ABQJOURNAL OPINION/GUEST_COLUMNS: Apply Some Creative Vision to New Mexico's Problems

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Apply Some Creative Vision to New Mexico's Problems

By Marshall M. Monroe
Former Creative Executive, Walt Disney Co.
          Like many, I was shocked and frustrated to hear how the Department of Higher Education seems to have its head in the sand as we drift into one of the most challenging economic times our great state has ever faced.
        Our kids deserve better leadership, and the taxpayer-voters demonstrated in November they are tired of it. But if, in fact, the problem is simply that Higher Ed just doesn't have the budget to think about the future — isn't that what we pay them $762 million a year to do? — how about we offer them a vision.
        One need not look far to see the profound economic challenges we face as the federal stimulus/deficit program fades into the ledger books. By squandering the funds from that massive loan to sustain existing government operations/programs, rather than retooling our public structures for future budget realities, our leaders have put us on a collision course with a crisis.
        Further, our education systems face two seismic disruptions that are structural — not cyclical — and that must be taken into account as we look forward. The first being globalization, which heightens the urgency for competitive economic strength through innovation, and the second being the mobile information technology revolution, which not only is becoming an economy unto itself, but offers an entirely new delivery platform for learning.
        Finally, we must confront a sober assessment of the threats from other states and countries, where economic survival already has become a grand strategic theme. If we observe programs like the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany or the Ghangzhou Science Center in southern China as examples, we can, ahem, learn.
        What we see are public-private institutions focused on the new fusion of academic learning and industrial survival. The ivory tower is a bygone concept, like the typewriter, or the laptop, which served its time, until the smart phone and the mobile tablet came along.
        Imagine, if you will, that as New Mexicans we pondered a future higher education system that met these challenges, and like the jujutsu master, rather than taking the blow head-on, we used their energy and momentum to our advantage?
        First, the education of the future has a massive cyber-digital component. Why not make this reality a grand theme in our new vision? Not only does this imply production and distribution of educational content, but it implies dramatic synergies across the institutions for administrative cooperation.
        Take it to the extreme — one university. With a shared recruiting, accounting, management and operating infrastructure.
        The "content" becomes branded and managed in the way a "network" brands its content on the web. Teachers compete to make the best lectures on a subject. If the content is good, students from other states can pay and partake. Content can be tested and enriched by exposure to the competitive industrial marketplace. This also addresses the geographic challenges of our large state.
        Next, envision how the new cyber-mobile-digital lifestyle implies a new vision for the social and physical definition of a "campus." New Mexico's creative teams of urban planners and architects could rise to this challenge. Imagine the environmental impact of re-thinking the automobile drive and parking for classes each day. Perhaps the solution becomes smaller, local cyber-student-unions.
        Beyond local outlets, I propose a new central "Emerging Media Research Laboratory" to consider the optimal technical and pedagogical solutions for the new era. This should be a landmark, signature structure that attracts students and innovators to New Mexico. A working cyber-mobile-sciences laboratory and studio with seasoned industry professionals as a steering force.
        And lastly, we must integrate a core curriculum of imaginative/innovative skills in our programs. As web-wiki systems marginalize the legacy of "factoid" and "drill/kill" education models, the deeper understanding of creativity and out-of-the-box thinking will be more critical. New Mexico is the ideal place for institutional leadership in this area.
        When Barack Obama was elected in 2008 and took office in 2009, his transition team looked at the economic situation they found, and his chief of staff declared, "We shouldn't waste this crisis." They had the luxury, via massive deficit-borrowing, to choose the path of adding programs and entitlements, not re-structuring them. We now know that didn't work, and it won't work. Unemployment is still at an unsustainable 9.8 percent.
        This January, our new governor faces a similar "opportunity," but she does not have the luxury or "hope" for another massive debt-deficit masking fund. Let's hope she, and all her team as she builds it, can apply some vision-driven editing as an alternative.
        Marshall Monroe is a third-generation New Mexico native. He was a creative executive at the Walt Disney Co. for 14 years, was former chairman of the New Mexico Governor's Council on Film and Media Industries and has founded a strategic planning and innovation studio in Corrales.

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