Synopses & Reviews
Praise for Harnessing America's Wasted Talent
"President Obama offered America and the world renewed hope for a better tomorrow. With decades of experience in alternative forms of higher education, Peter Smith grabs that optimistic spirit and seizes the moment to reveal to us the exciting age of Web-based teaching and learning, which is opening access to untold numbers of learners while harnessing the previously wasted talents of millions of people in America and billions around the world. Those seeking insights, a vision of the future, and a chance to join this educational revolution should look forward to Harnessing America's Wasted Talent."
Curtis J. Bonk, professor, Indiana University, and author, The World Is Open: How Web Technology Is Revolutionizing Education
"Anyone who wants to understand where American higher education is headed should read Harnessing America's Wasted Talent. Peter Smith's vision of the future of higher education is based on several decades of experienceat the national, state, and international levels. He brings a rare perspective that will interest students, educators, politicians, and those American business leaders who are worried about the future of our workforce and the health of our democracy."
Charles Kolb, president, The Committee for Economic Development
"Harnessing America's Wasted Talent is a must-read for those of us concerned about the increasing economic and education gaps in our country. Peter Smith takes on an important American disconnect: the need for an educated workforce and the fact that most working Americans lack a college degree. Drawing upon his experience in higher education and politics, Smith dissects the problem and presents a contemporary, practical plan to enhance the learning capacity of our country."
Joseph B. Moore, president, Lesley University
Synopsis
Increasing success rates in higher education requires a new approach towards effective teaching and learning. Harnessing America's Wasted Talent provides tools to make this happen by highlighting the flaws in higher education, like using only the orthodox college model, preventing opportunity and wasting talent for many students. This reference explores Second Life, iTunes University, and Web 2.0 to capitalize on the capacity of every learner. This resource is essential reading for every college leader and policy-makers to meet all of students’ educational needs.
Synopsis
Statistics reveal that within ten years, less than 20 percent of all ninth graders in the United States will have earned an associate's degree. To remain competitive in the global marketplace, we must dramatically increase our success rates in higher education and bring millions of people from the margins of America's economy into the mainstream.
In this timely book, Peter Smith challenges us to adopt a radically new understanding of effective teaching and learning for today's students. Throughout Harnessing America's Wasted Talent, Smith defines and describes innovative thinking about the current causes for our schools' failings and discusses how these failures have profound and far-reaching social, civic, and economic consequences.
Harnessing America's Wasted Talent suggests three critical ways that traditional colleges block access to opportunity for students and ultimately waste their talent. First, our colleges employ a teaching-learning model which favors one dominant learning style, one resource allocation template, and one attendance pattern over other effective models. Second, institutions are reluctant to validate and recognize learning that occurs outside of college. Finally, Smith posits that transfer policies that consistently discount earned credit from other qualified sources add time, costs, and frustration to degree attainment.
In the final chapters of this much-needed resource, Smith introduces a new paradigm that uses technology and online tools to capitalize on the capacity of every learner and personalize education to meet their needs.
About the Author
Peter Smith is senior vice president of academic strategies and development for Kaplan Higher Eduction and is the former assistant director for education of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. Smith also served as the founding president of California State University at Monterey Bay and the Community College of Vermont. He served as Vermont's lieutenant governor from 1982–1986 and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1989. Dr. Smith is the author of the critically acclaimed The Quiet Crisis: How Higher Education Is Failing America.
Table of Contents
Preface.
Acknowledgments.
About the Author.
Part One: The Law of Thirds.
1 Wasted Talent.
2 Maxed Out: Why Colleges Can't Meet This Challenge.
3 The Paradox of Personal Learning.
Part Two: Dangerous Conceits.
4 Different Strokes for Different Folks.
5 Learning Is More Than “Strictly Academic”.
6 You Can't Get There from Here.
Part Three: From Access to Success: A New Ecology of Learning.
7 The End of Scarcity: Education's Emerging Long Tail.
8 Game Changers: New Media and the Open Education Resource Movement.
9 Reaching the Middle Third: Talent-Friendly Colleges for the Twenty-First Century (C21Cs).
Conclusion: A New Ecology of Learning.
Resources.
References.
Index.