The name given to that one dramatic moment in an epidemic when everything can change all at once is the Tipping Point. International author, Malcolm Gladwell is synonymous with the term “Tipping Point” through his best- selling book. We are approaching a ‘tipping point’ in schooling.
I believe we are on the cusp of a massive change in schooling, as we know it. A number of factors align.
Technology now provides abundant, free and easy access to information.
Our multi-media drenched students appear to have shortened attention spans and are more difficult to engage.
Families are time poor and many of them are under financial pressure.
As a result of the rapidly changing job market, schools are endeavouring to prepare students for roles that haven’t been invented yet.
The proliferation of on-line learning provides access to free education.
Many schools are exploring ‘flipped’ classrooms.
All of these factors lining up create a mismatch with our current model of schooling. Schools were established in a different time – a time of industrialisation. In most parts of the world our current approach to schooling reflects these industrial roots. Lock-step progression, a class of students per teacher and 9 to 3 hours could be seen as sacred cows from a time gone by. They don’t necessarily reflect the times we currently live in.
Given the impact that Apple has had on our world, I wonder what Apple would do if they re-invented schooling?
Apple’s invention of the iPod transformed the music industry. The way we purchase and consume music changed forever. The iPhone transformed the humble phone to a powerful, integrated ‘smart’ device. The iPad provided an easy, simple interface for consumers to access the internet.
What transformation would happen in education if Apple released the iSchool?
We are fast approaching a tipping point in education! The industrial model of education that has been providing compulsory schooling for around 100 years is about to be transformed.
Our current model of schooling was designed for the industrial age to produce obedient workers who were sorted and classified according to their level of skills and knowledge. We were preparing students for the Industrial Age that is fast disappearing.
The internet has changed forever, access to information. The traditional model of schooling valued the carefully controlled, release of access to credible information in a well structured and sequenced approach. The proverbial jug of knowledge could be controlled and released as required to match the readiness and meet the needs of the awaiting students.
This slow and measured release of sequenced knowledge has been replaced by the fire-hydrant of information we know as the internet. Drinking from a fire-hydrant requires different skills to drinking through a straw.
The pace of change is frantic and shows no sign of slowing. We know that we are endeavouring to prepare students for jobs that haven’t been invented yet and to solve problems that we aren’t even aware of. Students today require a different set of skills and as a result teaching today also requires a different set of skills.
In his latest book, “Stop Stealing Dreams – What Is School For?”, astute and acclaimed futurist and bestselling author Seth Godin argues, “It’s time to abandon a top-down industrial approach to processing students and embracing a very human, very personal and very powerful series of tools to produce a new generation of leaders.”
Godin makes the point that “large-scale education was not developed to motivate kids or to create scholars. It was invented to churn out adults who worked well within the system. Scale was more important than quality, just as it was for most industrialists.” The structure of schools as we know them was based on the industrial production line model.
“Changing school doesn’t involve sharpening the pencil we’ve already got,” Godin argues powerfully. “School reform cannot succeed if it focuses on getting schools to do a better job of what we previously asked them to do. We don’t need more of what schools produce when they’re working as designed. The challenge is to change the very output of the school. No tweaks. A revolution.”
Resources available for self-learning are now abundant and accessible within a couple of clicks and often at little or no cost. Access to education and skills improvement is far bigger than it has ever been before. “Available resources and instruction have gone from scarce to abundant in less than a decade and the only barrier to learning for most young adults in the developed world is now merely the decision to learn.” Godin, 2014
For an insight into my prediction of what Apple would do if they released an iSchool, visit the Khan Academy on-line.
The Khan Academy is a
prime example of abundant
access and the potential for
self-learning. The Academy’s
mission is to provide a world-
class education for anyone, anywhere…. That sounds like it could have been written by the Apple marketing department. Every single day millions of Khan Academy students from all over the world learn at their own pace, and free of charge.
In 2004 Sal Khan began remotely tutoring his cousin in New Orleans from his office in Boston. When other family members also wanted to benefit from Sal’s tutoring, he decided to video the sessions and post them to YouTube. His cousins found the videos had the added benefit of allowing them to pause and replay the tuition if they didn’t understand.
More and more people discovered the videos and benefitted from Sal’s tuition, so he kept recording more. The Khan Academy now includes over 2500 videos, viewed by millions of motivated students around the world.
To understand more about the Khan Academy, watch Sal Khan’s TED video.
A number of teachers are using the Khan Academy and other structured, online learning environments such as Mathletics and Reading Eggs to support mastery learning and flip their classrooms.
Students spend some of their class time online engaged in self-paced learning. Instead of teaching whole class lessons, the teacher spends their time teaching individuals or small groups of students on concepts that they are struggling to understand.
The rest of the class time is used to understand and solve real world problems that apply the skills that the students are learning.
This approach has many benefits for students and teachers. On-line learning provides opportunities for students to master the concepts being taught. It is the ultimate in differentiated teaching. Students can pause and review the video as many times as they like. They have the opportunity to demonstrate their current level of skills and knowledge and then move on to the next phase of learning. This ensures they spend more time actually in the learning zone. Mastery learning approaches ensure students quickly progress through less challenging activities. This increases student engagement in real work as opposed to busy work.
On-line learning platforms such as Khan Academy and Mathletics also utilise some of the gaming techniques that students are used to.
• Progression through levels,
• Persisting and retrying until you are successful,
• Earning points and badges, and
• Unlocking more challenging levels;
are all strategies to increase student engagement in Xbox, Playstation and on- line games.
I’m sure that’s what Apple would do if they reinvented schooling!
What will you do?