The Future of Higher Education

In the Education Life section of today's New York Times, Lawrence Summers, the former president of Harvard speculates on the future of higher education in an article titled "What you (really) need to know". In particular, he writes about active learning, collaborative learning and how new technologies will change the way we learn. Of course, much of what Summers talks about in the NY times article is not new. In fact, social constructivist approaches to teaching and learning have long been used in the physical sciences. But the fact that we see leaders in academia, like Summers, talk more and more about the need for change makes me hopeful of the future of undergraduate education in the US.