The model of a teacher in a classroom repeated 150,000 times is so highly variable that it’s virtually impossible to deliver consistent, high level education. Imagine going to 150,000 factories that make something like beer. You’d get some great beer, some mediocre beer and some terrible beer. Sit in 10,000 1oth grade history classes. Some would be great, some would be mediocre and some would be terrible. With the current model of education, this will happen no matter what you do.
Often teaching is geared toward teaching one student or one class. That’s fine in a small world. But the task is to educate millions at a time. Ironically the strength of education in the past, buildings, teachers, school boards, etc. have become the immovable object to change. So my prediction is that real change will come from outside the system. It will come from the world of better, faster, cheaper where the innovators and entrepreners live. Things like IPODS, Google, Facebook, etc. didn’t result from gradual improvement, they came about from completely changing the game.
When the model of teacher and classroom ends, real innovation will happen.
Learning at Light Speed Weblog 