Setting the table for 2013

A revolution (from the Latin revolutio, “a turn around”) is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time. – Wikipedia

“You say you want a revolution?” – the Beatles

Happy New Year!

I’ve had a lot of time off lately and will be a first time father in less than 2 months, so if you assumed I have been doing a lot of thinking lately, you would be right.

I am committing myself to another year of blogging because I feel like we are in revolutionary times in terms of education. Most change in education over the last 120 years has been evolutionary in nature. New technologies have been introduced but only in such a way as to not change the overall pedagogy of school. As all large systems tend to do over time, the purpose of the school system has changed from teaching children to self preservation. Therefore it becomes sluggish and resistant to change. You can easily test this with a simple thought experiment: If an innovation came along that could guarantee each student would learn double from school and would require half the number of teachers (and cost half as much), who would support it? Parents yes, teachers unions, no.

Of course that is all theoretical and unlikely to happen right? All things being equal you are most likely right but are all things still equal? If you look at the history of information technologies, they empower individuals to do more work. Sometimes a lot more work. It’s a productivity thing and it is overdue to happen to education.

Technology is going to make possible massive improvement in learning very soon and schools are incapable of absorbing this because it is disruptive to their current model. Thus the conditions are set for revolution.

The purpose for this blog is unchanged; to forecast the coming storm in education. I hope you will all continue to follow me on the journey!

 

(cc) Wikimedia Commons

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