Traditional educatinoal institutions under pressure –Why?
The developmental logic is this:
(A) The communication infrastructure of the internet plus powerful end devices allows to have learning situations everywhere
(B) The motivational factor of learning can be realized with social web logic (co-learning) plus personal tutoring via a learning platform
Result: Instead of sitting rather passively in front of a teacher in a lecture format there are now learning formats available, that are much more engaging and effective. And this is not a hymn to technocentric e-learning systems, but blended, life-long, hybrid, social, deep learning processes. A first haiku diagram about the new synergies waiting to substitute some inefficient institutionalized old school learning settings.
The upwards spiral of co-learning, co-creation and co-working
Connecting this with the betasalon yesterday: First, of course I do not restrict “coworking” to coworking spaces in the institutional form. But second they are great hubs for local change, breaking boudaries between working, learning, having fun, they are fine candidates for the new learning spaces we need.
Normally I am not a live blogger … now let us have a try. I am at BETAHAUS | SALON #3 UNIVERSITY 2.0 – the reinvention of higher education in the 21st century. Listening to very interesting new perspectives about teaching and learning.
We just heard Dale J. Stephens, founder of the UnCollege movement. He questions whether university is necessary to learning and personal development, and is challenging the high costs of college. Surprise for the skeptic: There is some statistical evidence that the absence of traditional school system is not the worst thing.
Hannes Kloepper, M.P.P. is cofounder of iversity, an academic collaboration platform and educational startup near Berlin. Book upcoming in March 2012: Die Universität im 21. Jahrhundert
Dr. Stephan Breidenbach, founding Dean of Humboldt-Viadrina School of Governance, recognises the pressing need for universities to stay relevant, and is actively working on reforming the way in which knowledge is created and shared at the university.
Debate / learnings
Now the debate has started and my first learning is that we have to be more radical in rethinking. We have to approach the “operating system” of the whole society and economy. Some basic concepts: The need of assessment and certification in a mobile world.
Question of power arises. It is about legitimation discourses and changing them. And if an institution is a system to stabilize itself how then can we have change in the instittuions? Can we (paradoxically) institutionalize transformation?
Hey, stop, an idea: Look for this in the economy (much more evolution power, mutation rate there than in the rest of society, you know Schumpeter …).
Update …. Companies, when the reach a certain size, usually create functional units for transformation (innovation department, R&D …) – or they even do open innovation, externalizing the innovation beyond the borders of the company.
Ideas from the debate now: Why not have cinemas for TED? Inspired for action.
How we work has radically changed during history. The social wave (with social technologies for networking, new concepts and mindsets to collaborate) has reached the working sphere for some years. E.g. there are 1.200 coworking spaces around the world now. And there is a new mindset in town with that mode of working.
Worldwide global-local event: #JELLYWEEK 2012
Today a global-local event starts to connect the growing community of coworkers. Up to now there are 206 jellies from 34 countries registered, some with even a program for the whole week. Never heard of “jellies”? Find more on the event website: #JELLYWEEK 2012
Close observer and an active node
To come close to these new phenomena/movement as a researcher and to promote and foster transformation (I know well, that these are two different roles) I was very excited about the opportunity to be a part of organizing this open, self-governed and swarm-like event. Or less paradoxically: To create (hybrid/orbital?) spaces for communication and co-creation in the spirit of Open Space and Art of Hosting.
Challenge: Building a coordinative space for remote co-workers
It is a challenge to build a Social Information Architecture having no budget, no coder, no databse – and in the shortest time of some weeks. It resulted in decentral kind of swarm design (the swarm intelligence hype may be over – but this concept is no fashion, but just a principle of construction). The structure is inspired by wiki thinking, but even more light, fragile, open and with a maximum of decentrality: A cloud of etherpads is having an essential role. Other “orbital” element: Google hangouts, e.g. permanent hangouts.
We are curious, whether this will work … yep, pioneering comes with risk of total failure …. “We”, that is Anni Roolf from Wuppertal and I as the core team. Anni is the initiator and founder of the worldwide #JELLYWEEK 2012. I am very grateful for the opportunity to create something new with her as a passionate and smart person. And we only met once and did completely remote collaboration with using, google docs, facebook, skype etc., a tiny dose of project management of basecamphq.com – and plain phone calls are still in use too. To get a bit of the spirit, here is a short message from a New Zealand space.
Update 2012-02-07-A:
The #JELLYWEEK 2012 was a great success
… and it was a huge experience and learning space to understand the phenomena, dynamics and the advantages of the diverse “connection and collaboration tools”. I will report on the learnings in a future blog post. For now I want to complete the post above with a link to the (quick and dirty) introduction video, an introduction into the light-weight “social information architecture” for the decentral global-local event.
"Seeing Red: Millennials Are Cooler With Socialism Than Capitalism" (good.is)
US millennials dreaming of socialist utopia (bad news)
“According to a new study conducted by the Pew Research Center, 49 percent of Obama’s biggest fans—Millennials age 18 to 29—view socialism in a favorable light, compared to 43 percent who view it unfavorably.” …
The free, connection-empowered, empathic individual – with self-responsibility and social responsibility
The mythology for decades has been: “Capitalism is best – for all and for all the world”. This mythology is still crumbling rapidly as the multiple crisis are not really solved. The fatal global ecological crisis is even in the shadow of the global ecological crisis. Worse: If world economy is “back on track” this means more destruction of the planet, as long as we have future-blind growth politics instead of economics following the social and ecological rationality, a system with inbuilt “sustainability and wellbeing loops” instead of the now dominating “short profit loops”.
In reaction to this destruction of faith the old collectivist “(blood) red” mythologies raise their head again. Neosocialist collectivist systems would be an awfully bad alternative. But: The ubiquitous internet connectivity holds a disruptive potential to redesign the political economy in a quite different manner than the ideological camps of the 19th century – capitalism and socialism – could ever conceive of. And: Smart green technologies are maturing and pave the way to a viable post-fossil society.
A genuine new system, with the co-existence of individual freedom, mass-collaboration and new “headless” value streams (eventually with nearly no banks and bosses) might be a possibility to develop. We have reasons for optimism. If anyone is locked into false alternatives – liberate!
Update 2011-07-19: There is a domain for that – and a first mind map of the essential idea. planetschool.net
planet school - mind map
I just applied the following text at awesomefoundation.org. Under time pressure I could write this in minutes
M Y _ A P P L I C A T I O N _ T E X T _
( t o _ a w e s o m e f o u n d a t i o n . o r g )
BACKSTORY
I have been working for the progress of corporates for 16 years. 2009 was a wake-up call for me. UN Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009 demonstrated the “systemic failure” of the political class. The PLANET is used beyond the natural limits. I know that as a foresight expert for years.
We have to thoroughly re-wire and re-educate politics, economy, society. Planet schools will be developed as serious starting points into a sustainable metabolism with the planet.
INSIGHT
It is not enough to know and to lament.
There are countless initiatives of change all over the PLANET, great local and global communities and changemakers.
BUT the elite of tomorrow, the leaders in politics and economy are educated “as usual”. The mindset in 10.000 business schools worldwide is Continue reading →
Business mit Social Impact – Gründen, Vernetzen, Verbreitern
Vom 7. bis 9. April fand nach Angaben der Veranstalter der “größte Innovationsworkshop weltweit” statt (1.000 “Soziale Innovateure”, idw-online.de). Die HPI School of Design Thinking, Potsdam, war nicht allein der Gastgeber, sondern das Zusammenkommen, -denken, -arbeiten war
"Das Ziel: Eine bessere Welt unternehmen - durch eine Revolution sozialer Innovationen" (www.visionsummit.org)
Zusammenspiel von sozialer Innovation und Social Web (Willi Schroll)
bei diesem Visionsgipfel geprägt von der Innovationsmethode des Design Thinking (visionsummit.org). Diese Tatssache ist ein erstklassiger Beleg dafür, dass die diversen “Social-X” Silos* in eine höchst fruchtbare Beziehung treten Continue reading →
