This is the title of a book I want to write…
There are many books that I want to write… There’s plenty written on what’s wrong with the system, but I think that something positive on what people could actually do to make it better would be a good thing.
I’d like to incorporate:
- Principles of embedded learning drawn from my work professionally developing trades and vocational trainers.
- Principles of lean thinking applied to education.
- Ideas on how to incorporate cool design and technology.
Target market would be anyone involved in education and training, and anyone who wants to develop their personal and professional skills when it comes to delivering information that is mean to educate others in any context.
Of course, the book would have to be a pretty cool piece of design itself…
Exactly! So many people complain about the public education system, but they do absolutely nothing about it.
Hey, thanks for the comment…! Part of the problem is that it’s about the easiest thing to blame (amongst a whole bunch of things). I’m sure though there are plenty of people doing something about it. However, I bet they’re all too busy doing their good work to stand around complaining about the problems…
I rather like the idea of “education” sucks rather than “learning” sucks. The question then becomes what is “education” doing that makes it such an unpleasant experience for such a lot of people? And why is this happening. Good luck with the book, but who will read it??
I suspect it won’t be educators….
Hi Janet.
Thanks for the comment…! Yes, I agree. It’s “education” that I’m thinking about… I think there’s plenty of analysis of what education is doing that makes for an unpleasant experience, and even as to why the model doesn’t work for life in the 21st century. “Learning” is the fun stuff and where we need to be focusing.
And you’re probably right, I’m sure it’s not something that academics would read. However, I think there is a more popular audience that would engage.
For example, anyone in business that has a product to sell is effectively involved in education. I think there is a role outside of government funded training for companies and corporations to provide highly contextualised and very specific kinds of education and training relating to their businesses. This kind of training does have a commercial dimension as they want to sell or support their products or services. This doesn’t address the whole “elephant” of publicly funded training, but it could provide a “work around” in some instances. As software eats everything, digitally delivered or at least digitally enhanced learning has to become pretty much integrated with our online experiences. Plus delivering education and training content for free online will drive people to their websites and products. So there is an economic driver here… self interest in other words.
Another popular audience is Mums and Dads and other interested people not in education. Just try asking people about their experiences in “education” at a dinner party. You’ll pretty much get pinned to the wall every time. I think people feel as strongly about education as they do about religion. But there’s a lack of good ideas. So my subversive agenda would be to equip them with ideas that they could then take back to their bosses, supervisors, and others.