There are a number of answers, and what we seem to be doing in the first place is
1) If you don't understand the language. Learn it! (ie. encourage more academics, the path of the college student). This appears to be a conservative application, though not misplaced. We should encourage others to study, to learn, to gain knowledge--yet know the limitations of such an approach. How many of us take time, or have time to dedicate ourselves to the delicate art of learning? After all, it's certainly art. We need to acquire a particular mastery in the skill of acquiring information, processing it, articulating the knowledge gained and critiquing it as well. We are encouraged to delve into other perspectives, as well as cultivating our own. Though not all professors heed this advice, it's a life path and a noble one. It also takes some skill not to become lost in a world of words, disconnected from our bodies and our immediate experiences.
This is a useful skill that should be encouraged, however, the insight into the academic life, if not translated to the populace, might be seen in the near future as, well, more archaic than useful. If information continues to be more decentralized, setting up a school or university in which one has to "enter" in order to learn might be going against the modern trend of "opening up" and flowering of information, open and accessible to more and more people. What once helped humanity may now begin to be seen as a limitation. There is nothing inherently wrong with the set up a university. It's just that times have changed, and relatively it may be seen to be too "closed off," from society to do the same job it had once done.
Like monasteries now stand as objects of "departure" from society instead of centers of knowledge, is the university destined to become the same?
We need to help educate people. But equally so, we must learn to come down from that mountaintop and bring our knowledge back without getting lost in it. Can we do that? And so, often 2) is offered: make it accessible to everyone, without limit.
Wikipedia, the internet in general has made this possible. However, with knowledge (content) there is also the need for structure (the internet, or centralized "universities.") How might we utilize the decentralized power of the internet to provide a more useful tool than a walled-off (sometimes physically) university? After all, a school is often rigorous, standing the test of time, credentials, legitimacy--how can a virtualized style education offer the same?
The third way, or the new way really, is yet to be seen clearly. It may take more time for technology to become more useful for shifting our focus from institution to collaboration. In the future, we may see a university as a network, rather than a focused point on a map. A digital framework of professors, with local "centers," which students are admitted and meet to do their studies, and apply themselves to more activities. This permeable, brain-like network of future universities might also help students collaborate between schools, effectively boosting the awesome power of networking to even greater degrees. The potential for such efficient networks might yield great benefits to the societies they thrive in, offering scientific, academic and technical knowledge to folks who live around them. To be a student might also mean to be engaged in society, rather than needing to disengage.
Here's to a brighter future for academics. Questions, comments, and critiques are welcome. After all, the future starts right here.
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