Cathy Davidson - What If We Could Build Higher Education From Scratch? What Would It Look Like? lyrics

What if we could start all over again and design higher education from scratch? What would a university look like if there were no legacies from medieval knowledge traditions, Enlightenment epistemologies or taxonomies, or Industrial Age requirements, regulations, departments, majors, minors, distribution requirements, professional schools, or standardized a**essment metrics, or contemporary problems ranging from defunding of public education to the burgeoning and ever increasing endowments of private universities? What kinds and forms of institutions of learning might we come up with? Or maybe we don't need any institutions at all? And how could our imagined universities help to inform our activism about transforming the actual institutions we inhabit now? Below the photo (of a student-generated two-day "FutureCla**" at the Mozilla Drumbeat Festival in Barcelona), you'll find a template and a series of open-ended questions to get us started on imagining the university from scratch. #FutureEd For UPDATES to the document below, and to add your comments to an evolving document (we'll be collecting and adding to this until May 2014), visit this public commentable Google Doc. The template in this blog post was updated last from the Google Doc on January 7, 2014. * * * Backstory: Next semester, in the cla** I'm teaching on "The History and Future of Higher Education," one project my face-to-face students will take on is creating their own institution of higher (tertiary) learning, from scratch, with no legacy concerns. They will then put up three or four different model institutions on the Coursera Forum for the MOOC version of "The History and Future of (Mostly) Higher Education," where as many as 50,000 participants (so we've been warned!) might be involved. Can you imagine what that will be like if even some tiny percentage, say 5 percent, from all over the world, were to participate in such a thought experiment? It's going to be facinating. My videos are very amateurish, but I hope that we'll be able to turn this into a "meta MOOC" where the real action happens on the Forums, through participation. I keep hearing about whole cla**es or even professional a**ociations that will be taking the MOOC together. I've heard about reading groups and collections of teachers too. The Forums are what matter--what people add, what they take away, what they contribute, what they question--will be a highlight of the course (you can register, it's free of course, here). To get the conversation going in an expansive way, check out the "opportunity art" of Chicago artist/real estate developer/community activist Theaster Gates? What if his project was the space of higher learning? What would you have to learn in order to be able to engage and organize a community in an impoverished part of Chicago to raise funds, convince the Mayor to give them the deed, and restore a beautiful bank abandonned for decades to be beautiful, functional, historically accurate, repurposed, and sustainable while remaining accessible and responsive to the needs of its community? If you were President or Dean at Theaster University, what would you need to require for admission? How would you design this educational experience so it was meaningful in the process and useful in the life beyond? What histories of building, renovation, decline and fall would you want your students to read? What theories of community? What political organization would you aspire to within the community of students, builders, artists, visionaries? What social theory? What gender theory? What race and cla** theory? What educational theory? Who would be the teachers? You would be training carpenters, artists, philosopher, environmentalists, community organizers, teachers, managers, executives, and future mayors and presidents. How would you certify someone's sk**s or declare someone's "graduation" from Theaster U? Read about Theaster Gates in Ben Austen, "The Opportunity Artist," New York Times, Dec 20, 2013. ******* All this is part of the larger HASTAC 2014 open, user-created initiative of courses, workshops, seminars, and online crowdsourced resources. Here again is the url where you can learn more or offer an event to contribute. Just click on the "Suggest an Addition" bu*ton and fill out the form to join the HASTAC Initiative on transforming higher ed: UPDATED JANUARY 7, 2014 DESIGNING HIGHER EDUCATION FROM SCRATCH: An Evolving Template of Open-Ended Questions Name of our [imagined, fictive, future] university: Logo, mascot, or motto: Drawing or napkin sketch of the university: We specialize in: Our mission is: We believe that all education is vocational in the sense intended by Nobel Prize winning economist Amartya Sen, that we are being trained for the vocation of leading better, happier, more productive lives that contribute to society. The kind of society we are contributing to is: The aspect of society to which our university contributes is: ----------------------- Location: (Where would the school be located? Would it be in a building, online, take a whole city as its campus, or maybe the whole world?) Would it be in a building, online, take a whole city as its campus, or maybe the whole world?) Our university is mobile through Our students are mobile through Our university is part of a network of Our students are networked to one another through ------------- OUR SOCIETY'S EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY Our university is nationally located in Our university is international in scope At our university, we believe the role of higher education in society is to We believe X % of our society should have a post-secondary education We believe those without a post-secondary education should have training in We believe the “sort” for who goes on to tertiary education begins at age We believe the “sort” for what field you will study in higher ed begins at age We believe/don't believe general education is important for everyone because We believe general education stops in formal education at age The social philosophy behind our system of education is that higher education leads to social mobility and social mobility is a worthy goal because The social philosophy behind our system of education is that social mobility is less important than providing everyone, at all social levels, with the means to thrive and those means should be provided at age -------------------- OUR VALUES WHAT WE VALUE: Our mission is: Our mission remains the same/changes every year because: We specialize in: We pride ourselves on: We value learners who have these sk**s, abilities, or qualities: Our learners know that we value these sk**s, abilities, or qualities because: Our learning content is designed to transfer these sk**s, abilities, or qualities by: We know our learners have these sk**s, abilities, or qualities when they: People who work with our learners recognize them for being: Our organization is part of a network that we value because: Our learners are networked to one another through: Our learners are interested in and motivated by: Our learners do their best when: --------------------------- COMPARABLES (Purpose: to elicit great innovative and historical comparisons worldwide) We compare ourselves to these X institutions (worldwide) that exist now because We compare ourselves to X institutions (worldwide) that once existed We do not believe any feature of our institution resembles any other because We believe X feature of our institution is unique because ------------------------------------ COSTS Our tuition is Our tuition is paid by For students who cannot afford our tuition, we offer We do/do not accept philanthropic gifts We use/do not use state funds We use/do not use corporate funding We do/do not have trustees Our (future) alums will have no role/a role in our future by --------- STUDENTS Our ideal students are: We identify our ideal student by word-of-mouth from We identify our ideal students by/not by test scores We identify our ideal students by/not by GPA We identify our ideal students by/not by an open competition We identify our ideal students by We contact our ideal students by We advertise to our ideal students by We recruit our key students by We define diversity as We ensure that diversity by Our students are all in the age group of X to Y Our pre-requisites for admission are: ---------- PEDAGOGY All/none/some of our cla**es are lectures All/none/some of our cla**es are seminars All/none/some of our cla**es include labs All/none/some of our cla**es have experiential learning -------------------------------- KNOWLEDGE Our specialty is We have courses in We do not have courses, we have Our courses take place in You do not pa** a course in a specific subject, content area, or sk** until you Our curriculum is arranged by : We have/do not have required courses in: We have/do not have distribution courses: We have/do not have majors in: Our major in X looks like: We have/do not have minors in: Our minor in X looks like: No, we do not organize knowledge by majors and minors, we organize knowledge by: An example of how we organize knowledge in X is We offer/do not offer liberal arts or general education that looks like We are specialist and follow the European and international model of only accepting students into a specialized area The specialized areas we cover are ----------------- LEARNING MATERIALS We have/do not have textbooks that are Besides textbooks, we use Different courses use different kinds of books and other learning materials such as Our university has a library which consists of Our library uses existing/new/open access materials because ---------------- RESEARCH Our students are/are not engaged in original research on Our students are/are not engaged in basic research in Our students are/are not engaged in applied research in The research and research facilities are funded by The research is tied to learning/teaching through The areas of original research are We do/do not do social science research that may/may not lead to policy decisions We receive/do not receive funding for policy research from We support/do not support creative expression--in all the arts--as a fundamental component of research We support/do not support research in the humanities as a fundamental component of research Our students conduct original research in collaboration with Our faculty engage in original research in/with/by/for ----------------- COMMUNITY Our relationship to the community that surrounds us is Community members are part of our institution by Our town is our gown because ------------------------ PROGRESS AND PATHWAYS Cla**es are/are not graded Attendance (physical, virtual) is/is not expected/required You pa** a cla** by You fail a cla** by There is no such thing as pa**ing/failing a course because We know when you have succeeded at our university, when . . .: We recognize achievement by this a**essment system: We do not recognize achievement but a**ume peers will by this system: We do not recognize achievement but a**ume our students will recognize it themselves by: We acknowledge exceptional mastery by We do not acknowledge one student as more exceptional than another We have requirements for graduation and they are We award graduation certificates for We do not award any graduation credentials because We ensure civil, creative behavior by students by We have/do not have a judiciary system run by -------------------- ASSESSMENT Our current a**essment system is There will/will not be a**essment by humans (self, peers, experts/mentors, teachers) There will/will not be a**essment by computers There will/will not be formative a**essment There will/will not be summative a**essment There will/will not be authentic a**essment (a**essment of real-world tasks) There will/will not be rubrics There will/will not be multiple-choice tests There will/will not be There will/will not be letter grades Points will/will not be awarded Assessment will/will not be binary (pa**/fail) Assessment will/will not align to internal standards Assessment will/will not align to external standards There will/will not be levels or tiers of a**essment Hard sk**s will be a**essed Soft sk**s will be a**essed Learners will/will not be involved in designing a**essments ---- TEACHERS We chose our teachers by We do not have any teachers because We use peer mentoring and peer teaching because We support peer-to-peer learning by We use/do not use MOOCs or other online cla**es instead of cla**room teachers We have/do not have flipped cla**rooms because We have all full-time teachers, who have benefits and job security, because All our teachers are contingent/adjunct faculty because Some of our teachers are contingent/adjunct faculty because Our teachers earn tenure by doing None of our teachers have tenure because All of our teachers have tenure with built in renewal requirements that are ------------------- GOVERNANCE We ensure democratization of the institution through Students govern by Students and teachers govern together by Change happens at our institution by Innovation happens at our institution by When there are strong, conflicting viewpoints, we resolve differences by -------------------------------- ADMINISTRATION/LEADERSHIP We do/do not have administrators because All of our administrators are current/former teachers All of our administrators are current/future students Students “pay” tuition by running all aspects of our university including We have a team of professional administrators We do not have administrators; we have leaders because We do/do not have a professional non-teaching staff who run the physical plant of the university We do/do not have a professional non-teaching staff who run admissions, recruitment and other functions We do/do not have a professional non-teaching staff who care for the grounds (if we have grounds) We do/do not have a professional non-teaching staff who design and manage technology We do/do not have a professional non-teaching housekeeping staff ------------------- FACILITIES, EVENTS, OPPORTUNITIES We have/do not have residential living facilities We have/do not have varsity sports teams We have/do not have intramural sports We do/do not have clubs, social events such as We do/do not have outside lectures, speakers We do/do not have performances We have/do not have community engagement programs We have/do not have undergraduate research experiences We have/do not have fraternities and sororities We have/do not have arts facilities We have/do not have labs We have/do not have computer and technology maker spaces We do/do not give out tablets/iPads to all entering students We do/do not have enterprise educational software We do/do not give out ukuleles (see comment), sketch books, other unexpected creative and social materials in order to ------------------------------- FUTURE Our students go on to be Our students go on to professional schools in Our students go on to graduate schools in When students leave our institution, they are -------------------- ACTIVISM: BEYOND MODELS We are using ideas generated from this exercise to make a real world intervention and innovation here _______ Our method for having real world impact is Our communications plan for action is Our networking plan for forming alliances with other change makers is ------------------------------------- The photographs are of FutureCla**, a two-day series of workshops, panels, exercises, and activities put on by five of my students in a tent outside the Museum of Modern Art as part of Mozilla's Drumbeat Festival. Nov 3-5, 2010