Education Innovation

Big Education

Big Education..

^{old times
Originally uploaded by dasar}

Big Education doesn't innovate...it operates

Putting The Learner on ICE- Learning Values for Education Innovation

Too often these days, it feels like the values of today's Big Education system have become things like..

compliance, rules, skills, assessment, formulas, methods, standardization, sameness, facts, norms, operations, practices, and standards.

I have my own set of values. I call them Learner Values. It's what happens when you take the student out of Big Education and place the learner on ICE.

I	C	E
IDEATION	CURIOSITY	EXPLORATION
INTUITION	CREATIVITY	EXPERIMENTATION
IMMERSION	COLLABORATION	ENTREPRENEURSHIP
INVESTIGATION	CROSSING BOUNDARIES	EXAMINATION
IMAGINATION	CONVERGENCE	EMPATHY
INNOVATION	CONTRIBUTE	EMERGENCE
INQUIRY	CONNECT	EVOLVING
INSIGHT	CONTEMPLATION	ENERGY

Essential Education: Lawrence Lessig on Institutional Corruption

The Education Factory Faces The "New Reality"

"What business are you in?" asks Seth Godin.

Is it education, teaching, learning, thinking, questioning, exploring, creating, experimenting, innovation, collaboration, planning, or assessing?

Maybe it’s all of them or maybe it’s some of them, but either way, business is going to change, because the world is operating under a “new reality.”

In his book, Meatball Sundae- is your marketing out of sync?; Seth Godin describes what he calls New Marketing. But, I call it “the new reality,” because what he is describing is a fundamental shift in the world’s organizations, caused by changes in media and technology. This new reality is what education must be prepared for and what we must be able to prepare our students for.

Media and technology have fundamentally changed the world and Seth says that change puts us all at a crossroads. One path leads to frustration as the typical organization, school district, or school continues to operate in out-dated ways, or, another path leads to organizations, school districts, and schools that are, “…nimble, intelligent organizations that are poised and prepared to be propelled by the fresh tactics of New Marketing.”  The new reality. Which path do you think your school or district is on?

"Meatballs" are the old ways of teaching and running schools. It’s basic, we know what we are getting, and they used to work. But now, the world wants the "sundae." So instead of using meatballs we are going to have to think of something else that will taste good on ice cream and chocolate sauce. The whipped cream and the cherry on top are the new techniques, strategies, models, technologies and levers education needs to use to create a sundae fit for the new reality.

I believe, new organizations, leveraged with new thinking, technology, and creativity is the whipped cream and the cherry on top we need.

Think about when the current education system in this country was established. Does our country, society, or world look or operate anything like that now?  That era is quickly evaporating. We live in a world filled with choice. Think about how much choice you have with the web. Music, books, cars, people, shoes, clothes, etc; you name it and we have thousands of choices because of the new reality created by the web. What about education? What choices do people have there? What choices do we give our students?

The new reality requires that you build an organization around the tools you have available to you to reach your goals. The new reality asks, “What tools do you have available to you?”  It is with the tools available to you that you build your organization around.

Education is still stuck in the outdated model of trying to fit the tools into the framework of the existing organization. If the tools don’t fit into the organization then you don’t use the tools. Regardless of how important or necessary the tools are, if we can’t adopt them to the existing organization, then we just don’t adopt them. This is completely 180˚ out of line with the demands of the new reality.

We must adopt the best teaching, tools, methods, practices, technologies, and models and then build the organization, which supports it. It seems to me, that if we did that first, the schools and districts we build would look vastly different from the schools and districts we have.

Imagine a business that comes up with a great idea that they want to build or produce. To be successful they would have to build a factory and an organization to produce the product to see the idea succeed. On the other hand, what if a business came up with a great idea, and they too wanted to build or produce it. The only difference for them is that they have an existing factory and organization. They discover that they can't build or produce the product because they can’t change the factory or the organization. They are more committed to the factory and the organizational model than they are to the successful idea.

If we insist on limiting ideas to the ones that will work in our factory, what is going to happen when our students get out and find that they way we have done things in education is 180˚ opposite from the ways the world is operating? 

Answer, it would be the same feeling one would get from eating a meatball sundae. Something is just not right.

Catalytic Questions:

If the “new reality” were a slogan on a bumper sticker or T-shirt, what would it say?

What is one current educational or organizational practice you could substitute for another that would make an impact on your school or district to bring it more in alignment with the “new reality.”

What might that look like?

In what ways might you take a small idea or practice you are currently using and exaggerate or expand it across your school or district?

Imagine a deadline of one school year, what could you change within that time?

How might that change make a difference in the years to come?

What assumptions must you update, what ideas must you discard, based on the “new reality?”

How might a failed idea or policy at your district or school open the door for new ideas and thinking?

If you could substitute your thinking for that of Seth Godin, in what ways might you change your ideas or develop new ideas?  What might they be?

Recommended Reading:

Seth Godin's blog

Will We Fail To Be The Best?

Rethinking Pricing Strategies for Education

Big Education

You have heard of big oil, big pharmaceutical, big money, and big government. But what about education?

Big Education is a system. It is not about the teaching or learning so much as it is about the supporting an organization that does many things other than teaching.

Big Education...

Maintains things
Buys things
Monitors things
Pays for things
Transports things
Paints things
Cleans things
Trims things
Builds things
Repairs things
Orders things
Fills out things
Reports things
Budgets things
Plans things
Evaluates things
Fixes things
Drives things
Ships things
Collects things
Warehouses things
Meets to talk about things
Measures things
Replaces things

So many things that have nothing to do with learning, but have a lot to do with maintaining the organization.

The key here is that Big Education operates on the premise that learning takes place in certain place and from certain people. Big Education exists to support those places and those people, but in the end does a lot to support the organization itself.

Learning is naturally produced when a learner encounters something or someone he or she wants to learn about. I call this the Open Model of Education, and it can happen anywhere, anytime, and does not require a school building. Maybe I should call it organic learning.

In the movie Say Anything, Lloyd Dobler said…
“I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that.”

But do we want our schools to those things? Because they do lots and lots of the things that Lloyd Dobler wanted to avoid.

Is that the mission? Maybe. Maybe not.

Might I suggest:

Are we married to the mission or the methods?

Failure Is An Option In The Open Model of Education

Institutional vs. Organic

What does the book Reimagining Church, the movie Say Anything, author Frank Viola, fictional character Lloyd Dobler, the Open Model of Education, Learning, Institutional Church, and the Organic Church have in common?  Into the Education Innovation blender they go.

I have been reading Reimagining Church: Pursuing The Dream of Organic Christianity by Frank Viola.

Frank juxtaposes what he calls the Organic Church with the Institutional Church. I am not writing in support of his thesis but rather something that is found in both the education system and the “institutional church.”

Let’s begin with Frank’s definition of the Institutional Church.

Institutional Church:
“…those churches that operate primarily as institutions that exist above, beyond, and independent of the members that populate them. These churches are constructed on programs and rituals more than relationships. They are highly structured, typically building-centered organizations regulated by set-apart professionals (‘ministers’ and ‘clergy’) who are aided by volunteers (laity). They require staff, building, salaries, and administration. In the institutional church, congregants watch a religious performance once or twice a week led primarily by one person (the pastor or minister), and then retreat home to live their individual Christian lives.”

So how does this relate to education you ask?

Here is the point from Frank..

“The ‘institutional church’ is a system—a way of doing ‘church.’ It’s not the people who populate it.”

That is too describes education, or what I call “Big Education.”

Big Education is a system. It is not about the learning so much as it is about the supporting an organization that does many things other than teaching.

Big Education….

Maintains things
Buys things
Monitors things
Pays for things
Transports things
Paints things
Cleans things
Trims things
Builds things
Repairs things
Orders things
Fills out things
Reports things
Budgets things
Plans things
Evaluates things
Fixes things
Drives things
Ships things
Collects things
Warehouses things
Meets to talk about things
Measures things
Replaces things

So many things that have nothing to do with learning, but have a lot to do with maintaining the organization.

The key here is that Big Education operates on the premise that learning takes place in certain place and from certain people. Big Education exists to support those places and those people, but in the end does a lot to support the organization itself.

Could the same be said about the Institutional Church?

So much of what a church does or what a school district does has no direct link to connecting with God or to learning.

Contrast the institutional church with what Frank calls the Organic Church.

Organic Church:
“An organic church is one that is naturally produced when a group of people have encountered Jesus Christ in reality (external ecclesiastical props being unnecessary), and the DNA of the church is free to work without hindrance.”

A similar definition might be used to describe learning.

Learning is naturally produced when a learner encounters something or someone he or she want to learn about. I call this the Open Model of Education, and it can happen anywhere, anytime, and does not require a school building. Maybe I should call it organic learning.

In the movie Say Anything, Lloyd Dobler said…
“I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that.”

But do we want our schools and our churches do those things? Because they do lots and lots of those things that Lloyd Dobler wants to avoid.

Is that what they were meant to do? Is that their mission? Maybe. Maybe not.

It’s an interesting question. What would the answer mean to you, your church, or your school?

Asking the interesting question is Education Innovation.

Might I suggest:

Are we married to the mission or the methods?

Failure Is An Option In The Open Model of Education