What Are You Reading?

Need some advice for reading for the holiday break or as a resolution for the new year?  I was thinking about books about elearning or higher education that I have read or have had recommended to me in the past year.  I’m also interested in having you share the titles of books that you have read that have had an impact on your thinking about our business.  Below are a few that come to mind.

The Seven Futures of American Education: Improving Learning and Teaching in a Screen-Captured World by John Sener
I like his take on the “cyberization” of education and how that is more of a current reality than a future destination.  He also gives views of different scenarios of cyberized education in the future. It helps my thinking to compartmentalize as he has, but some mix of these futures is what will even eventually emerge.

Courageous Learning:  Finding a New Path through Higher Education
by John Ebersole and William Patrick
Cali Morrison on our staff recommends this one and I’ve been meaning to read it too.  Cali says that:  “Courageous Learning tells the stories of students who found personal and professional fulfillment through higher education on unconventional paths and contains helpful profiles of several schools focused on adult learners. While primarily geared at the adult learner themselves, understanding the experiences contained within is important for faculty and administrators who wish to improve higher education for adult learners.”  The book uses a combination of interviews, contributed pieces, and observations from the authors.

Game Changers:  Education and Information Technologies
Edited by Diana G. Oblinger
I’ve heard good things about Educause’s book, but have not read it.  Their description describes it as: “a collection of chapters and case studies contributed by college and university presidents, provosts, faculty, and other stakeholders. Institutions are finding new ways of achieving higher education’s mission without being crippled by constraints or overpowered by greater expectations.”

Abelard to Apple: The Fate of American Colleges and Universities
by Richard A. DeMilo
Al Lind from the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education said that they were using this book with their institutions to help them think about the future.   MIT Press describes it as:  “The vast majority of American college students attend two thousand or so private and public institutions that might be described as the Middle–reputable educational institutions, but not considered equal to the elite and entrenched upper echelon of the Ivy League and other prestigious schools. Richard DeMillo has a warning for these colleges and universities in the Middle: If you do not change, you are heading for irrelevance and marginalization.”

The Innovative University: Changing the DNA of Higher Education from the Inside Out
by Clayton Christensen and Henry Eyring
The Author of The Innovator’s Dilemma looks at his concept of “disruptive innovation” through the lens of change that has occurred in two universities: Harvard and BYU-Idaho.

What Are You Reading?

Please recommend any books or papers that you think others will find useful in their work.  What has influenced your thinking?? We’d love for you to share.

As for me, I need to catch up on some of these books.  Over the holidays, I’ll finish Gracie: A Love Story.  This is George Burns’ loving tale of his wife and comic partner, Gracie Allen.  Not really worked related, but it is a fun read so far.

Happy Holidays!!!
Russ

Russell Poulin
Deputy Director, Research & Analysis
rpoulin@wiche.edu