Since the late 1770s education has made significant advances. Matching the revolutionary changes that occurred as a result of the Industrial Revolution, education for the masses has become commonplace in industrialized nations.
The United States in particular has seen fantastic improvements in its education system over the last hundred years. 2007 statistics indicate that some 84% of Americans have completed high school and a record 27% have completed a bachelors degree. These figures are impressive and have contributed in a significant way to America’s dominant position on the world stage.
However, there is still significantly more that we can and must do to serve the educational needs of millennials and America’s future generations. Despite the quality and scope of education that industrial era education and the associated systems have delivered, they are quickly becoming obsolete and in some cases detrimental.
21st Century learners live in a period where technology has created a powerful window of opportunity. Pre-industrial education was limited to the elite and focused on intimate, specialized tutor-peer lessons or direct apprenticeships. Industrial era education has focused on doing for education what the assembly line did for auto-production. An ideal learning environment, however, is the synergy of these two models: Intimate education, deliverable and scalable to all of a nation’s youth.
My alma mater (Arizona State University) is a classic example of Industrial Era education. With 67,000+ students in the Fall of 2008, ASU delivers a university education on an incredible scale. They have also proudly labeled themselves the “New American University” and recently released a promotion video advertising how they are breaking the mold and embracing the needs of 21st century students. You can view the video [here]. Yet despite their claims that they are “changing their identity” in response to the impact of the internet and Digital Era – they have barely changed. For ASU and most major universities, 21st Century education isn’t about improving the educational process – it’s about improving the university’s reach and presence on the global academic stage.
This is a fundamental problem within modern education. A problem that will continue to get worse as technology advances and true ‘digital natives’ begin entering the university system. ASU has increased its global footprint – true. Sadly, it has also increased its class sizes. As an undergraduate student it was not uncommon for my classes to have more than 50 students. For many of my general education classes, class size ranged between 150-500+ students. Which brings me to the title of this post.
How would the modern University have educated the Greek philosopher Plato?
Plato’s influence upon our society has been so profound that even the most uninitiated among us have heard his name. Plato was one of – if not the most famous – of Socrates’ students and went on to become Aristotle’s mentor. Consider – what would have happened if instead of living and being educated in ancient Greece, Socrates had taught at a major industrial era American university. What if – as in Ancient Greece – Plato was Socrates’ student. One of some 499 other students whose entire scope of interaction with their professor is limited to one-directional lecture-based classes.
- Would Socrates be able to teach using the Socratic Method?
- Would engaging discussion and debate be possible?
- Would close student-instructor rapport develop with such power and influence that it would still be credited nearly 2,500 years from now?
- 2,500 years from now would we know who Plato was?
- Would the industrial era educated Plato go on to teach and mentor Aristotle?
This question embodies many of the challenges that face 20th Century education. A system that we are heavily entrenched in and extremely defensive of.
What’s the alternative? What will the true “New American University” look like? By introducing modern technology and re-defining the way we design, build and educate in our universities, effective and necessary changes can be made. The technology now exists to deliver the powerful, focused, specialized mentor-student experience so desperately needed by tens of thousands of students.
We stand poised to embrace education in the digital era. Yet, to accomplish this transition we need new platforms, new technology and individuals with the vision and willingness to break free from the comfortable, established rules of industrial era universities. Through my company, FusionVirtual, I’ve begun planning a project to tackle these questions and challenges. I challenge each and every one to do the same. Don’t accept the status quo. Stop enabling the continuation of 20th Century education – an education platform that has begun to alienate digital natives. Emerging learners are not only capable, but ready and waiting for new educational solutions that are not based upon the control of information and limited interaction. The old models are broken. We have reached the point where we have the technology to truly educate.
Thoughts? Observations? Eager to share your answers to the questions above? Please leave a comment below.