Hmm...Those are some interesting perennials there. I enjoyed the post about the plight of adjuncts and free flyers. However, I'm sad to say that I think the situation will get much worse.

What I see happening long-term is that the people currently "freeway flying" will end up teaching online courses. While this isn't necessary bad in and of itself, my fear is that these courses (particularly at 2-year institutions) will become increasingly automated or "canned," and the adjunct (who will probably not be considered a "teacher" but rather a "support team member" or the like) will serve primarily to grade papers, offer feedback, answer questions, and do whatever he or she can to improve retention. This might include calling up students who haven't logged in for awhile and so on.

I'm sure it won't be long before private companies start emerging that allow 2-year schools (and maybe lots of 4-year schools) to effectively "outsource" their general ed programs, or at least their "remedial" programs. The most effective of these will try to "insource" by rounding up hordes of out-of-work adjuncts all over the country, driving down the cost as much as possible. Later on, they'll start outsourcing these tasks to folks in Bangalore and the like (many of whom, I'm told, read, write, and speak better English than most native-born Americans).

The advantage of this setup will be that a "namebrand" university can outsource most of the classes that its faculty don't wish to teach, and graduates of their programs will still have some clout with their degree "from a real college." I somehow doubt that the University of Phoenix will ever truly fit the bill here. The future seems to be taking place more at places like Texas Tech. Fred Kemp--now there's the man to watch.

Check out Barton's gaming blog at Armchair Arcade.