FreshNetworks Blog

Classroom (Photo credit: Vitó)

Last week I got a glimpse into the future of education through the eyes of  two visionaries: Salman Khan (founder of the Khan Academy) and Martin Bean (Vice President of the Open University). Both speakers talked about how online learning has had, and is still having a massive and transformative impact on education, and how it has the potential to vastly improve society. Khan’s website now has roughly 6.5 million unique users a month and it’s videos have had more than 200 million, while the Open University has had more than 1.5 million people graduate from their courses.

What is the Khan Academy?

The Khan Academy is a non-profit online learning environment that was set up in 2006. Salman’s continuing mission is to create a world class education for anyone in the world at any time; so that there are no barriers for people to gain the skills they want to develop. With more than 3,600 online video lessons, viewers can master a variety of subjects at their own pace, such as maths, physics, history, economics… even how physics can be related to an NBA basketball player.

Khan suggests that the ability to remedy gaps in someone’s knowledge at their own pace is one of the websites greatest assets and is turning people who shuddered at the thought of tackling a long division questions into “mathletes” who are now entering maths courses at degree level.

Four aspects of the future of education

Four themes were common across the talk:

1. Access: Education was once only something for the extremely well-off people in society, but now with the global reach of the Internet and the power of online video, a world class education can be accessed by almost anyone in the world, at any time.
2. Agility: One of the greatest features of the Khan Academy is the ability to go off and master a concept in your own time, so that there won’t be gaps in your knowledge before you move onto the next stage of your learning. The Khan academy gives students the tools to see where they have gaps in their knowledge, and is developing a tool to send users relevant material and members who can help you progress to the next level.
3. Analytics: Khan and his team have been using the website to perform a wide range of experiments on the site, which they are then using to increase student’s engagement with the learning material. One of the best parts about online education is that Salman and his team have constant feedback about how users are engaging their educational material and using web analytics and A/B testing which they can experiment to make the material more engaging for learners.
4. Improvement: Growth Mindset is the idea that learners should be rewarded for improvement rather than their attainment. Khan has taken this idea and incorporated it into the website, by giving users motivational quotes during their exercises and has found that this has greatly increased the amount of time people spend doing problems and exercises.

Other education options online

Millions people are now regular using the Khan Academy to educate themselves and their families and come from a wide range of ages, incomes and geographies. However, the Khan Academy isn’t the only way to learn online and here are a few other options to think about:

1. iTunes University hosts lectures form some of the best higher education institutions in the world and is a great place to find great courses on a whole range of fascinating topics, such as “Principles of Nutrition”, “Playwriting” or even “Exploring the Hobbit”.
2. TED.com is a global set of conferences and lectures that was formed to disseminate “ideas worth spreading” and can be watched on smart phone apps or from the comfort of your own desktop. There are many interesting lectures from the some of the world’s most innovative thinkers and this is definitely a place to go if you are looking for something new to inspire you.
3. Lynda.com is an online training library that trains users to use a variety of software title, scripting languages, graphics design and web development platforms and also provides a handy section of videos to improve your business skills.

With all these wonderful learning opportunities, it is going to be amazing to see what benefits we will see from people grasping the many learning opportunities that are emerging online.

It wasn’t the invention of the printing press per se that caused a revolution; it was when everybody learned to read.

This extract from Antony Mayfield‘s excellent WOMMA presentation on social web literacy sums up nicely my thoughts on social media tools. It’s not the tools, per se, that are changing the way we communicate, share information and learn. It is users themselves who are changing – talking in different ways about different things to different people. Tools will come and go, users will develop and change with them.

From this respect, social media literacy is important. We see this in the online communities that we run at FreshNetworks – users are very familiar with some tools and less so with others. They are developing their social media literacy and use different tools in different ways depending on their experience. We also see them develop this literacy – such as has been the case of a team of first-time bloggers.

Technology should be invisible and it is the way that users use the tools that matters. You can have the greatest piece of social media technology that exists, but if people don’t know how to use it then it is of no use. At least not now.

It’s an interesting area that is often overlooked – technology is placed too often in front of users’ habits and the social structure of interactions online. For that reason, Mayfield’s presentation is Required Reading for this week.

Some more reading

• Energising word of mouth through social media
• Steve Woodruff: Getting Started with Social Networking
• Technology, newspapers, the future
• Monster vs LinkedIn vs Twitter battle heats up

I was interviewed recently for a piece on using Linkedin for networking. The article was looking specifically at how pharmaceutical executives could benefit from the kind of networking opportunities that Linkedin can provide. You can read the full article in the latest edition of Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe, but the interview got me thinking about the ways in which people can use Linkedin as a networking tool, and also how you can gain some (but not all) of the benefits that you would get from a community of practice.

Many people think that Linkedin is full of recruiters, and it probably is, but really Linkedin is a classic social network. But the very thing that recruiters use Linkedin for can also be of benefit to the members themselves.

Linkedin is a classic social network. It is a ‘me’ space, focused very much on the individual members, with their profile, interests, groups and connections. This means it is easy to find and then connect with people who have similar profiles to you, searching by keywords, employers, organisations of education. The problem is what to do when you find them. Because Linkedin is such a personal space it can be difficult to approach people and difficult for them to realise the benefit of connecting with you when and if you do. In a social network you tend to emphasise yourself and your profile, and people may not realise the benefit of connecting via this.

This is where online communities can really come to the fore. Whilst social networks are about ‘me’, online communities are about ‘us’. Profiles and personal connections take second place to a shared idea, interest, focus or topic of discussion. People are represented and known for their ideas rather than their profile, and it can be easier to find people who share common interests with you, or are working in similar areas, and then easier to connect with them. You connect through your ideas and shared interest rather than your profile. To some extent this is closer to face-to-face networking. Whilst some people will connect based on a shared company, university or club, real connections come from shared interests.

Whilst Linkedin is primarily a social network, a ‘me’ space based on profiles, the groups facility (if used well) allows this more ‘us’ networking that you get from an online community. I run a Linkedin group for Online Communty Managers, and it is a great way of finding and then connecting with others who share a common interest or experience. In this case that they all work in the same area and share similar experiences in their role and is about us collectively promoting community management.

These groups are the nearest thing that Linkedin offers to the topic- or ideas-centric online communities that offer greatest value from a networking perspective. From your profile alone it can be difficult to find people who are going to be of value to you. You know their employer, their education and perhaps some of their interests. It is in these groups that they can tell you what they are interested in, what they are working on, where their expertise lies and where you could connect. Just by joining the group, you put a badge on your profile that lets others know the interests or expertise you have. But you are better to become actively involved.

With a network liked Linkedin, it is true that the more you put into it, the more you get out of it. The groups (and indeed the Answers feature) are the best way to do this. Add to discussion in groups, post links to articles you find of interest, comment on other people’s articles, post your thoughts in response to questions in your area. If you take part in this way, you will become known for the quality of your ideas and your contributions and make it easier for people to find you as well as for you to find others. This doesn’t need to be a time-consuming activity – dedicate half an hour every Thursday lunchtime, for example, to building your Linkedin expertise and profile.

Build your personal brand and your connections and networking slowly, a little at a time.

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Some more reading

• Social Networks – Biggest Isn’t Always The Best (socialmediatoday.com)
• Facebook and the Reality of Your Online Content (briansolis.com)
• Understanding social capital: readings from the Web (ac-idealog.blogspot.com)
• The Secret Is Out – Social Media Is Work (einnoventions.com)
• Keep up-to-date with the best in online communities blogging (freshnetworks.com)
• Social Networks as Trust Building Tools (openmode.ca)
• Online Communities Meet Clinical Trials: Inspire’s Co-Founder on Social Networking, “Health 2.0,” and Trust (xconomy.com)

I have worked a lot in the past with Education clients, especially with organisations who were trying to ammend their offering to prepare learners for the jobs they might be doing in 5, 10 or 20 years. It was an interesting time and I learnt a lot. One fact that struck me was that the role of education is to prepare people for jobs that don’t yet exist.

I was reminded this week when I was thinking about Generation Y and how they are changing the web (I posted about this before) and the world of work. To some extent Generation Y is having a significant impact on both of these. The way they are plugged in, value peer opinions, don’t see TV as the main medium and their social consciousness (amongst other things) means that they are changing the way they want to use the web and the way they want to work.

Another way to look at this situation is that the web and work are adapting to meet the changing needs of Generation Y. A narrow distinction, but a difference nonetheless. Perhaps it’s the case that rather than being the driving agents of change, change is happening to meet their needs.

This then reminded me of a presentation I saw last year. This is the UK version of a presentation originally developed by Karl Fisch. It was presented by Microsoft at a Building Schools for the Future conference in London – a conference about the scheme that is rebuilding all British schools to prepare them to deliver the changing needs of learners.

I think the presentation shows clearly (and quite powerfully) that change in a variety of arenas means that the environment people  are now growing up in is different. If Generation Y has changed the way we work and use the web, then the next Generation is going to face even bigger changes and will have to adapt and adopt to meet these. Generation Y has changed the way we work and use the web. The real push should be to change the way we learn too.

Some more reading

• Generation Y: Too demanding at work?
• What Will Globalization Do to Languages? A Freakonomics Quorum
• Can New Media Be Taught in Schools?
• Who has more data about Gen Y: Facebook or the US Government?

For the final session of the day I attended a seminar on whether our educational institutions living up to the innovation demands of the 21st century. The end of the day is always a tricky session and a bizarrely-shaped room didn’t help matters, but I couldn’t help but feel we never got to the meat of an exciting and radical topic.

I have worked with a lot of education clients in my previous roles and have always been struck by how traditional the structure is. Just taking schools as an example, the pattern of a day is still pretty much the same as it was 100 years ago – pupils arrive, listen to a teacher or read a book, make notes and answer questions and leave. They all go to the same building, and I bet school days typically start and end at the same time the always did, with a bell marking the same number of breaks.

Now compare this with the experiences of a modern workplace. Companies and the environments they create have changed radically in the last 100 years. The same is not true of our education establishments, many of which pride themselves on offering the same level and type of education that they have done for tens or hundreds of years. I went to a university that was proud of just that!

It’s not that this doesn’t work, or that things should change for the sake of it. Rather that the education system is not making the most of the creativity tools and social media that we see in the business world and social enterprise.

In work that I have done in the past we have developed innovative structures for education. We know that a real barrier to education for those with low skill levels or on low incomes is having to travel to a school or college – they either can’t afford the time or money to get there or feel intimidated by being in an ‘institution’. Why not, then, take education to them? Build small and localised learning studios that people can attend. Link them together through the internet and social media to create small studios that truly feel part of a larger (if virtual) organisation. There are pockets of innovation like this but nothing substantial and sustained.

Instead we’re Building Schools for the Future. As one colleague in the education sector once said to me “We risk knocking down old Victorian buildings to just build a cleaner, shinier modern replica in their place.”

I think the education system isn’t making the most of tools to support innovation and it’s a pity the discussion didn’t get here today. Perhaps it was the end of day blues and the bizarre room. I know at least one of the panellists, Andy Powell the Chief Executive of the Edge Foundation is passionate about change in education and making it more appropriate to the needs of learners. Sadly an open and detailed debate on these issues too often never emerges.