after-party, I met producers, publicists and executives from some of the major Hollywood film and production houses. It became suddenly clear to me that traditional television and film companies perceive a palpable threat to their monopoly on both viewers and talent posed by the burgeoning web entertainment industry. In order to protect their position at the top of the food chain, they are actively recruiting the best shows and talents to their networks and production companies.

American Federation of Musicians

So how does this relate to higher ed? I wasn’t until I read an MSN article the other day that shed light on the “talkies,” the first movies that incorporated sound with the picture, that I made the connection. The addition of audio flat out ended the careers of many silent screen actors whose untrained voices assaulted the tender ears of the movie-going public, while the few stage actors thrived, using their finely-honed vocal projections to delight audiences. The American Federation of Musicians joined in the cacophony once it became clear that the talkie rendered their services obsolete and placed an ad in the Pittsburg Press in 1929 that in part said:

This is the case of Art vs. Mechanical Music in theatres. The defendant stands accused in front of the American people of attempted corruption of musical appreciation and discouragement of musical education. Theatres in many cities are offering synchronized mechanical music as a substitute for Real Music. If the theatre-going public accepts this vitiation of its entertainment program a deplorable decline in the Art of Music is inevitable. Musical authorities know that the soul of the Art is lost in mechanization. It cannot be otherwise because the quality of music is dependent on the mood of the artist, upon the human contact, without which the essence of intellectual stimulation and emotional rapture is lost. (via Duke.edu)

By the next year, approximately 22,000 movie house musicians had lost their jobs.

Although established Hollywood production houses are rushing to recruit this new web talent, they are not sure what to do with it, how it fits into their conventional model or even how to monetize it. Kind of reminds me of traditional higher education’s response to MOOCs, OER content and para-educators, such as TED and the Khan Academy. Online learning has been around for over 15 years offered by early adopters, like eduKan, and for years have fought the perception of traditional faculty and administrators who failed to see how these online courses could be as good as what is offered in the classroom.

Those who are saying, “You can’t replace teachers with technology,” or “this is the demise of higher education as we know it,” sound like theater musicians to me.

If you have read my previous rants, you know how I feel about MOOCs.  Let’s just say I think they have a limited use – like a trailer hitch on a Porsche 911. MOOCs have a few redeeming qualities, one of which is the rise of the faculty rock star. Faculty can publish a MOOC and literally have hundreds of thousands of students sign up. Never before has this been possible and never has the sage on stage Socratic model been more threatened. This new approach has Ivy League and other top tier schools clamoring for attention, acting like teen age girls at a Justin Bieber concert.

Thanks to YouTube and Facebook, the Internet has launched many a rock star.  Some have genuine talent but simply did not have access to traditional modalities and avenues. Many, if not most, do not have any talent other than the ability to use a webcam to capture some painful dance or off-key singing. Just like gawking as you drive by a fender-bender on the highway, it is nearly impossible not to indulge in a little virtual rubber-necking.  Just as these talentless overnight Internet stars quickly crash and burn, returning to a life of anonymity living in their parent’s basement, so, metaphorically, will these MOOC professors who truly lack talent.

Talent is the touchstone that creates real rock stars. Check out Bev Evans from England who has been downloaded almost 3 million times. Would you rather take “Introduction to Film” from Professor Marginal discussing the cultural impact of the movie “Chariots of Fire” or from Lord David Puttnam through the Open University? In case you don’t recognize the name, Lord Puttnam was the producer.  So how do we find the real academic rock stars performing in these new delivery modalities? I assert that it will no longer be the accrediting bodies or the faculty senate that identify and launch quality faculty but the free market, both students and industry.

I read that CUNY adjuncts, in order to cast a light on the plight of the “slave of higher education,” are not allowing students to call them “Professor.” What an old and outdated, not to mention unprofessional, approach to solving a problem. These luddites might as well don bell-bottom dungarees, organize a sit-in and preach symbolism over substance.  Most adjuncts I know have full time jobs and teach because they love it, not for the money. Make no mistake, adjuncts can (and the good ones do) make “bank” teaching both in-seat and online.  The group that should be shaking in their shoes is the full-time faculty, many of whom are teaching lighter loads and demanding bigger and better perks.  They should be in arms, not because of the quality of teaching from adjuncts (which is a common argument), but because using adjuncts is financially more efficient and that kind of effective model is what institutional leaders like. I anticipate the use of adjuncts will continue to grow.

For those adjuncts wanting to break the “slave” mold, the changing dynamic of higher education will provide opportunities, like MOOCs, to engage with thousands of students and to create new ways of teaching. But for those holding on to the old sage on stage model, troubles are only starting to mount. Perhaps an even larger concern is the challenge to professors in traditional environments to remain the unquestioned expert.  Any student with internet access can (and should) leverage material from scholars living anywhere in the world via the virtual cornucopia that is the world wide web and use that information to challenge the status quo. This is a bold new day for the true rock star faculty to return status to the title of Professor and honor a profession that is respected and revered, regardless of being contracted or tenured.

Share your thoughts with me below. I look forward to hearing from you.

– Mark

Just like the rooster on my grandfather’s farm in southern West Virginia, MOOCs are waking up higher education. And like many of my colleagues, I am torn when it comes to how I feel about MOOCs.  I have publically called them the academic Pet Rock.

I remember how much I wanted a Pet Rock for Christmas when I was a kid and how excited I was to open up that brown box with the holes in the side.  Nestled in the protective bed of shredded paper, there it was – my very own pet rock. It was the best Christmas ever! 

But within a couple of days, I figured out that the pet rock really didn’t do much of anything except sit there. Bored with it, I put it in a drawer where it remained, out of sight and out of mind for the last thirty years, until my mother recently unearthed it. I see MOOCs in a similar light.

I am excited to see Ivy League and top tier schools finally show interest in delivering quality online education, something I have been advocating for the last 10 years. Regional accreditors, however, don’t know what do to with MOOCs since they fall outside of their purview and are now being forced to look at changing their very traditional model. I see this as a welcome change.

Professors are now excited about going global via the web to convey their knowledge and expertise and they have figured out a way to completely bypass the conventional red tape of course development by cutting out the hierarchy of committees…not to mention circumventing the faculty senate. Now, as more institutions are rushing to accept MOOCs as prior learning credit, the idea that learning can (and does) occur outside of the walls of traditional institutions is gaining traction.

However, MOOCs have their problems. Many schools still will not accept them for credit. Retention rates in most MOOCs are deplorable and the engagement between the faculty and students is nowhere near what it should be.  How could it be when there are over 100,000 students in a class, in some cases, maybe even more? Despite growing investment in providers like Coursera and EdX, there is no realistic model emerging to allow the monetization of these courses.

I believe MOOCs, like my pet rock, will enjoy its short-lived popularity, but will eventually get stuck in a drawer. Just like my grandfather’s rooster really didn’t do much except announce a new day, so crows the MOOC.

Super Model Kelly LeBrock and Mark Sarver at #MommyTech #CES
Photo courtesy of www.thecubiclechick.com

I was invited to speak at the HigherEdTech Summit as part of the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show. What a great gathering of the most tech-savvy educators discussing how technology is and should be changing higher education. While there, I had the opportunity to attend an event from the Mommy Tech Summit where I met Kelly LeBrock, supermodel and star of the 80’s movie, “Weird Science.”  I remember watching this movie as a teenager in 1985; I would have chopped off my left arm, or any appendage for that matter, just to be near Kelly LeBrock, much less put it around her!  As it turns out, I got my wish and got to keep all my appendages, but only because I was willing to wait 28 years.

It was at this event that I had the pleasure to meet three ladies, Danyelle, Kitty and Raijean, whose immediate appreciation of my camouflage bowtie clearly indicated their status as fashionistas.  Danyelle Little is a blogger and the digital debutante of TheCubicleChick.com and Kitty Bradshaw of KittyBradshaw.com gives her perspective on her New York Life from a California viewpoint. Raijean promotes both of these ladies and has her own fashion blog at Swa-Rai.com. You might be asking right now, what does fashion and blogging have to do with higher education? When Kitty, a self-professed “small blogger” told me she only had about 30,000 followers, I began to wonder how many of our educational institutions would love to have 30,000 followers?

Our conversation reminded me how far behind higher education is on so many fronts, especially social media and current marketing practices. Admissions departments are still doing the same marketing today that they did back in 1985 when I was being recruited (and watching Weird Science on VHS tape), mailing out tons of printed material and view books.  Higher education, which has served as the catalyst for so many advances in our society, is today in crisis causing a few of my bravest peers at the HigherEdTECH conference to suggest the current model should be scrapped so we can simply start over.

So in an effort to put my blog where my mouth is, I am committing to a weekly post, mostly about higher education but I can’t promise there wont be an occasional rant outside of the industry. Thank you Kitty, Danyelle and Raijean for the inspiration.  Thank you Kelly LeBrock for the hug.  But as much as I want to see higher education change, I’m not willing to wait 28 years for this dream to come true.