The End of College

January 26, 2015
Education-policy advisor Carey heralds the coming annihilation of the “hybrid university,” the “deeply flawed” land-grant/research/liberal arts dinosaur responsible for “mediocre learning, high dropout rates, and skyrocketing tuition.” Carey turns his focused and attentive analysis to new education technologies that take into account real principles of learning science. With frequent excursions into personal and institutional histories, Carey describes ambitious Silicon Valley
ventures such as the Minerva Project, Dev Bootcamp, Udacity, and Coursera as catalysts that, he hopes, will burn down the archaic “cathedrals of learning” and allow the “University of Everywhere” to rise from the ashes. Carey doesn’t go into detail on how the assortment of startups and independently funded ventures will coalesce into an entity that will allow millions of students to get high-quality education, online, for free, but he does address how the creation of
a shared and dependable credential to replace the diploma poses a ticklish question. Despite his insistence that college professors are lousy teachers, Carey’s own experience with MIT’s EdX program and the innovations he describes taking place at Harvard, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, and elsewhere suggest that some in “traditional academia” are eager to provide individual learners “exactly what they need.” Though filled with engaging profiles, insightful history, thorough detail, and grandiloquent calls for a “better, higher learning,” Carey’s picture of the real diversity of postsecondary education in the U.S.—and his vision for what should replace it—is incomplete. Agent: Gail Ross, Ross Yoon Agency.

January 1, 2015
Carey, who directs the Education Policy Program at the New America Foundation, a Washington, D.C., think tank, discusses his belief that the computer and the cloud are the future of higher education.The author begins with a brief account of a course he took at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: "Introduction to Biology-The Secret of Life," which he initially conceals is online. He revisits this experience throughout the book, advocating for its design and opportunities for students: The course is available to anyone with an Internet connection; students can help one another; students can rewind and redo difficult portions. Later, Carey chronicles his visit to the actual class and tells us that the online lectures were much better than the live one. The author also discusses his trips to key institutions that are moving resolutely toward a major online presence (Stanford, MIT-which has partnered with Harvard University), describes interviews with significant players in the technological revolution (he spent lots of time in Silicon Valley), and lets us know that the old way-the "hybrid university," he calls it-is in its death throes. Tuition is soaring; many students aren't graduating; many aren't learning much of anything (too much partying). Carey believes that large universities, especially, are trying to do too much, with simultaneous emphases on the liberal arts, research and vocational training. Much of this, he believes, has deleterious aspects. Most professors interested principally in their own work, for example, don't teach very well, and Harvard and a host of other top traditional universities are, well, elitist. Writing about his walk through Harvard's campus: "The gates were open and anyone could walk through them, but they were barriers nonetheless, architectural messages that were not hard to understand." The author, a true believer, does not spend much time on counterarguments and outlines a future that some will find exhilarating, others depressing.

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February 15, 2015
Advances in technology, including the digitizing of books and lectures, are transforming traditional notions of college education. Education researcher Carey argues that in the future, in contrast to fierce competition to get into elite universities, nearly anyone anywhere with an Internet connection will have access to the University of Everywhere. The new concept in college will be personalized to adapt to each student's needs, experiences, strengths, and weaknesses. Carey notes that we're already seeing some of this future in team collaborations across wide geographic boundaries and in online learning courses. We can expect more of the same. Carey draws on research on education trends, including how Harvard and MIT have teamed up to offer some of their most sought-after courses free of charge online. Carey himself enrolled in an MIT biology course and chronicled the experience, providing larger context for the social, economic, and technological forces that are making such courses increasingly popular and likely to replace the traditional college experience. Carey provides historical background of how universities have evolved and powerful analysis of how college education is being revolutionized.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

February 15, 2015

Education policy specialist and writer Carey (director, education policy program, New America Fdn.) knows a great deal about higher education and is strongly critical of its excessive cost, unfocused structure, and lack of attention to effective learning. While explaining the imminent disruption of the current system, he provides a lively and concrete description of recent developments in cognitive theory and digital learning models, including massive open online courses (MOOCs). Carey conveys the excitement and potential in computer-based learning inside and outside of universities and asserts that the vast amount of venture capital generated in other technology products will be invested in new programs that challenge established universities with lower fees and better quality. This could lead, the author maintains, to a University of Everywhere, in which digital environments will serve billions of students around the world, including new learning communities in the United States. While Carey declares that radical change is neither avoidable nor distant, his advice to parents of college-age students is more conservative: work hard and choose a college with a clear focus and commitment to undergraduates. VERDICT A clear and insightful description of developments in computer-based learning and potential changes in higher education; however, the analysis of current problems and experimentation is more convincing than the vision of how U.S. colleges and universities will actually evolve.--Elizabeth Hayford, formerly with Associated Coll. of the Midwest, Evanston, IL

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2015

Carey's book gained much attention and notoriety in academia this spring as he offers glimpses into the ways in which technology could dramatically change higher education in the next two decades. (LJ 2/15/15)

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2014

With college costs exploding and the global economy sagging, higher education could use a makeover. Director of the Education Policy Program at the New America Foundation, Carey's on board, here explaining how leading universities and technology entrepreneurs have joined to replace centuries-old ways of teaching with courses available to millions worldwide for free. Essential reading for the education debate.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.