After many years of thinking and talking, here Sir Ken I think nails the problem and gets the direction for the right new path correct. Helped a lot by the guys at RSA.
So what can we do with this insight?
My experience in public radio and TV - which also is at a crossroads from one culture to another - is that we must not under estimate the power of the entrenched culture. Most people inside pub radio/TV and in education are so invested in the old that they can only fight an alternative. This is not because they are bad or stupid - it is because they are human and their identity is the system as it is. So to change it means that they have no place. So they cannot go to the new.
If you long for a better education system - you are also worried about how to breakthrough all these barriers. You don't know how to change the system. I think that we can look at what is happening in media and find a way.
So where is the change happening in media that we might use to help us in education. As I write them I can see how these factors apply to education - can't you?
- The long term effects of the poor economy is pressing the system
- The school system is under huge funding pressure too
- In higher ed - the degree also costs too much now and drives loans that canot be repaid
- Kids will seek out new ways - they have to
- In the next 10 years the pressure to find a new way for the money will become unbearable - thus creating the same kind of context for change that we see in media
- There are organizations like Craigslist that are killing the economics of the old and forcing economic pressure - the old way leads to economic starvation and sets a context for change
- There are new online schools such as the Khan Academy that offer kids a wonderful alternative to school
- Great Schools like MIT have put a lot of superlative content online
- Kids are voting with their feet - better content will be available online for next to free as with Craigslist and personals that will ad to the economic pressure
- The web has a bunch of new tools such as Twitter, YouTube, Netflix, iTunes, Apple TV etc that are empowering new sources and new ways of finding, producing and using content
- Same for Ed - iTunes, YouTube are already there
- Why take Math with Miss Jones when you can get the world's best math teachers on your time at your pace?
- Parents will buy into this too
- There are entirely new organizations - Huffington Post, Daily Beast, Politico - Greenfield that go through no transition but start with the new model - they are forcing competitive pressure
- There are a few old leaders who get it and have enough critical mass inside to go for it now - The Guardian in the UK and NPR - they are forcing change on their system
- There are few local small organizations that have the leadership to go for it too and are making enough progress to show the rest - KETC is the one I know the best.
So what to do?
Don't think about changing the whole system!!!!! It's too big and powerful.
Instead take advantage of these powerful forces.
If you are a learner - Explore the new world of resources - do not feel trapped in school as it is or feel that you have to wait - enough change is here for you to take full advantage now
If you are a parent - see the whole picture for you child - help line them up into that is now available that is more fitted to them and at a cost you can all afford. Vote with your feet.
If you are a school board - Learn how to make the shift from the old to the new - Do a KETC - pick a school with the right leadership and try the new in ONE place - learn from this - use this test bed to expose others to the new from their peers.
If you are a teacher - Learn how to be the new - participate in the new world - be a citizen teacher - offer content or coaching - learn how to be an entrepreneurial teacher who can hang up their shingle on the web or locally. Be the math coach or the history coach in your place or globally!
If you are a social entrepreneur - Build the new a place together so that you are the convener of the a place where kids can be together and yet be part of the a larger universe of resources that fits them!
It's coming folks - you can win now if you play now.
