Picture this:
An old man in a suit and tie, walking slowly and pensive, he’s holding a black umbrella and looking somber.
Suddenly, a young and bright-looking girl whooshes by on her skateboard; she’s holding a smartphone and wearing the ubiquitous white ear buds.
The former is exactly that, the former past of education: an ordered and linear structure. His education was expensive; it consisted of reading exclusive/elite journals and going to gated institutions. The latter represents the 21st century college student, one that is open, mobile, and eager to learn new things everyday -specific to her, tailored to her, and relevant to her friends.
That, in a nutshell, represents the current state of higher education.
There is a disconnection between the knowledge gatekeepers and the ones knocking on the door. We (Gen-Y and Gen-Z) want to knock down the wall; ‘they’ want to keep it erect. There’s good Samaritans fighting the good cause amongst the old guard, but many are holding us back, we want to run but they want to walk. One does not need to look further than Aaron Swartz to understand that there is a real battle being waged, a battle between the free and open, versus the expensive and gated. Or consider the case of Boundless, a free-textbook company that was sued last year by three major textbook publishers.
The current system is broken. A remnant of the industrial era, it measures every student in the same standardized way, it tries to mold everyone into the same ‘well-rounded-shape.’ In a world of increasing personalization and instant, contextual information the educational system is adapting as fast as a turtle. It is not engaging, it does not condone sharing, and it dictates what and how to to learn. No! We can learn faster by standing on the shoulders of the smart crowds, finding and collaborating on the specific topics we care about, and dividing the costs of world-class education amongst thousands.
But educators, policy-makers, entrepreneurs, and investors are finally awakening to this reality. The field of EdTech is abuzz, one can almost hear the revolution drums, and it’s elating. But like any revolution, there are challenges ahead, and these must be faced and overcome. One such challenge is context: How can students and educators string the best content and learning objects from the web to gain a real education in American History, Math or Programming? After all, “God did not dictate from heaven that literature and history are two different fields, but somebody decided they were. Online education gives us a clean slate so we can teach calculus in the context of chemistry, music in the context of history, and so on.”* This realization led to the creation of WikiBrains, a space for students to explore, collect, and collaborate on content that educates and inspires. WikiBrains uses smart data structure to provide a growing database of semantically linked information and knowledge; we want to ‘engineer serendipity.’ We invite you to join our growing community and participate in the world’s largest brainstorm.
It is a really exciting time to be involved in EdTech. Every week there’s new innovations, discussions in Twitter, technologies implemented, and even policy improvements. Every week we are closer to an ideal education. It is time to embrace EdTech, the times demand it, and the tide has already changed. After all, how can you oppose a world where personalization, collaboration, and free knowledge are the standard? Can you begin to comprehend the revolutionary implications this will have? To identify and build on a student’s strengths, to collaborate with like-minded colleagues, to have a world-class yet low-cost education!
A sample screenshot of Wikibrains.
It’s time to decide: Will you join the force or stay on the dark side? I do hope you join the Knowledge Revolution, we’d be happy to have you join our ranks!
*Myers, Courtney Boyd. “Clayton Christensen: Why Online Education Is Ready for Disruption, Now.” The Next Web. N.p., 13 Nov. 2011. Web. 30 May 2013.
Leon Markovitz / @IdeasFisherman
Co-Founder & CMO @WikiBrains
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