The University & the future of knowledge: A talk by Dr. Parry

In this rapidly changing knowledge, what is the role of the university? And perhaps more importantly, what is the future of knowledge production, dissemination, and archivization?

The printing press revolutionized the ways knowledge was being transferred and consequently transformed the social space. As we are in the midst of another transformation from analog to digital, we are shifting away from libro-centric based knowledge to networked-based knowledge where production, storing, and transmission of information is radically changing at a rapid pace. As a result universities or the institutions that traffic knowledge must also radically change their business models in order to survive the age of digital and to create empowered citizens for the networked landscape.

 In the past decade, we have witnessed newspapers' struggle to preserve their social function and their relevancy while they insisted on protecting their business model. Educational institutions would follow in the same wrong footsteps if they continue to use internet as a delivery system for their "knowledge" product instead of treating knowledge as a process  to produce and share information. Although no one knows exactly how the future of the education would be like, it is clear that the analog-based structure of educational institutions has to be revised and reshaped...

These are among the many issues that Dr. Dave Parry addresses in his talk "The University and the future of knowledge" which was held at University of Texas at Dallas on Sep 9th.  Dr. Parry specializes in emerging media, digital culture and literary theory in the School of Arts and Humanities.

You can watch the entire talk here: http://utdemac.blip.tv/