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     My three sources are agreed that modern institutions of higher learning are in dire need of innovation to help them stop producing "products for which there is no market." All seem invested in producing adults with critical thinking skills and new ideas, whether those adults are released into academia or into the general workforce, and suggest that the way to produce this kind of learner is to build innovation and critical thinking into institutions of higher learning. In order to remain relevant over time, colleges and universities must be able to support intellectual risk-taking and non-traditional ways of thinking. A few sources drew connections between clearly-defined boundaries separating departments and boundaries to innovation. I'm interested in investigating further into how closely an institution's patterns of innovation should follow changes in the outside world-- it seems clear to me that very great removal can lead to stagnation, but would a university or college that was completely plugged in to world trends and fully able to implement changes on a whim be sturdy enough to last? Is it even possible to create a school in which this kind of idea shift can happen freely?

Annotated Bibliography

Haddawy, Peter, and Barbara Igel. "Fostering Innovation in Higher Education."
     Group for Earth Observation. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2009.
     <http://www.earthobservations.org/meetings/20071101_cb_fostering_innovation.pdf>. This analysis of various efforts by institutions of higher education to foster innovation suggests that colleges should "serve as centers of innovation and creativity...in society and the economy." To this end, the authors support systems of accreditation in which schools are judged according to whether they are fulfilling their stated purposes, rather than whether they meet any universal standard. The authors point to "entrepreneurship" as the ideal driving force for a school-- both as a source of innovative approaches to administration and as an attitude to be taught to students, in an environment that supports risk-taking and new ways of thinking.

Halberstam, J. Jack. "The End of the University as Who Knew It?" Bully Bloggers.
     N.p., 24 May 2009. Web. 16 Nov. 2009.
     <http://bullybloggers.wordpress.com/2009/05/24/end-of-the-university/>.
     This response to Mark C. Taylor's "End the University as We Know It" agrees that change is needed in American universities to make higher education more relevant to the modern world, but suggests that rather than "capitulate to market logics" by reimagining the university along economic lines, faculty need to reorganize themselves into more relevant departments. Halberstam emphasizes the need for risk-taking and innovation, and places a great deal of responsibility for this innovation in the hands of faculty, asking them to take charge before their superiors implement measures based in much less recent first-hand experience.

Wiley, David. "When Innovation Gets Difficult." iterating toward openness. N.p.,
     10 Nov. 2009. Web. 16 Nov. 2009. <http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/1118>. This blog post also calls for institutional innovation in higher learning. The post and comments reference the expanding complexity of the ever-widening knowledge base that needs to be communicated to students. The author suggests that the present level of institutional innovation has served higher education reasonably well up until this point, but that the 21st century must be one of renewed and quickened change.