HigherEd Series: Can AI Help Higher Education Find Its Purpose Again? With Paul LeBlanc of Southern New Hampshire University

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But they do a very interesting thing. They don't do what we usually do, which is we rethink a system, we apply technology and design everywhere we can, and then we tolerate as much human cost and engagement as we have to. And when I wrote Broken, I interviewed people like Xander Packard, who created Medical One. It was called something different at the time. But he started with a different question. He said, what are the most impactful human interactions and relationships? How do I hold that ground sacred and then use technology to scale the hell out of everything else and make my business model work? And that's what we in many ways did at SNHU.

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Welcome to the EdTech Insiders Higher Education Series, hosted by Matthew Raskoff. Matthew is an education innovation leader, a Stanford lecturer, and a regular guest on our podcast, whose work focuses on expanding access to knowledge and opportunity through digital learning. In this series, he speaks with leaders shaping the future of higher education. We hope you enjoy the conversations.

Welcome, everybody. This is Matthew Raskoff with a special mini-series of EdTech Insiders with a special guest today, Paul LeBlanc, President Emeritus of Southern New Hampshire University and author of a new book on reclaiming purpose. So glad to have you here, Paul. Thanks so much for being with us and with this audience. and we've got about 45 minutes together. I would love to hear a little bit about the book, but before we do, maybe you can just bring us up to date on what you've been up to since you stepped down as president of Southern New Hampshire, and you've been doing all sorts of interesting things in the private sector and at Harvard teaching as well. So give us a little bit of a life update beyond the official bio that we might find from Southern New Hampshire.

Well, thank you so much, Matthew, for having me. First of all, it's always a pleasure to see you and to be in this conversation. And what a time to be having these conversations. I mean, the world is changing so fast in such profound ways, both exhilarating and sometimes terrifying. So I stepped down in June of 24 for my role at President of It was a long run, a