Yesterday, I was in Nashville to deliver a keynote on the future of education to Education Services of America (ESA). The theme of their event was centered on innovation so naturally I discussed the future of education from this perspective.
To help set the stage, I reminded my audience of the importance of “customization.” I told the audience to consider their students lives for a moment. “What do you see,” I asked.
Here’s what I see. I see a world where the students default setting is customization. They can go to a Starbucks and order their coffee in a hundred different ways. They can customize their music on their iPods or smartphones; their friends on Facebook; and their news through RSS feeds. Why, if they want to, they can even customize their shoe designs at Nike’s website.
Why, I continued, don’t you think they expect the same from education. The answer, of course, is that students are demanding this; the problem is that the educational establishment isn’t delivering–but therein lies the opportunity for innovation.
The advances in everything from virtual and augmented reality to social networking and voice, speech and hand-gesture technology offer an amazing array of tools to deliver customized education. Educational innovators and social entrepreneurs are seizing these tools to reach kids where they live and teach them in ways which are customized to their learning styles. It is an exciting and promising future for those with the courage to embrace it.
P.S. If you are wondering why I have the photo of Malia Obama in this post, I want you to study it for a moment. Do you notice anything curious? Here’s what I find fascinating: Malia could have literally seen a million different photos of her father being sworn into office. But, instead, she wanted to remember the event from her perspective. If we want to innovate education, let’s try to see things from the perspective of the people we are trying to educate–the children!
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