What if we used the iTunes model for higher education?
The current financial aid system would have to be transformed, but I’ve been thinking about educational “currency” and the the Apple iTunes model of micropayments – that is, you buy the course/credits (song) that you want, rather than having to purchase the entire degree (album), and put together your own tailored degree (playlist). When I do a playlist, it is often a story with a theme. The piece that would be missing in higher education is the need for the learner for an infrastructure to put together their playlist – their units, their prior learning experiences – into a degree that maps in some way to their life’s work (job, career, avocation), and tells their story. Maybe that’s what we should be doing -creating the infrastructure.
There is some experimentation with educational “currency” using open source digital currency, “bitcoin”.
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Vicki Suter 