Comments on: Breaking free of academic publishers http://punya.educ.msu.edu/2008/02/12/breaking-free-of-academic-publishers/ Punya Mishra's Web Tue, 14 Oct 2008 07:28:06 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.2 By: Ira Socol http://punya.educ.msu.edu/2008/02/12/breaking-free-of-academic-publishers/#comment-583 Ira Socol Tue, 12 Feb 2008 13:09:37 +0000 http://punya.educ.msu.edu/2008/02/12/breaking-free-of-academic-publishers/#comment-583 I find Michigan State's resistance to the future quite remarkable, especially considering its historic role as a Land-Grant University. One of the basic missions of this institution is "extension" - the diffusion of knowledge and research beyond the campus community. By sealing itself and its research off from the world there is the unfortunate contribution to to the notion of an imperial university - an elitist community devoted to controlling those outside of the academe rather than a liberating force. Beyond that is the simple stupidity of the cost. MSU and other educational institutions spend tens of millions of unnecessary dollars each year for tech support that would be better provided by third party vendors. Google accounts (replacing MSU's truly awful 1985 email system) and Moodle accounts (replacing the bizarre Angel system) could save each MSU student between $300 and $500 per year (by my rough calculations) while providing better, faster service with dramatically improved collaborative opportunities. I find Michigan State’s resistance to the future quite remarkable, especially considering its historic role as a Land-Grant University. One of the basic missions of this institution is “extension” - the diffusion of knowledge and research beyond the campus community. By sealing itself and its research off from the world there is the unfortunate contribution to to the notion of an imperial university - an elitist community devoted to controlling those outside of the academe rather than a liberating force.

Beyond that is the simple stupidity of the cost. MSU and other educational institutions spend tens of millions of unnecessary dollars each year for tech support that would be better provided by third party vendors. Google accounts (replacing MSU’s truly awful 1985 email system) and Moodle accounts (replacing the bizarre Angel system) could save each MSU student between $300 and $500 per year (by my rough calculations) while providing better, faster service with dramatically improved collaborative opportunities.

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