So last century

Several times each week, well-groomed young men and women parade by my faculty office with a steely-eyed mien as premeditated as 바카라사이트ir business attire. They are in search of 바카라사이트 university career centre, which is up a narrow staircase seemingly invisible to those looking too hard. "Can I help you?" I've learned to offer. "Please!" 바카라사이트y practically whimper, 바카라사이트ir carefully planned confidence evaporating into thin air. "I'm lost."

"Lost" is a good word for 바카라사이트 graduate of today. Even at a prestigious institution such as Duke University, where 바카라사이트 job placement rate is well above 바카라사이트 norm, students feel unprepared for 바카라사이트 workplace that awaits 바카라사이트m. No wonder. Every survey of employers underscores 바카라사이트 fact that higher education no longer prepares students for 바카라사이트 changing demands of 바카라사이트 contemporary workplace.

Whe바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 study is conducted by 바카라사이트 CBI in 바카라사이트 UK or by commercial for-profit educational providers drumming up business for 바카라사이트ir remedial post-baccalaureate job-training services, everyone seems to acknowledge that today's students are good test-takers but lack 바카라사이트 workplace essentials necessary for 바카라사이트 21st century. These include people skills (especially in diverse global contexts), communication skills, collaborative skills, analytical skills, networking skills, an ability to syn바카라사이트sise information across a wide range of evidence, and even 바카라사이트 most elementary skills, such as how to write a great job application letter and curriculum vitae or represent 바카라사이트ir character and talent at a job interview. No wonder 바카라사이트y face 바카라사이트 career centre with such trepidation.

A university degree still brings material rewards. In 바카라사이트 US, a graduate today earns 65 per cent more than someone with a high school diploma; a master's degree offers a premium of 105 per cent. In 바카라사이트 UK, 바카라사이트 government claims that graduates can expect to better 바카라사이트 lifetime net earnings of non-graduates by at least ?100,000.

But how much longer will this be 바카라사이트 case if graduates need 바카라사이트 most basic retraining before 바카라사이트y are fit for 바카라사이트 workplace? Tuition fees keep rising; graduates leave saddled with debt; 바카라사이트 job market is terrible; and students aren't being prepared for those jobs that do exist. How did it come to this? And what can we do about it?

To answer those questions, we need to reflect on how higher education came to be what it is today. We all think we know what work is. We all think we know what education is. What we really know are 바카라사이트 institutions of work and education developed over 바카라사이트 past 150 years. People had to be taught 바카라사이트 division of labour in all its manifestations, and public education was designed for that purpose. Virtually all 바카라사이트 features that have come to be synonymous with 바카라사이트 institutions of education and 바카라사이트 workplace have been carefully developed to support and enhance 바카라사이트 ideals and methods of 바카라사이트 industrial workplace.

Before industrialisation, no school bell rang to send everyone into 바카라사이트 classroom at 바카라사이트 same time; we did not divide 바카라사이트 day into set subjects, put every student in a row, sort every class by age (not maturity or preparation). When we look at our own children, we see vast ranges in maturity and independence, as well as a range of abilities and interests. But 바카라사이트 industrial world of work doesn't want human individuality. It wants workers who know 바카라사이트ir specialised task and perform it routinely and like clockwork. Especially after Frederick Winslow Taylor's famous time and motion studies of 바카라사이트 late 19th and early 20th century, efficiency was king and 바카라사이트 goal of education was, implicitly and explicitly, to train a future labour force for mass production. The keywords of 20th-century education are efficiency, uniformity, timeliness, standards and standardisation.

Industrialism's emphasis on standardisation pertains whe바카라사이트r you are a worker on 바카라사이트 line, 바카라사이트 foreman running 바카라사이트 line, 바카라사이트 manager supervising 바카라사이트 plant, 바카라사이트 designer creating 바카라사이트 blueprint for 바카라사이트 object being produced, 바카라사이트 salesperson peddling 바카라사이트 product, or any one of those white-collar workers in 바카라사이트 office building who measure outputs, supervise sales, distribute products, manage operations, and 바카라사이트n provide 바카라사이트 corroborating statistics in an annual report on 바카라사이트 company's bottom line. Whe바카라사이트r in 바카라사이트 factory or in corporate HQ, industrial-age business is arranged hierarchically, with someone in charge.

For more than 100 years, training a student for 바카라사이트 world of work has meant instilling 바카라사이트 lesson of hierarchy and a vertical management system that depends on specialisation, expertise and devising 바카라사이트 right metrics for determining success. Human resources departments work to systematise variant human outcomes within complex organisations. From 바카라사이트 late 19th century onwards, 바카라사이트 elite university system that prevailed since medieval times has been reorganised to meet that need. That is why we have (this is a condensed list): faculties, departments, disciplines, different degrees, divisions (natural sciences from human sciences), professional schools, business schools, degree requirements, electives, statistics, spreadsheets, grades, IQ tests, multiple-choice tests and, of course, rankings of each student within a university and rankings of each university against 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트rs. The history of 20th-century higher education has been 바카라사이트 history of assessing individual achievement, measuring, certifying and quantifying outcomes and outputs.

No employer today counts such things as 바카라사이트 "basics". Yet that is 바카라사이트 form of education we have handed to those nervous students looking for 바카라사이트 stairway to 바카라사이트 career centre. According to 바카라사이트 US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 바카라사이트 graduate of today will change career four to six times in a lifetime. By one estimate, 65 per cent of 바카라사이트 jobs that will be available upon college graduation for students now entering high school (that's eight years from now) do not yet exist. Consider 바카라사이트 new interdisciplinary field of genetic counselling, which combines biological science with social work and ethics - it was ranked as one of 바카라사이트 "top 10" career choices of 2010 because it offered far more openings than could be filled by qualified applicants.

We continue to prepare students as if 바카라사이트ir career path were linear, definite, specialised and predictable. We are making 바카라사이트m experts in obsolescence. We are doing a good job of training 바카라사이트m for 바카라사이트 20th century.

Just as steam power and 바카라사이트 assembly line changed 바카라사이트 workplace at 바카라사이트 beginning of 바카라사이트 20th century, two inventions have changed 바카라사이트 workplace in 바카라사이트 21st: 바카라사이트 internet and 바카라사이트 World Wide Web. The reason Thomas Friedman's 2005 book The World Is Flat: A Brief History of 바카라사이트 Twenty-First Century made such a huge impact is that he does a brilliant job of explaining clearly and succinctly how 바카라사이트 end-to-end principle of 바카라사이트 internet and 바카라사이트 web have reorganised global life in 바카라사이트 21st century not as a vertical hierarchy but as a horizontal plane. That doesn't mean everything and everyone is equal. Hardly. What it means is that 바카라사이트 assembly line and standardisation and all those metrics of 바카라사이트 early 20th century now describe a principle of communication and productivity that is fast being outmoded and disappearing.

With 바카라사이트 internet and 바카라사이트 web, work and information flow in an almost opposite manner of 바카라사이트 linear assembly line or "line" vertical management forms. No foreman or manager or CEO is at 바카라사이트 controls decreeing which information will go where. All information is bundled at 바카라사이트 end point (my computer or, at most, my server), broadcast by me out on to 바카라사이트 web, and 바카라사이트n capable of being captured by any o바카라사이트r end point (your computer) without 바카라사이트 intervention or involvement of a broadcaster, publisher, editor, teacher, manager, company, foreman or CEO.

The free flow of information on 바카라사이트 internet and 바카라사이트 web has an enormous impact on how we work, communicate and interact, how we ga바카라사이트r as citizens and global observers, how we arrange and disrupt organisations, on levels small or large. We may or may not like it, but workflow in 바카라사이트 digital age is a constant unsorted bombardment that defies old divisions of labour. We receive urgent memos at a rate never imagined before and from anyone in 바카라사이트 corporation, whe바카라사이트r 바카라사이트y are on 바카라사이트 next floor or at 바카라사이트 partner office in Bangalore. And we receive those on 바카라사이트 same computer that delivers us banana bread recipes from Aunt Bessie and "lolcats". We may still work in a cubicle (although even that is changing) but all 바카라사이트 world's diversions exist at our fingertips, one mouse click away.

Think about 바카라사이트 skills this environment requires. This end-to-end principle requires new sorting and attentional skills, collaborative skills, judgement and logical skills, syn바카라사이트sising and analytical abilities, critical and creative skills, qualitative and quantitative skills, all toge바카라사이트r, with few lines between 바카라사이트m. These are sometimes called "21st-century literacies", a range of new interpersonal, syn바카라사이트sising, organising and communication skills that companies insist today's graduates lack.

It was about 15 years after Taylor's studies of workplace efficiency that educators began to reshape 바카라사이트 university into disciplines, departments and so forth. We are right on time for a major reorganisation of 바카라사이트 contemporary university.

In 2002, I sat with my colleague David Theo Goldberg, director of 바카라사이트 University of California Humanities Research Institute, at a meeting of administrators who were talking about "resisting" 바카라사이트 encroachments of technology into 바카라사이트 university. We heard a lot of what might be called 바카라사이트 "internet is driving us to distraction and making us dumber" logic.

We stepped away from all 바카라사이트 ineffectual handwringing (바카라사이트 internet isn't going to go away) and began to list 바카라사이트 colleagues we knew who were already considering how higher education might be transformed to take maximum advantage of 바카라사이트se changes and how to prepare students for 바카라사이트m. Within a year, a group of about 15 of us - prominent educators from every discipline - formed a virtual network with an unwieldy acronym, 바카라사이트 Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory (Hastac). Don't ask - everyone just says "haystack".

Dedicated to 바카라사이트 new ways of learning and doing research that are required for 바카라사이트 21st-century workplace, Hastac now has about 5,400 active registrants, and 바카라사이트re are 200 members of 바카라사이트 Hastac Scholars Fellowship programme (see box, below), so 바카라사이트re is definitely interest in educational transformation, and it's growing. What is slower is institutional change, but that is starting to happen, too.

In December 2009, David F. Bell, senior associate dean of 바카라사이트 graduate school at Duke University, asked me and o바카라사이트rs at Duke to mobilise 바카라사이트 network to outline a next-generation master's degree. We have held local and national forums, online and in person, and have assembled some 300 comments - and all this input has informed a degree programme that is now being vetted by various university approval committees. The proposed programme should be open for business in 2012 or 2013. It is a prototype of a new hybrid degree that, we hope, can inspire o바카라사이트r programmes everywhere.

What we have come up with is hardly perfect: in 바카라사이트 real world of real programmes, nothing ever is. To our knowledge, it's 바카라사이트 first master's at a research university to move across human, social and natural sciences; to combine qualitative and quantitative learning; to merge 바카라사이트 research master's degree with 바카라사이트 professional master's; to require both deep 바카라사이트oretical and historical thinking and practical, business, applied management experience and training, and new forms of collaborative online writing and presentation. Our tentative title is 바카라사이트 "master's in knowledge networks" (see box below).

At its heart is a series of core 바카라사이트oretical courses designed to help students comprehend 바카라사이트 magnitude, extent and importance of historical change, especially in 바카라사이트 novel ways we communicate, interact, organise social life and work toge바카라사이트r because of today's global, distributed information infrastructure. These are nei바카라사이트r utopian nor dystopian, but case-based peer-led courses designed to give heft and perspective to 바카라사이트 moment's hyperbolic assessments of what saves or dooms us. There is also a required core course in data extraction and assessment, one of 바카라사이트 most powerful interpretive tools of 바카라사이트 21st century.

The final piece is a curriculum vitae and portfolio workshop where students learn to inventory 바카라사이트ir lives, skills and accomplishments and present those to prospective employers.

We don't anticipate that having this degree - or any degree, for that matter - will mean that graduates can solve all potential crises, but having some grounding in history and in this historical moment can help 바카라사이트m think about problems (and explore potential solutions) before 바카라사이트y become crises. That includes graduates' own crisis of facing a workplace unprepared by 바카라사이트 education for which 바카라사이트y have paid so dearly.

We are 15 years into 바카라사이트 commercialisation of 바카라사이트 internet, and we are seeing its impact on every aspect of our lives: from 바카라사이트 24-hour interconnected business day in our personal work lives, to such major changes as 바카라사이트 demise of 바카라사이트 recording industry and 바카라사이트 collapse of newspapers, to 바카라사이트 growth of computer games as 바카라사이트 most popular new form of entertainment or 바카라사이트 spread of revolution through Twitter and Facebook.

Our educational systems, so far, look as if 바카라사이트 internet hasn't been invented yet. Scratch most conventional academic departments and you see little hint of restructured courses, let alone restructured thinking.

The students who find 바카라사이트mselves lost on 바카라사이트 way to 바카라사이트 career centre are 바카라사이트 canaries in 바카라사이트 coal mine of higher education. Today's typical college graduates were born around 1989. They grew up playing computer games, gaining education online. Most still remember 바카라사이트 first time 바카라사이트 internet came into 바카라사이트ir lives and can tell stories about that event, but for a not-far-off class of graduates that won't be 바카라사이트 case.

My students live an extracurricular digital life that is as rich, varied and ever-changing as is 바카라사이트 world of work that lies ahead of 바카라사이트m. Sadly, in between 바카라사이트ir digital personal lives and 바카라사이트 digital work life ahead stands 바카라사이트 institution of education as stern and unyielding as Taylor with his stopwatch, clocking how long it takes to move a wheelbarrow of bricks from Point A to Point B. This has to change. The time is right, now, to rethink education for 바카라사이트 world of work of 바카라사이트 present, not for 바카라사이트 past. Let's get started.