What can we do better?

[Myron Curtis]

I'm looking for ideas. How do we motivate people to attend college? What can we do to help college students succeed?
There has been a growing trend among students graduating from high school to skip going to college. So far, those making this choice have been in the minority, but unfortunately members of minority groups are the ones who most often make this choice. I fear that the current economic woes will exasperate this disturbing trend because education is becoming prohibitively expensive, and institutions are slashing their services. We need to find practical, immediate alternatives to prevent things from getting worse, and reverse this trend.
I know governments can save billions of dollars by just virtualizing 10% of their office real estate, but that seems to be a solution they don't even want to understand. Our government budgets are locked into the downward spiral of cut jobs, which reduces the number of tax payers and reduces the income of retail/service providers who depend on them as customers, thereby making the next budget cycle worse because there are fewer tax payers, and less sales taxes being generated.
To make matters worse, education gets slashed the most even though it is the one service that provides our citizens the tools they need to thrive economically. Can you say recipe for disaster?
Until our governing agencies come to their senses, we need ways to work around this shortsighted slash and burn attack on our future. We need ideas on how to motivate students to go to college, do well in their classes, and afford to get the degrees they need to thrive.
Please let me know what you think we can and should do.

[Pam Broviak]

Myron,
Part of the problem is, as you point out, the financing issue. College costs are so prohibitive. Fortunately there seems to be a movement to convert books into digital formats, and I have noticed virtual universities showing up online. All of this will help to decrease costs.

The other growing trend I have been watching has been the incorporation of "gaming" into education. Obviously those companies creating games have figured out how to capture the attention and devotion of young and old. People play for hours to "level up" and gain achievements. I can't help but wonder if incorporating this approach into education would change the way kids view education.

I know some teachers who are already doing this, but not on a large scale. For me, it is interesting to consider the possibilities of changing our movement through grades into a type of leveling experience that includes incentives and rewards - even if they are somehow all digitally conveyed. Imagine if we could create the same excitement for school that exists for games like World of Warcraft?

Some have indicated this would not be fair since not everyone can succeed at the same level, but we already deal with these issues now. And in a game environment not everyone succeeds at the same level but everyone seems to accept that because of the game design. Everyone has different "classes" or "abilities" and the game focuses on developing those for that character. Isn't that what we should be doing anyway for ourselves? Focus on our strengths and work to improve them?

Right now both of these ideas and approaches seem radical, but as you said, the current system is leading to failure. We have all seen the articles discussing the decline of newspapers; more recently I read an article in which the author pointed out that our educational/school system will be next. But like the newspapers, the people "running the show" will not concede defeat until another system shoves them out of the way and takes the floor.

[Myron Curtis]

Thank you for such an insightful comment!
I too have been exploring the gamming approach to education, and there is an incredible potential there. It reminds me a bit of the traditional Native American teaching technique called Coyote teaching where the student is lead from mystery to mystery by questions, and by being exposed to them. Both modalities take advantage of our curiosity, and our attraction to interesting challenges. The digital version might even solve the problem we often face, which is to find a way to show the student why they need or should want to learn a subject.

[bishop jack]

hello... i am newly graduate... i did my MBA IN MARKETING. where i think so we gave an attraction in our colleges but the thing is instant loans not working, so now i think so we must use some strictness strategy e.g. jobs must be for those who are graduate otherwise the little jobs must cut there salary and also reduce the fees of the college and universities...which stop many young guys to go to college. i hope this thing will help

[Myron Curtis]

Thank you. It does help.
Finding financial resources and generating economic incentives may be the most practical and productive methods of helping students get into college, and to finish their degrees. Many of the students I have talked to can't afford to go to universities so they take my computer classes in the hope it will lead them to jobs that will pay enough so that they can afford to pursue their Master’s and doctorate degrees. Sadly, I suspect that few will go back to school once they have jobs as IT Specialists. The money they make is good enough, but the hours are long and other aspects of their life, like getting and maintaining a home, or raising a family, push their dreams of finishing college aside.