Emergent EDU: Complexity and Innovation in Higher Ed

Innovation is a loaded word on college and university campuses. As more institutions dedicate resources to change initiatives, some academics and technologists are skeptical that these efforts -- often coupled with entrepreneurship and startup culture -- are little more than a perpetuation of neoliberal values. Innovation, so the argument goes, is the leading edge of a corporatization of higher education. This feared outcome is at odds with what many of the people in academia believe is the primary purpose and value of higher education. Although they graduate students into the larger economy, they educate them not to serve it but to shape it. They serve humanity first and foremost.