Indeed. One of the issues some colleges might come across though, if they adopt these technologies further and further, is trying to distinguish and desperate themselves from those crummy for profit diploma mills. A real and current obstacle though, in implementing these technologies in curriculum today, is that rural internet infrastructure is seriously lacking in a lot of communities. Its often any combination of slow, unreliable, and expensive. It might honestly be easier for students in rural communities to leave home for college than to telecommute, but leaving home for school comes with its own challenges.
Sorry, I haven’t logged on for a while. Unless I am severely misinterpreting something, this article is focusing on the recruiting process- not college attendance or distance learning. The article does mention that existing rural recruiters sometimes encounter unwillingness to move away for those they are attempting to recruit, but again I think the real focus of the article is the difficulty and lack of effort to go out and recruit rural students in the first place. I think the hub to make this happen has got to be the high schools. They did this at my school. Even in BFE type places, students are usually bussed to a central location daily. They could easily be paraded into a library to hear a recruiter for some state college talk about why their school is rad and all. Maybe their recruiter is speaking via skype or hologram, but it’s all the same. And yeah, rural internet has its challenges, but satellite internet solves a lot of them. It has issues in heavy rain, but otherwise it can connect you from nearly anywhere so long as you have electricity.
I have some opinions, but I'd strongly caution anyone against using them as a guide. After all, we all gotta figure things that work for us as individuals. I think it's genuinely important for people to get the education they feel they want and need, as not only does a good education empower us to be productive members of society, but it helps us grow in a way that's hard to do otherwise. I'm very worried though, that like rising rent and healthcare costs, rising costs in education is just another way to make money off of people in a very predatory way, and just like with rising rent and healthcare costs, I hope we find a way to turn that ship around. That said, it's been very interesting to see what some schools have been offering lately that I didn't see being offered when I was going to school. Some things I can think of off the top of my head are Sustainable and/or Organic Agriculture programs, programs focused on Ecological Recovery, tons of places are offering certification for police, healthcare, and social workers for Addiction Treatment right now (on the one hand it's a shame it's so needed, on the other hand I'm glad the issues is being addressed), and of course, computers and technology seems to be ever evolving too. It all kind of makes me curious to see what new things colleges will offer ten and twenty years from now, that is, if college is a sound choice for people to make.
You make good points, and make me realize I have opinions on the matter too. Full disclosure, dropped out of college in my junior year of undergrad. I feel that the current philosophy is “send them all to college and let god sort ‘em out.” I agree that college can enhance personal growth. Being a common path to professionalism, I think it’s also sort of our great integrator in this country. So that’s a really valuable side of college. We learn how to interact with our coworkers and employers, who went through the same system as we did. But it doesn’t necessarily make us produce quality work. There is so much getting by, cheating the system, etc in college. I won’t get into the technical side of higher education, where you learn how to do FEAs or how to submit a proper scientific paper. Another story. On the personal development side though, I think there are other (sometimes better) paths than college. A well-structured work environment, military service, or my personal favorite- good ol’ life experience. From a workforce standpoint, I’ve now worked as a small time employer for about 2 years. In that shortish time, I’ve paid a lot of attention to character differences in people and wondered about the causes of such distinctions. I feel that, even after 4 years in college, many people are vastly unprepared to really excel in their professional lives. Too many excuses, poor schedule management, etc. But then there are young adults in there first or second year of college who really have their shit together. I guess long story short, I see college as something that can improve some, hurt some, or just be a silly badge. But never a silver bullet for success. It will indeed be interesting to watch college education evolve, and also to see how society decides to approach college down the road. The blue collar sector is aging out big time, so lots of demand emerging there. And I can’t help but fantasize of an America where it’s ok just to work as a store clerk or a bike mechanic. Perhaps we will find better balance, and stop shoving the wrong people into the debt-inducing rat race that college can sometimes be.
Distance learning and online degree programs are one way to address this. We live in a very rural area and it would have been next to impossible for my wife to travel with a new baby on the way. My wife used an LPN to RN bridge program through Excelsior College which was a lifesaver.