The tendency to connect with similar or like-minded individuals online as offline, what Thelwall (2009) calls homophily, means that social media may not foster diverse spaces for knowledge exchange and negotiation, leading instead to “echo chambers,” a situation in which we share knowledge and perspectives with individuals who already share the same views as ourselves.

Or will openness go down in the history books as just another fad that couldn’t live up to its press?

However, it is almost always the case that these products are commercialized in such a way that access is restricted to those who are willing to pay for them a second time. Why should we be required to pay a second time for the thing we’ve already paid for?

Open educational resources provide an immediate, proven way to make education significantly more affordable and accessible for students.

Today, the cost of having a 250-page book transcribed by hand is about $250. The cost of printing that same book with a print-on-demand service is about $5. The cost of copying an online version of that same book (e.g., an ePub file) is about $0.0008. The cost of shipping either the handwritten or printed book is about $5. The cost of distributing an electronic copy of the book over the Internet is approximately $0.0007.

Make the major minor.

Virtually every study of workplace advancement, such as the annual surveys conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, underscores the importance of general skills in communication, collaboration and basic cultural knowledge. CEOs like to complain that the best undergrads come with specialized skills but lack these basics.

How do you train a professional-managerial class at a time of accelerating automation when seemingly any profession could be “Uberized” tomorrow?

The disciplines, where we find a wealth of specific knowledge, are the building blocks of Interdisciplinary Studies.

Charles Eliot (21st president of Harvard) gave a speech stating that there is no best method or focus for learning, therefore Harvard will have them all. 

The “digital facelift” helped higher education deny both the needs and the opportunities emerging with this new medium.

The medium is the message.

And then – contrary to what happens at most schools, where a student’s work exists only inside a learning management system and cannot be accessed once the semester is over – the domain and all its content are the student’s to take with them. It is, after all, their education, their intellectual development, their work.

Leaders need to have vision, creativity, and perseverance. To establish a successful interdisciplinary program requires education of scientific colleagues and administrators about the potential value of interdisciplinary research. To coordinate the efforts of a diverse team requires credibility as a research scientist, skill in modulating strong personalities, the ability to draw out individual strengths, and skill in the use of group dynamics to blend individual strengths into a team.

Some of the comments indicated concerns: working in interdisciplinary research was not “pure”; it was “less challenging” or “high risk”; those who do collaborative work could not succeed in their own discipline; they would be lost in a team effort and “lose their professional identity.”

interdisciplinary science is viewed as second-rate.

Through the use of interdisciplinary education, critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication skills are disbursed within and across the curriculum.

Students enrolled in interdisciplinaryprograms see instructorsas theymodel continued learning, have an opportunity to build upon their individual strengths and become personally invested in their work.

Moreover, interdisciplinary education helps to increase student achievement by promoting positive attitudes toward subject matter, creating curricular flexibility, and integratingrapidly changing information with increased efficiency

reach beyond the typical constraints of a single contentarea

interdisciplinary education is an important tool in creating new ways of thinking and helping toconnect fragmentedknowledge in a coherent way

Educators areincreasinglycoming to the realization that teaching skills and vague concepts without connectionto real-world applicationsare seen by students as irrelevant andin turn, are easily forgotten[2

Transferable skills of critical thinking, synthesis and research are developed and are applicable to future learning experiences

when students encounter something new, they have to integrate it with previous ideas and experiences by connecting the new knowledge to something already known.

enables students to build their own interdisciplinary pathway by choosing courses which make sense to them

boundaries

The major challenge is the elucidation of interconnections between disciplines, fiends, and sub-fields

According to Grunewald colleges must be redesigned as completely interdisciplinary. I couldn’t even imagine my excitement if I attended a school with zero majors. If every single person build his or her degree from the bottom up, how creative and amazing would that be?

interdisciplinary studies is proven to broaden our intellectual horizons, therefore we must fund this type of education! If one is truly to think about majoring in interdisciplinary studies, and they are hesitant all they have to do is think about the competition.

According to Grunewald science and technology and communication now drive all aspects of life in the global village, this most importantly includes higher education.

I will not settle for less! I will make the most of my opportunities!”

or may not have the confidence to direct

Traditional assignments don’t necessarily empower students when they have to post them in a public space.

“To own one’s domain gives students an understanding of how Web technologies work. It puts them in a much better position to control their work, their data, their identity online.”

By contrast, he introduced his students to open source platforms like WordPress, teaching them about Web standards like HTML and CSS.

the domain and all its content are the student’s to take with them. It is, after all, their education, their intellectual development, their work.

the complexity of the world requires us to have a better understanding of the relationships and connections between all fields that intersect and overlap

Today's students fulfill general-education requirements, take specialized courses in their majors, and fill out their schedule with some electives, but while college catalogs euphemistically describe this as a "curriculum," it is rarely more than a collection of courses, devoid of planning, context, and coherence.