Education 2.0 & 3.0

BEN NELSON SAYS the primary purpose of a university isn’t to prepare students for a career. It’s to prepare them for life. And he now has $70 million to prove his point.

The #OpenBlog19 challenge created by David Hopkins is sparking a series of posts where educators go on to challenge others to write a blog in answer to a given question. Steve Wheeler challenged me to write about 'What's wrong with education'.

My initial thought was that I would have much preferred talikng about what is good with education! There are so many good examples I'd love to share from the many educators I connect with online through Twitter, that have openly shared with others how they engage their students, how they co-learn togeher, how they experiment with innovative and creative approaches using Lego, social media, digital technology, post-its, role play and so much more. 

Here’s a scenario that will set your head spinning: In less time than it takes for a student to go through K-12 schooling, Uber created and eliminated an entire job market. The ride-hailing industry leader started in 2009, created thousands of jobs across the country, and is now introducing self-driving cars that will replace those jobs. In fact, a recent report from the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) showed that 40 per cent of jobs are in danger of becoming obsolete. This phenomenon is called the Law of Accelerating Change, and it’s not going to slow down any time soon. The only thing we can do to prepare for such change is to learn how to adapt to, better yet anticipate, it.