Only the educated are free.
– Epictetus
In the ever evolving world we live in it seems like every field and every aspect of life are being disrupted by the emerging technologies and the internet. But is it really so? A recurring topic here at The Refinement Club is education and learning. How is technology and the internet changing how we share and obtain knowledge? The required knowledge to become a well educated mind haven't changed in the post-Berners-Lee era, but how we acquire that knowledge is beginning to change. Maybe the best example of this is Kahn Academy with their extensive video library and practice exercises. The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization with the goal of changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education to anyone anywhere. The content haven't changed, but the format has. Kahn Academy is democratizing the way we learn by reinventing how to teach and how to learn.
Coursera is also an interesting way of bringing the class room to the web, and expanding the campus to the whole world. As well as all the different classes from a broad selection of universities on iTunes U.
All this is great initiative which broadens the reach for the education institutions and gives the knowledge-hungry a vast amount of high quality knowledge to tap into. But it's still the same age old way of learning, only a little bit more lonely. How can we make use of all this great content and take it one step further?
Learning by doing
In school most of what you learn is fairly abstract, there's mostly theoretical knowledge being exchanged and it's hard to grasp what this knowledge actually could be used for. Experimenting and learning by doing is powerful tools to get the key insight and obtain hands-on experience with the things you're learning. Either it's physics, mathematics or art. Embrace the inner maker.
Take a look at this amazing talk by Bret Victor about inventing on principle.
Codecademy is a really good example of learning by doing. Where you learn the basic of the coding language JavaScript by being guided through tasks and assignment in a friendly coding environment in your browser.
Rethinking the liberal arts
In the Middle Ages, the liberal arts were synonymous with introductory courses in branches of the sciences, mathematics, and in the study of writing. Some subsections of the liberal arts are trivium-the verbal arts- logic, grammar, and rhetoric, and quadrivium-the numerical arts- mathematics, geometry, music, and astronomy. Analyzing and interpreting information is also studied. Experience in Liberal Arts gives experience forming and expressing well rounded opinions.
– Wikipedia
Expertise are becoming the standard and what we strive for. Most of us live in intellectual silos where we hone our skills and exchange our thoughts and ideas with like minded people. The Internet is only enhancing this with its almost infinite amount of information and content to please your intellectual wants and needs.
Even though it's extremely important with experts and specialication in different fields of knowledge it is also very important to nourish and facilitate broader and more holistic knowledge. Give people the tools to cross-connect disciplines and become hybrids who can utilize their diversified knowledge to unlock the undiscovered.
So what is the modern version of the liberal arts? What does the modern wo/man need to know to be able to execute his or her ideas?
Life long learning
...the internet makes dumb people dumber and smart people smarter. If you don't know how to use it, or don't have the background to ask the right questions, you'll end up with a head full of nonsense. But if you do know how to use it, it's an endless wealth of information. Just as globalization and de-unionization have been major drivers of the growth of income inequality over the past few decades, the internet is now a major driver of the growth of cognitive inequality. Caveat emptor.
– Kevin Drum
The Internet is a perfect platform for life long learning, it's easy to find what you're looking for and learn more about your interests. This is good for honing your skills and your knowledge, but not so good for expanding your knowledge field. How can we facilitate lucky discoveries in knowledge and fields of interests? And how can we create new and interesting learning platforms which encourage life long learning?
Embrace the creative mind
To push forward and innovate we need creative minds. People who see the unexpected and connect the dots. We need to educate individuals who thinks on their own. People who use the knowledge they have acquired and remixes it to form totally new ideas. That is what will take us to the next level.
How can we encourage individuality and unleash people's inner creativity?
Degrees
How do we rank knowledge in the new era of education? Is your degree from an prestigious school relevant when the same knowledge and skills are freely available? Do we need to rethink how we rate and acknowledge skills and knowledge?
Start small, but think big
Be the change you want to see in the world.
– Gandhi
It's hard to change the education system and there will not be any radical revolution in the near future. The system will evolve and be shaped based on our ever evolving world. So what can we do? Basically we should start doing it our self. Make tools, services, clubs, movements etc which we as citizens can use to keep on learning. We should pave the path to help the next generation to learn and obtain knowledge and skills in a more intuitive way, to encourage exploration and cross disciplinary sharing and exploration.
The power is in our hands and the reward for a more refined education and learning regime are endless and extremely tasty.
Join us in the discussion on the future of learning.
The Refinement Club