An Open Letter to Educators - Raises good questions about the meaning of university

Dan Brown, who reveals that he dropped out of university because school was interfering with his education, sends the message that traditional institutional education needs to change to keep up with the information revolution of the Internet.

So, how exactly should university education change?

Dan is a bit vague on this, but his main point seems to be that teaching/memorizing facts should not be the purpose of university. He seems to have had some unfortunate experiences with his first few university classes, but I think all universities agree that the purpose of higher education should not be memorizing facts, but learning valuable skills and attitudes that will support the student's life and contribution to society in the future.

At the same time, it is true that many university classes still have a less-than-ideal tendency to focus too much on factual knowledge. Dan's best point is that the value of lectures where professors explain facts is falling as more and more information (including high quality lectures or interactive learning for basic facts and skills) is available for free. It is true that an increase in active learning tasks such as student-led discussions or debates, group projects and presentations still seems needed in many institutions, including my own.

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In relation to this, here is an example of a class video mini-project done at the University of Denver, apparently for an Technology in Education class for the purpose of getting students to know each other, work together, and identify some key points of using technology in education.

It may not be funny if you don't know the show The Office which it is spoofing, but it is a nice student movie. What kind of short movie could one of my classes at ICU make? Why not put together something for Academic Speaking on good or bad discussions, or on how to write an essay in Academic Writing?