What does a book on New Marketing, consumer communication, scarcity of attention, the book Think Better, individualized instruction, and YouTube have to do with education? They don't, but I really tried hard to find one.
by DailyPic
In his book Meatball Sundae, Seth Godin describes 14 Trends of New Marketing. I put these trends under the lens of education and call them the New Reality. See yesterday's post for Trends 1-7
Trend 8: Infinite Channels of Communication
The
New Reality requires that you have great ideas. If you want to continue
to attract students to your schools and your district your ideas and
programs need to be good, interesting, or original. It is not enough to
hope that your schools continue to get a steady stream of new students.
Technology will allow for students and parents to learn everything
there is to know about your school or district. But first they have to
want to know about your school and your district. If your school or
district has innovative programs and ideas in place, it is key that the
marketplace of education knows about it. Technology will allow you to
reach out to those who might be interested in your programs ideas. The
key is to use the channels of communication to target the types of
students and parents who would be interested in the programs you offer.
You want to get to the people who care about what you are doing and
offering. Without those people, you are just sending out white noise.
Target your group. Channels of communication used correctly will help
you be more specific in which you target, and reach even more of those
who care; those who want to know.
Trend 9: Direct Communication And Commerce Between Consumers and Consumers
Parents
have power. Unions have power too. Imagine the power parents would have
if they organized themselves like unions. The new reality is that
technology is allowing for more direct communication between parents
and parents and students and students. Technology lowers the barriers
to communication. Parents don’t have to be at the P.T.A meeting or on
the school site council to organize and have a voice. Further, one
individual and the right technology can do what formerly only groups of
people could do. Namely, spread their voice and ideas about what is
happening at your schools. Networks built this way can easily connect
with networks at other schools, other districts, counties, or states.
Direct communication is putting your parents and students in touch with
their peers and allowing them to organize with almost no effort. So
even apathetic parents and students can easily click to join the
movement and add their voice to the discussion.
Trend 10: The Shifts In Scarcity And Abundance
The
New Reality is that things once common are becoming scarce, while scare
things are now becoming common. What used to be scarce was access to
technology, information about you and your schools, outside sources of
teaching. What are now scarce is attention, spare time, trust, and
cutting edge programs. In the old reality location mattered. In the new
reality, learning can happen anywhere, so location does not matter to
students. Spare time is scare, so learning that takes place on the
student’s time table will become more available and students permitting
themselves to locked into your will become scarce. Your new reality
focus should be how to begin to eliminate distance and schedules and
empower students, parents, and teachers to connect anywhere at anytime.
Trend 11: The Triumph of Big Ideas
According
to Seth, “In factory-base organizations, little ideas are the key to
success. Small improvements in efficiency or design can improve
productivity…” The new reality demands of education something bigger. Tim Hurson,
author of Think Better, describes this as Kaizen vs. Tenkaizen. Small
improvements in what is currently done vs. totally new ideas of how to
do things. Education has chosen to organize around the small idea. The
new reality rewards organizations that organize themselves around new
ideas. Big ideas. People are looking for the big idea. Think of online
learning. That is a big idea. People are attracted to it. You don’t
have to advertise it, that experience of learning from anyplace, at
anytime, and at your own pace embeds the message of the idea into the
experience. A big idea like this, pursued relentlessly is a giant
killer.
Trend 12: The Shift From “How Many” To “Who”
Think
of this as differentiated instruction in the new reality. This means
bringing the right information or instruction, to the right person, who
is focused on what you are teaching, at the right time. The new
reality demands this sort of individualized instruction. Technology
makes this possible.
Trend 13: The Wealthy Are Like Us
The
gap between rich and poor continues to widen. Despite this gap, there
are more wealthy people than ever before. The market for education that
can be custom built for the individual student is going to arise. Why
go to ordinary schools when you can get a custom built education suited
to your exact needs, at your pace, and focused on your interests. The
same technology and educational model that can deliver this to the
wealthy will eventually be able to deliver it to all students. The
wealthy and the poor can both benefit from the models and practice that
develop to meet the need of wealthy parents buying customized
education.
Trend 14: New GateKeepers, No GateKeepers
YouTube
can allow virtually anyone on the planet to make a movie with his or
her message and share it with the world. They don’t need a movie studio
or a distribution contract. All they need is an idea. Now, if anyone
can spread a message to anyone else with ease, what makes you think
that education, your school, or your district is in control or immune
from that? Think of the power that your students could wield. They
could reach out to the entire globe, share their ideas and thoughts
about any subject (including you) and they don’t need you are a school
to do that. The same technology that allows students to share ideas
globally allows them to interact with teachers, tutors, and instructors
from around the globe as well. They can learn from people all over the
world without your permission, authorization, or control. They don’t
need you to learn. Teaching is not the school or the districts private
domain anymore. The students are going to bypass the educational
gatekeepers.
Catalytic Questions:
How
might you stand out in the market place of education? In what ways are
you communicating your message to connect to potential students?
How
might your school be impacted if parents and students organized through
online networks? Might impact might this have on your school or
district?
Would organized student or parents networks be a
partner or an advisory to your school or district? How might you engage
these networks?
In what ways might your educational model change
if you focused on learning, which can happen anywhere and anytime, as
opposed to teaching in the classroom?
What might this look like at your school?
What
big idea have you implemented lately? How would you change your
approach to your educational model if you developed completely new
ideas instead of making slight improvements to existing models?
What big idea would you implement? Who could help? Who else?
In what ways do you see technology being able to individualize to each students’ needs?
In
what ways could models of education that wealthy students have access
to be made available to all students? What sort of things might you
adapt or modify?
If students don’t have to rely on the teacher
in the classroom, how does this change your view of our current
educational model? How might you adapt to a future educational model
based on the Open Model of Education?
Recommended Reading:
14 Trends Of The New Educational Reality (Part 1-Trends 1-7)
Think Better blog
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