Monday, January 9, 2012

Even Secular Higher Education Learning is Changing Radically

Many people (Christian and non-Christian) are finding that traditional college isn't worth the time or money or compromise of Christian ethics.  While there are a few good Christian colleges to choose from, some young adults and their famililes are choosing to develop customized learning alternatives incorporating entrepreneurship, apprenticeships and self-study in the context of Biblical thinking (Ref. biblicalconcourse.com ) and professional certifications.

Below and linked is an article that gives you a sense of the trend away from valuing the "degree" in higher education, which is challenging colleges to rethink the reasons for their existence.  I think these ideas are good to ponder and discuss as you think about college and career planning.



Badges Earned Online Pose Challenge to Traditional College Diplomas   The Chronicle of Higher Education   January 8, 2012  by Jeffrey R. Young

The spread of a seemingly playful alternative to traditional diplomas, inspired by Boy Scout achievement patches and video-game power-ups, suggests that the standard certification system no longer works in today's fast-changing job market.

Educational upstarts across the Web are adopting systems of "badges" to certify skills and abilities. If scouting focuses on outdoorsy skills like tying knots, these badges denote areas employers might look for, like mentorship or digital video editing. Many of the new digital badges are easy to attain.intentionally so.to keep students motivated, while others signal mastery of fine-grained skills that are not formally recognized in a traditional classroom.

The rest of the article is worth reading here: 
http://chronicle.com/article/Badges-Earned-Online-Pose/130241/
Posted by at 6:20 PM

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Tucker's avatar

Tucker · 690 weeks ago

This sounds like a great new way to do college. Now it's great to be well rounded.
1 reply · active 690 weeks ago
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Caleb Demeter's avatar

Caleb Demeter · 690 weeks ago

It's a good thing to be rounded, but what happens if you're too well rounded? Then you're not good at anything in particular, and you can't get a good job in any advanced field? This sounds good for some people, but really bad for others.
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Caleb Demeter's avatar

Caleb Demeter · 690 weeks ago

I'm skeptical. The part about job resumes sounds good, but it seems like it would be too easy to either pursue one badge too much, be too "well rounded", or to fake the badges. Also, you can get college credits that you can put on your resume that are not included in your diploma. I may be wrong, but without major modifications it doesn't seem useful to me.
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Bailey Hamd's avatar

Bailey Hamd · 689 weeks ago

I think doing collage this way would not always be totally honest. People could easily fake everything online. Also there would would only be one way of learning the material, while there are plenty of different types of learning styles. To me this is the easy way out. It depends on how motivated I would feel at one moment to chose this way or not.

On the other hand, this could be a perfect solution for those hard working stay at hme moms who want more out of their lives. This would be simple and a do-able task.
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Dr Bartlett's avatar

Dr Bartlett · 689 weeks ago

Many employers look at diplomas today as not an honest view of a persons skills and abilities. Grades are totally dependent on the teachers and not truely reflective of the knowledge gained. Many employers are looking for evidences of genunine interest in a field and genuine competence which is often best shown with a portfolio that proves what what can do and what one knows. The diploma can show that a person was able to stick with a topic for four years, where as a portfolio and work or other experiences can really impress an employer.
2 replies · active 689 weeks ago
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Dr Bartlett's avatar

Dr Bartlett · 689 weeks ago

More...

From a Christian education viewpoint, it was helpful to me to learn about how accreditation was designed to remove Christianity from the culture by controlling education based on the assumption that people are chemical machines (ref. Foundations: Their Power and Influence - Renee Wormser). Therefore college programs designed for the "average" student, never really best fit anyone's gifts, callings or choice of occupation.

Diploma fraud is rampant, if badges become vogue, then sinful man will likely involve fraud there too. However, if you think about proving your are qualified, as in a face to face court of law, using portfolio and such, there is less opportunity for fraud and more flexibility to develop and execute unique curricula for each student to bring glory to God. Employers are very open to porfolio based proof of qualifications.
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Caleb Demeter's avatar

Caleb Demeter · 689 weeks ago

Am I thinking of the wrong thing? The diploma is what hangs on the wall right? Wouldn't a prospective employer look at your credentials or records if he felt your diploma didn't have enough info? I don't see ow sketchy diplomas are an issue.
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Lisa 's avatar

Lisa · 689 weeks ago

this does sound like a great idea for college, but there are plenty of people out there who arent honest in what they do especially with a lot of online schooling you can always go to the internet and look up answers. People are able to fake many things these days, they may not have a degree or diploma or anything at all but just like stealing someones identity you can "steal" a diploma or degree and fake i that you actually have one.
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Alli Martin's avatar

Alli Martin · 689 weeks ago

I think you can totally fake it with all the abilities with what we have on the internet! But i think it better to actually do the work because you have the education and it can help in the long run. You don't want to be caught by someone that finds out you got it on the internet and possibly be fired from a job or you could have a worse consequence.
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Heather Bailey's avatar

Heather Bailey · 688 weeks ago

Faking a college education sure wouldnt be something I would want to have on my record. Im sure that doesn't come across mature or responsible to any boss you are working for on an employer looking to hire you. Im not really in favor of the badge idea it just doesnt appear very formal im thinking of the badges one might have received in girl scouts or the ones i got from home depot. It also seems like it would be easy to just get by enought to get 1 badge and be done. However i think that apprenticeships would be a great thing to be done for a little of college.

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