Change Management, Presented at ELI Meetings

Our existing educational system was created to serve in an era when knowledge was fairly static. Today's complex environments and rapid knowledge growth require an educational model that is adaptive to global trends and new learning contexts. Our existing structures of learning need to be redesigned to account for foundational shifts in business, government, society, and technology.

Society expects colleges and universities to prepare students for work, life, and citizenship. But what does that preparation entail in a "flat world," where work has been redefined by computers and the Web? Higher education is being asked to anticipate and adapt to changes in today's-and tomorrow's-environment. What are those expectations, and how will higher education meet them? Information technology has catalyzed many of those changes-and it may also offer some solutions.