Saturday, November 6, 2010

Another Damn Paradigm Shift or Downshift :RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms

I have spent my adult life flowing in and out of the academic education world. It has been sort a warp and weft weaving of all sorts of worlds into this life but education makes up the bulk of the "tapestry". I have watch education stumble through paradigm shift after paradigm shift, reformations, and multiple revolutions. K-12 and higher education both have tried this that those and them and we always seem to come back to the 19th century models. Why?

One reason is simple demographics. The children are always saddled with their grandparents' systems and institutions. Up until the last 100 years that hasn't been any real problem. The technological and informational sectors of society varied little between the child and grandparent.

That's over now. Indeed a child's world doesn't even partially resemble that of their parents except in those static areas like government, religion, and education that are totally dominated by the past. Meanwhile economics, commerce, technology, etc. are six eight ten step ahead of those static systems. It is a complete mismatch, and is becoming a danger to the continuity of our culture.

Below is a 12 minute version of a lecture that exposes some of this. It is entertaining and informative and worth your investment of time. My next post will give you an opportunity to watch the long version.

No comments: