This is personal. As a father to two young kids about to enter formal education, I feel a need to foster a sense of awe and wonder in them about what they can achieve, to challenge them to move above, to move beyond…

I am no education expert, nor am I a pushy parent. I do believe, however, in the need for large-scale progressive change in what education means; and what it holds for our children. MOOCs are a functional change in the service offering of education. They move us in the right direction. but, quantum change, at extreme velocity, demands more.

Thomas Frey is an interesting read in this arena. (He has that most enviable of job titles: Futurist.)

Here, he imagines a scale reformatting of education; way beyond MOOCs. Our current arcane structures will not keep us ahead of the pack (the developing world; external and existential forces).

We need to talk more about quantum change, although it puts us in the fantasy realm of flying cars and meals-as-pills. So, I especially liked Frey’s idea of the 10X Speed-Learning Scenario.

Consider the following scenario. In 2020 a system is invented for amping up learning speeds by a factor of ten. Any person who spends just one hour a day with this learning system can learn the equivalent of a bachelor’s degree in less than two years.

I say:

Why not? 

and…YES!

What is beyond MOOCs, beyond formal education? What does life-long learning look like, at scale, at velocity? That is the conversation to be had, and the challenge to be set to our kids…

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