Higher (disconnect)ED

Loneliness leads to failure.  Lonely students do not persist.  Being alone makes a person far less likely to get good grades, stay in school, find a good job, and more.  And just as we know that not every measure works for every person, success can be better predicted through non-cognitive measures than academic ones for many students. 

What Is A Learning Ecosystem?

A crucial “systems thinking” component of a learning ecosystem is this: Integration trumps functionality.  In other words, if 85% of your desired functionality can be achieved with a fully integrated tool, or 97% of your desired functionality can be achieved with no connection to other parts of the ecosystem, use the former and avoid the latter.  (Of note, this is why the RFI / RFP process can be so detrimental to an organization’s longitudinal well-being from a systems perspective.)