The Future Of Learning Is Inside Out

If you set out today to make sure that children learn what they need and want to know for their lives where would you start?

Would you…

…build a nice building with classrooms? …hire a great teacher? …choose a textbook?

I would start with the child. The point is, if you start with the child, then everything else has be customized to fit them.

(cc) Lee Cannon

There is a fairly new idea in business call an incubator. It’s when a small startup company is helped by a larger company. Large tech companies and other investors are supporting hundreds of small startups by helping them with funding and other issues. Singularity University has taken that to the next step by connecting the startups with everything from funding to education. At first a complete solution may seem to violate my ideas of Internet driven disaggregation but I think the best way to do it is to piece together bits from outside sources. An incubator would be more of a facilitator, putting together services into bundles for startups to work with.

Why can’t we teach our children the same way? Start with the child, then add learning materials, practical hands on experiences, interest based peers, and mentors/teachers. Pieces would constantly be added and taken away as needed and as the child advanced. Assessment would be from a variety of different providers in multiple modalities.

Start with the child and then mold a custom learning infrastructure around them. What do you think?

 

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