The Big Picture

Maybe not that big, but still thinking Global

Health and human tragedy

Online everything for everyone

Unexpected shortages

Powered by silicon

and global telecommunication networks

Beginnings of Specialization

Craft and artisanal production

Romanticized / idealized image of abundance

Servitude, starvation, short life spans

Introduction of assembly lines

Rising pollution and poor worker conditions

“Rattle me out of bed early, set me going, give me as short a time as you like to bolt my meals in, and keep me at it. Keep me always at it, and I’ll keep you always at it, you keep somebody else always at it. There you are with the Whole Duty of Man in a commercial country.” - Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit

"Only within the moment of time represented by the present century has one species -- man -- acquired significant power to alter the nature of the world." - Rachel Carson

“The rich people not only had all the money, they had all the chance to get more; they had all the knowledge and the power, and so the poor man was down, and he had to stay down.” - Upton Sinclaire, The Jungle

"It is a scientific fact that the occasional contemplation of natural scenes of an impressive character, particularly if this contemplation occurs in connection with relief from ordinary cares, change of air and change of habits, is favorable to the health and vigor of men and especially to the health and vigor of their intellect beyond any other conditions which can be offered them, that it not only gives pleasure for the time being but increases the subsequent capacity for happiness and the means of securing happiness." -Frederick Law Olmstead

“Nothing should be made by man's labour which is not worth making, or which must be made by labour degrading to the makers.” -William Morris

“Have nothing in your house you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” - William Morris

Increasing specialization and scale

8-14 million tons of plastic enter the ocean each year

Introduction of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics

COVID-19 is increasing use and adoption of self pay systems, accelerating trends that were already underway.

Computer automation and AI are moving up the ladder into highly specialized fields like Radiology

We have moved from a world of local economies, craftspeople, and merchants

to a world of mass production, global supply chains

and continuously networked and connected people and devices.

The University of Bologna c. 1350

The University of New Mexico, 2020

Can we provide College Education for Everyone?

How do we serve the rising billions?

And all students in our state?

Kaltura (streaming Video)

UNM Fall 2020 statistics to date

• Plays: 755,359
• Played Entries: 38,090
• Unique Viewers: 20,236
• Minutes Viewed: 7,917,437
• Unique Contributors: 5,581
• Added Entries: 52,405
• Added Minutes: 1,339,440.9
• 23,000 minutes closed captioned

186 Years

Zoom meetings at UNM since August

• Licensed users: 8,882
• Active users (meeting hosts): 9,003
• New active users: 3,523
• Meetings: 214,569
• Meeting minutes: 97,693,407
• Meeting participants: 1,745,297
• Webinars: 265
• Webinar participants: 19,749

Laptops

“Is there any way you could provide those of us students with no way to accomplish our online courses with a laptop or tablet, either by donation, for loan, or at a discounted price? I am really struggling.” —NM Community College Student

• 250 laptops purchased and repurposed to create a long-term laptop checkout program.
• Many departments and branches also supported their own check out programs

Internet Hotspots

“[My] program is entirely online this semester which if fine except I live out in the country so no reliable internet service AND my daughter is online schooling also. Is there any kind of booster or extender the school offers so I can fully participate in my classes?” —NM Research University Student

• 50 checked out to Pell Eligible students
• $40,000 financial aid awarded for connectivity

Flipping the Classroom

Classrooms are collaborative Spaces

Rethinking Computing Spaces

• Focus on collaboration
• Enabled by universal device access

Retaining Students

• Analytics
• Targeted assistance
• Improved communication and issue tracking

Digital badging and stackable credentials

How has our COVID experience informed or affected experiments with scale such as Massively Open Online Courses?

Textbook Affordability

The old model

A central authority creates and distributes media for the public to consume.

In the new model

Everyone has the power to create and share their story

Democratizing production

Personal computers have replaced impossibly expensive production studios

Pocket studios

Just as media consumption and personal computing are increasingly mobile, so are the tools for creating and publishing

Creative, adj. (from Oxford English Dictionary)

1. Having the quality of creating, able to create; of or relating to creation; originative.
2. Inventive, imaginative; of, relating to, displaying, using, or involving imagination or original ideas as well as routine skill or intellect, esp. in literature or art.

Digital Literacy is a skill

• Skills can be learned.
• Skills require study and practice.
• Learning by making, doing.
• You don't have to be Scorsese or Picasso.

Creativity in all of its forms is the currency of the new economy