Want to 'Win the Future'? Start by Reimagining Education

The little red schoolhouse—full of bright-eyed pupils carrying satchels and an apple for teach’—doesn’t exist anymore. Innovation, collaboration, and social entrepreneurship must be the lesson plans of tomorrow.

New studies show that three-quarters of American college students would not be able to study without some form of technology—almost half said they can’t even go ten minutes without checking their laptop, smartphone, or ereader. Notes are taken with keyboards instead of paper, presentations are carried by flash drives instead of poster board, and questions are asked in pixels. Number 2 pencils? Haven’t seen one in years.

Our current education system is failing our students in two areas: area of interest and delivery. Our standardized approach to education is leaving all students behind. They see a world growing smaller each day, woven tighter by a web of digital and Internet-based connections. Unfortunately, we too often look at the flawed, underfunded education system with tired eyes as we dust off old ‘solutions’ to persisting problems.

The 21st century school bell is ringing with a different tone, commanding a novel approach to education. Education must be deeper and richer. It must be faster and more complete. It must be inclusive and more accessible. And above all, it must speak to our children’s passion for technology, mathematics, engineering, and other science related fields (STEM). Tapping into that innate curiosity is paramount if we expect to see innovative ideas brought to life.

We now find ourselves living in the Imagination Age, according to Rita J. King, Executive VP of Business Development at Science House, a period between the dark and grimy industrial era and the embedded technological revolution. At its very core is “collaboration, rapid prototyping, a deeper understanding of failure as part of the process and the ability to think in the long-term despite the accelerated pace of transformation”—an approach that must be adopted in schools, from “K to 12” and beyond.

Charles Leadbeater, a researcher at the London think-tank Demos and former advisor to Tony Blair, during his TEDSalon talk in London last year called for a new, imaginative response to our global society’s educational needs.

“Education is a global religion—and education, plus technology, is a great source of hope,” said Leadbeater. “Mass education started with social entrepreneurship in the 19th century, and that’s desperately what we need again on a global scale. And what can we learn from all of that? Well, we can learn a lot because our education systems are failing desperately in many ways. They fail to reach the people they most need to serve. They often hit the target but miss the point. Improvement is increasingly difficult to organize. Our faith in these systems, incredibly fraught. And this is just a very simple way of understanding what kind of innovation, what kind of design we need.”

According to Leadbeater, sustaining and disruptive innovations are essentially kindling to fuel the fire behind an educational reinvention. What the world needs, and at scale, is threefold:

• A radical inception of new ideas about what education could be—we mustn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger.
   
• Community efforts to supplement schools because just as much, if not more, learning takes place outside of the classroom walls.
   
• And transformational innovation to empower all the world’s citizens with information and learning.

When President Obama delivered his State of the Union this past January, he voiced an undeniable determination to win that future. They way forward is not to fold in the face of adversity, but to re-up with a new course of action. There must be a greater emphasis on math and science, on research and new technologies, on innovation and imagination. So while this nation is transforming the American Dream, shouldn’t we give the latest dreamers a legitimate chance of making it a reality?

It is a pass-or-fail examination and the big, fat clock on the wall is ticking. The choice is simple: we must evolve as educators to prepare our children, our students with STEM education in order for them to succeed in the future.

A curriculum built around cross-border, cross-cultural collaboration and tied together with rich STEM learning is the only solution. Why force our students to view their world through the bifocals of iron and steel, when they should be exploring an open sourced world of global connections in three dimensions? Such a dedication to innovation and entrepreneurship, when adopted by faculty and peer-educators worldwide, will shift the worldviews of students. They’ll analyze problems with systems in mind and see unlimited potential for change in interdisciplinary solutions.

That brand of education is the key to America’s economic growth and prosperity and our ability to compete tomorrow's labor market. STEM education is the root of success, growing compelling opportunities for relevant, vibrant, and up-to-the-minute learning. Can we nurture that nature?

Photo courtesy of pastel (cc)