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PALM BEACH GARDENS, FL–(Marketwired – May 10, 2016) – Campus Technology Conference, an higher education technology event produced by LRP Conferences, LLC, an affiliate of LRP Publications, today announced Richard DeMillo, Ph.D., computer scientist, author, and executive director of the Center for 21st Century Universities at the Georgia Institute of Technology, will be the Opening Keynote presenter for the 23rd annual higher education technology event. Setting the tone for the four-day event being held Aug. 1 – 4, 2016 at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, DeMillo’s presentation, A Revolution in Higher Education: Tales From Unlikely Allies, will explore the complex issues confronting contemporary institutions and how unexpected partners are working together to transform higher education.

Source: Campus Technology Reveals Dr. Richard DeMillo to Keynote 2016 Conference

Rich DeMillo and Jeff Selingo chat on-stage at Microsoft Research about the Revolution in Higher Education

May 12, 2016

Culture, Institutions, Technology, Uncategorized

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MSR Selingo Demillo

Affordable access to quality higher education has been a cornerstone of American life since the nation’s founding. American higher education is admired around the world as a model of excellence and innovation, but there is a consensus today that higher education in the U.S. is not on a sustainable path. My books Abelard to Apple and Revolution in Higher Education (both from MIT Press) chronicled the events that led to the current state of affairs and describe an optimistic but much changed ecosystem for higher education.

There are no simple solutions to the problems plaguing colleges and universities. A small band of innovators has taken up the challenge, launched a revolution and has started to remake higher education. The result will be a new, more sustainable ecosystem. Technology holds the key to innovation in higher education. I want to describe the world that the innovators are building, using as examples the innovations like the ecosystem pioneered at Georgia Tech, powered by online education, unexpected partnerships, business reinvention and a willingness to disrupt the status quo. What will the University of the 21st Century Look like? It will be very different from the ones we attended.

Join Jeff Selingo, best-selling author of College (un)Bound and There Is Life After College for our on-stage discussion in Redmond at Microsoft Research of what the revolution is all about.

Video courtesy of Microsoft press here.

Why I’ve Stopped Doing Interviews for Yale

November 11, 2015

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A deeply affecting article about the irrationality of admissions to top-tier universities. Students and parents alike are convinced that rankings matter and that being admitted to #10 is better than settling for #11. Millions of dollars are spent on this proposition.

In fact, everyone is so convinced of this (despite the apparent randomness of the process) that armies of 18-year-old high school students are willing to alter their aspirations to make it through a selection scheme that doesn’t much care about them.

Math with Bad Drawings

Last year, I conducted alumni interviews for Yale applicants. It’s an easy gig. You take a smart, ambitious 17-year-old out for hot chocolate, ask them about their life, and then report back to the university, “Yup, this is another great kid.”

I recently got an email asking me to re-enlist. Was I ready for another admissions season?

I checked “No,” mostly because “Aw, hell no” wasn’t an option.

Why my reluctance? No grudge, no beef, no axe to grind. It’s just that the whole admissions process is so spectacularly crazy that participating in it— even in the peripheral role of “alumni interviewer”—feels like having spiders crawling out of my eyeballs.

In the last 15 to 20 years, Yale’s applicant pool has gone from “hypercompetitive” to “a Darwinian dystopia so cutthroat you’d feel guilty even simulating it on a computer, just in case the simulations had emotions.”