Edupunks

Next session was Anya Kamenetz, the author of the Edupunks Guide, and was about a DIY approach to education, and the challenges that presents. She postulated that the rising cost of higher education, plus the decreasing relevance of it as so many graduates are unemployed was causing a radical change in higher education.

The future is open. Open learning materials, such as the MIT initiative, Open courseware consortium, TED, the Khan academy.
But, Education not just about content. Interaction, socialisation and support are critical.
Look at the Music industry. Not much paid for content anymore. But people will pay for concerts to get the Live experience. Education will have to provide that Rock concert feeling. Needs to be exciting.

Socialisation doesn't always happen in person. Open socialisation. Can be on line peer learning. Students will do it spontaneously, sharing and collaborating on notes using Dropbox or Facebook threads of questions and discussions. Peer learning can lower costs. Biggest example. Stanford university's massively open on line course.
100,000+ students from 175 countries taking part. Uses google moderator and an AI tool.

Open accreditation is the most challenging aspect of open education and DIY education as students follow personal learning paths
Portfolio based assessment may be the way forward.

Professional networks can bypass diplomas.professionals. The Behance network is a website for creative to upload their work, which is voted on, and some employers,including Apple, hire straight from it. No college attendance, no diplomas or degrees awarded.
Won't replace, but will be complimentary to.

Badges are another way of assessing for real world learning. See the story of Eduardo here.

In the future there'll be no single vision of what a university should be. The new way will be based on diversity.