With all the bizarre things happening around the world:
- pandemic
- economic downturn, the world’s growth/ growth/ growth
- me-first (especially promoted by the current populists like Boris J, Trump, Duterte, Bolsonaro…)
- global warming.
there may be a wonderful re-calibration opportunity for all of us. And work out what is really important, who is important to us and how can we change for a better world. By know you will have guessed that I like to make this amazing planet of ours a better place.
Fig: The Eloy from HG Wells Time Machine
I think this pandemic may be a strong signal that we should slow down, care for others more and realign our priorities. It also clearly shows if people think they are threatened, that they go to amazing steps they would never do under ‘normal circumstances’.
I am keen to work out what can be learnt from over a billion children (and many university students) not at their learning facilities.
- What can be delivered online in Khan Academy/ Coursera/ EdX/Udacity-style?
- Can learning knowledge and social interaction be smartly (partially) split and delivered in a more 21st century way…
- How can the very important social interaction be facilitated in the real world?
- And how is the currently promoted ‘social distancing’ and even in democracies mandated ‘self isolation’ (house arrest) going to affect all this.
I am interested to start a wider dialogue.
Here are some of my initial ideas:
1) education
- strategize how much content needs to be learnt vs how to learn to learn (is math, physics, biology, geography … should they be as highly rated as 200 yrs ago, now that we can google/ YouTube most knowledge..)
- what are key skills everyone should know: ethics, team work, decision making, learn how to learn, effective reading/ information processing, creativity/ innovation
- is the ‘growth mindset’ a good or not so good thing
- how to keep every child’s creativity and inert talents thriving vs. current one-size-fits-all
- what can we learn from different education models like Montessori, Steiner, Khan Academy/ MOOC,
- SWOT: what works well in education, and what clearly doesn’t. How can this be turned into a massive opportunity.
- promoting that education is key to unlocking talent and potential
- how about peppering just-in-time learning into knowledge accumulation (in business: a manager doesn’t need to know about supplier negotiations until he is meeting her first negotiation, she doesn’t need to know how to manage complex staff issues until she is facing it … can a shadowing of role models/ experts become part of learning these skills, a bit like a plumber’s apprenticeship for managers. What models could be designed for vocational, academic, manufacturing and other key roles in a very fast changing environment (over 3,000+ job roles vs. less than 100 even 70 yrs ago).
2) social interaction
- run joined activities: explore your neighbourhood (Abbey Caves, Marine Reserves, adopt a highway/ river – clean ups), sports, art (music, painting, sculpturing, singing..)
- have bump-in places (maybe repurpose central places like libraries)
- project work (build stuff like a tree house, knitting, cooking, caring for young/old ones, build a tiny house, grow vegetables, plant trees, monitor water quality, look after kiwi or other endangered animals…)
- play games together
- make music/ sing together
- voluntary help of the needy
- buddy up with someone who does cool stuff
- commit to give back at least as much as you have received
- challenge your and your group/ tribes thinking regularly
- have debating, philosophy, book, film clubs
How should the knowledge dissemination and social interaction be mixed best …
Please comment or contact me.
Northland Innovation Centre 