Higher education is on the cusp of a revolution, said John Warnock, founder of Adobe Systems, at the Siciliano Forum on the “Future of Higher Education” on Tuesday. Thanks to the internet, the traditional lecture hall could soon be redefined as an enhanced chatroom, he said.
Warnock graduated from the U with a Ph.D. in electrical engineering. Aside from founding Adobe, Warnock was a driving force in the creation of the modern printer as an employee of Xerox.
The next decade of higher education is fraught with challenges because of its antiquated nature, Warnock said.
“We still teach in the same way we did in the 13th century,” he said. “A person gets up and talks in front of a class.”
Warnock wants to further the use of more cost-effective teaching methods. He believes methods like the internet are incredibly effective because they allow remote access to classes and create more competition within the field of teaching, as professors can lead classes with 10,000 students online.
Alex Knighton, a junior in finance, agreed with Warnock and sees the internet as the new frontier in higher education.
“I am absolutely for it,” Knighton said. “Why would you have barriers to the individual? My only question is how accreditation would be earned by professors, and the end result of taking college courses from several different universities in order to make up a diploma.”
Warnock said new teaching methods cannot neglect the humanities.
“Our society will fall apart without the humanities, but the current method of teaching these courses has to change,” he said.
He said starting in elementary school, students learn that technology simplifies complex issues. They don’t learn, however, that technology must be improved to increase living standards. Learning how technology works is more beneficial than solely understanding the operation of a device, he said.
Warnock explained a new IBM development that would not only prevent the world from experiencing an overload of data, but also safely encode data for millennia.
“IBM took around a million books and encoded them in DNA strands,” he said. “This lasts about 10,000 years and completely changes the concept of data storage.”
Marriott Library employee Alfred Mowdood does not see a downside to online classrooms.
“The only difficulty is having to actually re-imagine the problems of higher education in a different context,” he said.