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'''ROUND-TABLE DEBATE:'''<br> '''"Where does the traditional academy fit in to the evolution of learning, freedom and the web?"''' 

*Suggested by [http://jaded.web.unc.edu/ Jade Davis, Communication Studies, UNC Chapel Hill]

*Please post your pithy theses, rants, comments &amp; questions here: 
**'''Jade's explanation''': Almost everywhere we look there are conversations happening about the shifting paradigms of education, specifically around collaboration and deinstitutionalization. As someone who is enrolled in a program at the oldest public institution of higher education in the US, and is coming to Drumbeat as part of HASTAC (a group associated with a private institution of Higher Ed), I am curious to know how the involvement of traditional institutions in conjunction with the emerging Peer-to-Peer and digitally mediated forms of education is being seen? Are traditional institutions even seen as being in conjunction? Are we friend, foe or collaborators? and How does the traditional academy fit in to the narrative of Learning, Freedom and the Web?<br>

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*'''Paul Osman''': While it's true that the traditional academy continues to fall short in providing some of the skills necessary for todays web developers, '''much of the open infrastructure of the web that we love was developed and built from within the academy'''.



*'''Ismael Peña-López''', from [http://www.drumbeat.org/content/deinstitutionalizing-education Deinstitutionalizing Education] the Drumbeat Festival blog: <br>
<blockquote>"While the industrialization of education has had positive effects, it is also true that its origins belong to a specific place and a specific time: the industrial society.... Is the concentration of the educational system in schools and universities still the most efficient option in a digital society?'''It is likely that educational institutions must change not only their model, but their very role in society'''. When the role to concentrate and distribute knowledge is no longer relevant as a matter of costs, both model and role should probably change. And probably by taking a more qualitative turn. Nowadays, it is not only feasible but easy to learn from home, from one's workplace, anywhere. Informal learning can be as intense and effective as formal learning: student-centred learning, peer learning, learning by doing, collaborative learning environments, personal learning environments, communities of practice... </blockquote> 
*'''Anya Kamenetz''', quoted from [http://diyubook.com/ DIYU]:
<blockquote>
The promise of free or marginal-cost open-source content, techno-hybridization, unbundling of educational functions, and learner-centered educational experiences and paths is too powerful to ignore. These changes are inevitable. They are happening now. '''Innovative private colleges like Southern New Hampshire and for-profits like Grand Canyon, upstarts like BYU-Idaho and Western Governor's University, and community colleges like Foothill-De Anaz represent the future'''.
</blockquote>
...
<blockquote>
'''The one thing that can change dramatically and relatively swiftly is the public perception of where the true value and quality of higher education lies'''. It's no longer about the automatic four-year degree for all. '''Institutions can't rely any more on history, reputation, exclusibity, and cost'''; we now have the abilty to peer onside the classroom as professors are lecturing and see students' assignments published to the world. So we have both the ability and the obligation to look at demonstrated results.<br>
</blockquote>