“For the last 70 years, American higher
education was assumed to be the pathway to upper-mobility and a rich
shared-learning experience.”
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Why hasn't the tech industry disrupted the textbook industry yet?
Here are a few
of the answers:
* A big reason for the
slowness is that textbook buying decision-making is done by government bodies
-- state education agencies and departments that make these decisions. (a case
of government slowing down innovation).
* Moving books to digital was not the value proposition - the real value proposition was having a lighter, handheld library on the go! Until that
was possible, nobody wanted to read digital books.
* In a Los Angeles pilot program: “at three campuses more
than 300 students deleted security filters, allowing them to freely browse the
Internet and prompting officials to suspend the use of IPads at these high
schools. There was a recall, and supposedly 1/3 of the IPads haven't yet
been returned; rumors are that between 5-10% have been dropped and broken, and
another 5-10% are irretrievably lost.”
Most of these challenges
would be easily overcome in a private business.
Monday, November 11, 2013
The Value of an MBA
What is the value of an MBA?
This is a similar question to the value of a bachelor’s degree (especially
in Sociology or Fine Arts). In general “value” might be considered as the ratio of
benefits to cost.
My experience working for and managing the hiring process for
big companies tells me that a year or two after graduation, managers and
employers could care less what degree one has. Instead they care about: 1) how
intelligent you are 2) how hard you work and 3) your common sense.
MBAs may get higher starting
salaries but after a couple of years, dynamic companies care about what you are bringing to the party today
rather than your “credentials”.
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