Academics (the mass noun, meaning something similar to "academia") does indeed learn and progress. Academics (the worker bees in the academic hive) can be super intransigent and in my experience learn a couple of tools in their younger days and never again. As they say, science advances one funeral at a time. I've found that new ideas and technologies are almost always brought in by new students, and not old academic dogs learning new technological tricks.
And I agree, but the end might be a bit optimistic at how often or efficiently that happens. In my experience, most are all too willing to accept the institutionalized choices.
