One of the more blatant marketing appeals, to be sure.
But on a serious note, I've been unable to avoid thinking about what our rapid shift to an information society is doing to how we think about educating the next generation.
And I keep finding clear discontinuity between The Way We've Always Done Things and The Way Things Are Going To Have To Be
Education Is Important
As a society, we spend a large portion of our GDP on educating the next generation. It's an investment that we all take very seriously.
I am a parent of three -- the oldest one is heading off to college next year -- and I've noticed that it's a topic that most parents take very, very seriously.
Now, I am not an education professional. I am merely an interested stakeholder in the outcome, as are we all to a certain degree.
The Baseline
We are becoming an information society at an uncomfortable rate. We are all becoming accustomed to being bathed in information that's packaged and personalized for us. We are learning to think and act in new ways -- some faster than others.
So, are we teaching our children to thrive in this new world? Or are our educational models not keeping up with the radical shifts in how information is used?
Yes, the kids get to use computers in the classroom. And they can use the internet to do their research. And, of course, calculators are mandatory in class these days.
But let's go a bit deeper ...
Authoritative Sources
If you're of my vintage, you remember the authoritative source -- it was the Encyclopedia Britannica. Every parent feld morally obliged to buy those nice, leather-bound books for their precocious offspring.
My, haven't things changed?
I often wonder what an authoritative source is these days. The interesting stuff is moving fast, fraught with debate and discussion. By the time it lands in a book, is it authoritative any more?
And are we teaching that essential skill of surveying the available discussions, stating your views on the matter, and backing it up?
Maybe that used to be a college-level skill. I think it's now a grade-school skill, or should be soon.
Collaboration And Being Yourself Online
You've seen young people use all the new tools -- instant messaging, social networks, texting, et. al.
It dawned on me a while back that they were actually learning the skills they'd need in the new world -- establishing your identity and persona online, learning how to engage productively with people you've never met, figuring out how to join into a discussion, or navigate away from undesirable areas.
Or, more specifically, tapping into your social network to solve a problem, get an opinion, or just interact with people.
Early education seems to focus a lot around socialization skills in the physical world.
How long will it be before early education focuses on socialization skills in the information world?
The Concept Of Homework
I've watched my eldest daughter do homework. We're talking at least a dozen windows open on the PC, streams of dialogue and conversation, some of it relevant to actually doing homework, some of it not.
As an unenlightened parent, I used to insist that she shut all that stuff down and focus on her homework. As expected, she ignored me. Smart girl.
Once again, it dawned on me that she was getting work done the new way -- engaging many people in the dialogue, and looping towards the goal in a non-deterministic way.
What's a more realistic picture of the workplace in five years? Being able to focus on one thing at a time, or managing multiple simultaneous discussions that are heading in a general direction?
I don't know about your world, but my world looks far less than the former, and far more like the latter.
And The Classroom?
If I look at strong social media communities, they meet in the physical world, but it's very different.
They don't use their time to push content -- that happened online. They don't even use much time to discuss various topics and issues -- that also happened online.
They use the time to connect as people. The community online is more real than the physical meeting. The physical meeting reinforces the online community, and not the other way around.
So, think about the classroom of the future in this context. Should most of the learning happen online, with communities of students and teachers? And does the classroom merely become reinforcement for the online community?
That's a radical thought, to be sure. But, if you look at some of the better online degree programs, I think that is exactly what's happening. How quickly will it find its way into high school? Elementary school?
And We've Just Scratched The Surface ...
I've said (many times) before that I (and EMC) believe we're becoming an information society at an alarmingly rapid rate -- so fast that we're struggling to adapt to the new world.
From an EMC perspective, that means that IT has a new role -- information governance -- as corporations will be most directly impacted by this radical shift.
But I don't think the discussion stops there .. it extends outside of IT to basic social constructs that are the fabric of our society.
And I certainly think education is a ripe target for potential reconsideration.
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