Peak Oil in higher education

Posted on | April 22, 2010 | 1 Comment

I believe it was Chris Anderson’s Free that made the claim that much Science Fiction writing could be summarized as such: Take one thing that is currently scarce and make it abundant and see what happens to the people and institutions that rely and maintain that thing.

This is the hope of much of the innovation in energy. A discovery of something like “cold fusion” or other clean and perpetually abundant energy source would render all current energy companies obsolete and cause them to scramble. How would they stay relevant? What could they offer in a world where energy no longer requires stewardship? How could they turn a profit?

This day has not come for energy companies but it has come for higher education, who in some ways are the “Oil Companies” or information and knowledge. Higher education is no longer the gateway to all of the world’s knowledge. It is all out there and nearly all of it is free.

Yesterday I attended the Digital University conference at the CUNY Graduate Center and many of the panelists and attendees were questioning how can the role of expertise and higher education remain relevant in a world where peer reviewed journals and academic presses are no longer the only means to express scholarly research. Less mentioned was the business model of academic presses and fundraising that are in serious jeopardy as a result of the shift to digital scholarship; however, left undiscussed was the total economic model. If information is free, what is the role of the scholar in society as a whole?

Survival in a world of abundance.
I have a bias towards looking to music for answers because of the work I’ve done with record labels, band promotion and being a bit of a musician myself. Music is not about selling the art anymore; the digital revolution has made the music abundant. Musicians have adapted to a new model where the money is made by touring, by selling value adds like hand-crafted CDs, t-shirts. What can higher education learn from this?

Perhaps a shift back to the emphasis what a scholar brings to the information. No longer is there a focus on “the book” as a measure of success and worth, but instead speaking engagements and even teaching can be a more effective primary goal. The role of the scholar is shifting from a model of the learned hermit to an active, engaging and accessible personality that can share her knowledge with the world. So although academic presses are struggling and information is ultimately unable to be controlled anymore, the one way scholars (and higher education) can continue to exert their expertise is by performing. And in the world of information, that performance is called teaching.

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