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Out of the debate on the nature of the 21st century economy, one theme seems to have acquired a consensus: The new economy will be driven by knowledge, and success will come to those individuals, organizations and political entities capable of acquiring knowledge and applying it to the achievement of their goals or missions. The ability to learn is becoming the central skill in the new economy.
Given this is the case, we should be looking forward to a golden age for universities. More than any other institution in our society, learning is our business. Our faculty not only generate new knowledge through their research, they also model learning behavior, and through their teaching our students develop the learning skills so much in demand by employers. I would argue, however, that we are undergoing a basic change in the way we go about the business of learning.
In many ways, learning has been the unique preserve of educational institutions. We have been expected to dispense learning to most of the population through age 18 and to a minority through age 21 -- thereafter, for all but a very few, learning was to be replaced by doing. The demands of the new economy have deprived us of our near monopoly on the theory and practice of learning. If "learning organizations," in Peter Senge's phrase, are to dominate the future economy and "knowledge workers" are to become the most highly paid and sought after employees, as is argued by Jeremy Rifkin, we must open our doors to those workers and partner with those organizations.
I believe this is happening fairly quickly. A look at the articles in the IU East Links section in today's Home Pages provides several examples. One result of the new service learning programs at IU East is to allow students and faculty to engage "real world" organizations and problems in the classroom.
We also have begun a new teacher-in-residence program which brings the real world of education into our classrooms while enabling public school teachers the opportunity to translate their experience into knowledge accessible to others. Our adjunct faculty conferences are designed to maximize adjunct faculty teaching skills and in so doing, make their experience available as learning opportunities for our students.
This is not an exhaustive list. IU East now has an opportunity to make direct links to the world of business and industry through its Office of Workforce and Continuing Education. To me these are signs of the continuing adaptation of Indiana University to our society's growing and changing demand for learning.