For those of you who may remember the classic Pink Floyd Album The Wall that came out in 1979 (yes, that long ago), one of the key themes of that song, blatantly embedded in its lyrics was the homogenized, stultifying, and  oppressive approach to education and socialization of the British educational system and the soul crushing effect that it can take on children (teens specifically as shown in the video) and the consequent reaction of youth. If we carry over this same view of the US system, much of which is based on the British model (God Save the Queen!), what we witnessed in that artistic essay and, to a certain degree, understood was that here was a system, born from the factory approach, out of date with the needs of modern society and turning quite a number of children off from education. Since then, educational reform has been unleashed in various ways, talked about, attempted, implemented with mixed success, but on the whole has faltered to a great degree.

Recently there have been a number of  articles, essays, and lectures I have consumed (and digested- yummy, delicious!) on this very topic that engage in the debate, especially as it pertains to the use of digital media and technology in the classroom, from social networking to online courses.

If you are interested in education, and I would make the case that this applies to primary and higher education, you might want to take some time to look at the following items.

From Don Tapscott the author of Growing up Digital

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/don-tapscott/whats-wrong-with-the-new-_b_787819.html

This article addressed the  NY Times article last week Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction, given below.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/technology/21brain.html?_r=1&ref=education

This recent lecture by Ali Carr-Chellman, an Intstructional Designer (Oh My!), former third grade teacher and current university professor, on how we are losing boys in our school system and how to re-engage them.

Finally, the last one is a great lecture by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert (sounds like it is from a TED  talk; go to ted.com, great site for wonderful new idea frontier lectures) a nice summary of the overall situation and potential areas for reform.

What To Do

So here is my take on this as both an end customer (I still consider myself one, every day, till the day I die) and as a provider: adjunct instructor, developer, producer, and director of both online, classroom, for-credit and non-credit courses. If we look at this from a consumer marketing point of view, the problem with the current state of education, and I dare say both primary and higher education, is that we are delivering on the whole  less value to the end customer by using the same format (factory model), poorly delivered (under-resourced and overstrained in terms of staff, materials, and equipment) using content that is poorly packaged (contained in books and lectures) with limited access (only in the building, at certain times, delivered by certain people).

The solution to the problem can usually be found in the problem itself. Let’s start with the first item, the factory model. What if we were to move to a network model? What would this look like, you might ask. Well for one thing each student and group of students would be allowed to function as their own node on a learning network and seek out and decide how and what they want to learn based on a set of standard subjects, topics, and competencies (a word hardly ever heard in primary education). Students could teach each other, following a similar model as the network, i.e. transfer knowledge from one person to another rather seamlessly as the web allows us to do, or identify quickly the right source or resource for others for specific subject areas or solutions to problems.

It matters little whether the student is sitting next to them in Kentucky or in Kamchatka with modern telecommunications. I myself learned from a 12 year old who posted a Youtube video on how to take a video and make it play in reverse by using a standard video editing system. So what then is the role of the instructor? The instructor would then act as a facilitator, a “guide on the side” in the grand universe of knowledge, helping to point the way to find reliable learning resources and to assist in decoding problems or understanding subjects, helping some teams progress if they get stuck or to encourage those who are making progress and adjusting assignments and groups accordingly. This change in the classroom dynamic also partly addresses the second issue of being under-resourced in terms of staff. If some students are working together to learn, that is less time the instructor needs to take to teach the group as a whole, leaving them to monitor each group’s progress rather than managing the entire class.

The rest of the problem is one of poor delivery, poor packaging, and limited access, all issues that the Internet, the web, and new ebooks (Kindle, Ipad, Nook, etc.) and other technologies are well suited to addressing. They open up and enhance access to learning by providing it in a variety of formats and platforms. The Internet is always on, provided you have electricity and access to the Internet which is practically ubiquitous these days with cellular (now available in 3G and soon to come 4G) and WiFi.  Computer systems and memory is getting more affordable and media more accessible. You want to learn algebra, then pull up a self paced course that guides you through the foundational knowledge and calculations. Want to learn about the Keeling Curve, then you can easily find a lecture on the web.

What is even more groundbreaking that positively impacts this issue is the availability of open source courses and curricula. MIT was one of the first pioneers in this area (see http://ocw.mit.edu). There are a now a number of other sources http://www.teacherswithoutborders.org, http://creativecommons.org that provide open educational resources for use (sometimes limited, sometimes with restrictions, but largely available for educators).

 This changes the game quite significantly for school systems and students, reducing the need to outlay money for school books to the publishers which can address part of the issue of public schools being under-resourced. Liberating money from paper based textbooks and other materials can free up funds for other uses such as technology, lab or even gym equipment, music or art programs. Some of the large insitutional educators in California and Texas are looking at using open source textbooks (see http://pressitt.com/smnr/California-and-Texas-Leaders-Address-How-to-Reduce-College-Textbook-Costs-Improve-Quality-of-Education/2683/ ).

In sum, this is providing education “just-in-time, just enough, just how you want it” (quote from Sivasailam Thiagarajan a.k.a. Thiagi, see www.thiagi.com for more info), rather than a one size fits all approach. So let the revolution begin….Oh, what? it already started!? Then just continue on, and I will catch up.

Did I keep your interest? Let me know.