The world is indeed flattening, and we are very happy. Since March, Cristóbal and I have presented Invisible Learning in a dozen countries, and at more than 35 events for debate and discussion. The outcomes from the project exceed our expectations — and, more importantly, open the debate to a wider and global level.
A lot has happened in the past week, and I feel that bits and pieces are coming together to form a huge break from the mainstream in human capital development in the Netherlands. In brief: On Monday, I visited TEDxDelft at TU Delft. The day was very well organized and included a selection of talks [...]
As the 21st century digital revolution continues to disrupt the economy, and the traditional knowledge claim held by experts of the 20th century is making way for a global entrepreneurial mindset, (university) education finds itself on the verge of its most radical transformations since the industrial revolution. Whose Crazy Idea Is It Anyway is an academic endeavor that has the ambition to set the agenda in the educational landscape of the coming decade.
Just as wise investors diversify their investment portfolio, so should we build diverse portfolios of our schools. This means that we should not invest too heavily in any one strategy. If we do not know with any precision what the future will be, we cannot have one-size-fits-all schools. We need to expand our ecologies of options.
FORGET SCALING UP.
WE NEED TO SCALE SIDEWAYS IN EDUCATION.
Uffe Elbæk is a social entrepreneur, politician, and cultural leader in Denmark. In his knowmadic career so far, he founded the KaosPilots school in Århus, organized the World Outgames 2009, and the Change the Game consultancy. Currently, Uffe is running for a seat in the Danish parliament as candidate from the Social Liberal Party (Radikale). [...]
As we shared earlier, Project Dream School started with a simple question: If you could build a dream school, what would you do?
This morning, I received some inspiring ideas. [...]
Bottom line (as we say), Naomi Riley should be given kudos for a Contribution by Omission: A prominent, powerful, and evolving justification for tenure lies in the protection of faculty from shape-shifted corporate colleagues. This capability is one that should be taken up as a serious –even a top-drawer– justification for the continuation of tenure.
I met up with Ali Hossaini in Amsterdam and Noordwijk earlier this month. In this short interview we made, Ali states that “to think out of the box, you have to start out of the box, and we’re not letting people leave it right now in the current educational institutions.” He advocates for approaches to learning that are collaborative and reflective of real world problem solving that allow people to become experts on the fly (and not just in business, but art, academia, etc.). The development of creative thinking, he argues, is one thing that Western educational institutions could develop as their competitive advantage.
A couple weeks ago, I had an opportunity to visit the Waag Society in Amsterdam. I visited with Keimpe de Heer, director of the Creative Learning Lab, which is focused on innovation in education. Paired with a Fab Lab, they aim to develop the community they serve into producers of imaginative, creative and innovative outputs — not just consumers.
If the ultra wealthy are concerned about America’s competitiveness, the schools aren’t failing. They’re failing the schools. The nation’s ranking on the PISA tables continues to slip, but if we control for poverty, we’re darn near the top.
Just as wise investors diversify their investment portfolio, so should we build diverse portfolios of our schools. This means that we should not invest too heavily in any one strategy. If we do not know with any precision what the future will be, we cannot have one-size-fits-all schools. We need to expand our ecologies of options.
FORGET SCALING UP.
WE NEED TO SCALE SIDEWAYS IN EDUCATION.
As we shared earlier, Project Dream School started with a simple question: If you could build a dream school, what would you do?
This morning, I received some inspiring ideas. [...]
John Moravec and Crisóbal Cobo engage in a one-to-one dialogue on new dimensions for thinking about learning. In this conversation, they share some of the most important ideas developed in the book, Aprendizaje Invisible (Invisible Learning), to be released next week. More information is available at www.invisiblelearning.com.
Nothing is more political than education. The Texas State Board of Education reminded us of the phenomenon this month, rewriting textbook guidelines to match their conservative, theological worldviews. Not since the Kansas Board of Education voted to restrict the teaching of evolution has an entire state backlashed so strongly against science and reason. In an [...]
The US Congres recently opened the flow of student financial aid to online universities. Since 1992, the government required that, to be eligible for financial aid, higher education institutions must provide at least half of their classes in person. This change brings new competitive challenges to “traditional” universities. The influence of for-profit institutions is growing. [...]
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