Biggest mistake education is making: “not linking the use of new technology to saving costs.”

Anya Kamenetz, author of the forthcoming book DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education, in an online interview answers the following question about higher ed (here):

Q. What is the biggest thing that college leaders are doing wrong?

A. The biggest mistake is not linking the use of new technology to saving costs. There's a huge cultural resistance in higher education to talking about costs and even to counting costs. I spoke to the dean of a teaching program, and she had just instituted this really cutting-edge Facebook-like platform for an online master's degree in teaching, and I asked her how the cost plays out. And she said, "We haven't done any cost comparison, and we wouldn't, and I don't think I would use the word 'efficiency,' because if you want a degree from our university, you have to pay our tuition." I think that's really shortsighted. I think in higher education there's a moral imperative to cut costs because there is such a crying need for access.

I think she’s on to something with the sentence “There's a huge cultural resistance in higher education to talking about costs and even to counting costs.” I think it applies to K-12 education in Oregon as well. And one of the biggest mistakes K-12 education in Oregon is making is the same – “not linking the use of new technology to saving costs.”