Education

There is so much I want to say about education.  A few factors have led to this topic being on my brain.

1. Fast Company
2. SXSW
3. SMU
4. Alvin Toffler
5. Brandon

Fast Company
It all started a few months back when I read an article in Fast Company called "Who Needs Harvard" with the sub-heading of "How Web-Savvy Edupunks Are Transforming American Higher Education."  This is a fantastic article about how college kids are getting frustrated that universities are not teaching more about new technologies and not embracing the rapid innovations happening all around us.  What it basically states is that colleges are stuck in the past and that the recent graduates are creating new forms of advanced education that will revolutionize the way learning will be conducted in the future. Thus the term "Edupunks" which is being assigned to this group of students and recent graduates who are working on creating new schools that are online and aggregate the best classes in the world.  I'm extrapolating a bit, but combining what I've read here and how I see the extensions of this article, what they are proposing is that some day soon rather than attending Harvard or Yale at $200,000 you'll spend $20,000 to sit at your computer and have access to the best classes at all the best schools.  Imagine going to NEW U.com and you can attend a class from Harvard one hour, then another from MIT, then another from Stanford after that?  You could actually compile the best education ever offered.

Now this doesn't replace the experience of actually going to a university, but heck, there are millions of people who want to attend college that either can't afford an ivy league school or even get accepted.  Under the Long Tail methodology, there is infinite space in these online classrooms thus making great higher education essentially available to everyone.

Is this a good thing?

If you are an elitist, you probably hate this idea.  All of a sudden it's not special that you went to Columbia or Brown.

But who cares? Aren't we a better society if more people are better educated?  Won't we have more innovation that leads to better health, government, food, and... education? I think so.

Read the article, it is really eye opening.  And exciting.  http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/138/who-needs-harvard.html

SXSW
I had a great conversation with someone who put together a panel for the upcoming SXSW Interactive conference in March. She is a graduate student at a major university who has studied and written in-depth papers on innovations in social media.  But interestingly enough, when we were talking about her panel, she explained to me how frustrated she was at her university which couldn't get their heads around her particular focus in the graduate program she was attending.  She was studying specific innovations in social media and the way we as humans are accessing real time information via the web, but they didn't get it.  They wouldn't support her because no one in the university understood what she was studying.  Meanwhile thousands of people at Google, Apple, Microsoft, Intel, Yahoo!, Twitter, Facebook, and on and on could talk all day long about this particular topic.  But not her university.

I told her about the Fast Company article.  I told her she was not alone.  And that things were changing.  But unfortunately probably not fast enough for her.

She was appreciative and inspired.

A quick parallel to this.  About two years ago I was at a party.  I was having a conversation with someone about how bad the record business was and she said to me, "you guys need to fix it."  She was referring to me and two other record industry vets standing next to me.  I looked at her and said, "We're too old."

Point being, at age 40 I no longer had the energy to change a business that didn't want to be changed.  I told her that someone 15 or 20 years old would have to do it.  Someone from outside.  Someone who didn't know anything about the business.  The way that Sean Fanning at 19 years old created Napster and it turned the music business on it's head.  He didn't know anything about the rules.  He just thought it was cool to share music online.

The people that will change the education system will do so because they don't know any better.  They are frustrated students who can't get what they want.  Just like a couple of kids who were frustrated that CDs cost too much and only had one good song on them.  Merge frustration, youth, and the feeling of getting ripped off, and you'll get innovation.  Sucks that it has to happen that way, but that's the way it is.  

SMU
About two weeks ago I spoke at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.  It was a tremendous experience.  I will write a separate blog about it where I basically recap my speech.  I was part of the keynote presentation where four of us talked about social media, but more about our lives and how we got to where we are.  We were there to inspire college students and prepare them for the world once they graduate.   

I love speaking at universities because I feel like if I can get to students early enough I can help steer them in the right direction and better prepare them for life after college.  I was lucky enough to know what I wanted to do in my life when I was 14 years old.  Music spoke to me.  I couldn't play an instrument but I loved the idea of being in a business that revolved around music.  So I dedicated my life to learning everything about the music business during high school, college, and after that.  But most people are not like me.  Most people don't know what they want to do.  I was the exception, not the rule.

So give me the chance to speak at a university, and I'll tell you what I did with that knowledge.  I'll tell you how I used my school, the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) to promote concerts, run the on campus music store, become the music editor of the college paper and be one of the directors of the radio station.  I'll tell you how I interned during the summers at record companies and how I became friends with people at record companies, concert promotion firms, and PR firms.

And then I'll tell you how when I actually got my dream job and was really starting to excel, the industry changed and the job disappeared.  So I started over.  But I took the same ideals and put them into a new and evolving industry.

And when you ask me what to study in college I'll tell you one thing... Learn to write.

If you do that, you will have an edge over 90% of the world.  Most people do not know how to write.

Take every writing class you can take.   They are going to be the most painful classes; they will drain you like nothing else. But oh the payoff.  You will excel in life.  You will convey knowledge, passion, and reliability more than anyone else you know or anyone else vying for that same job.  You will rise up the company ladder and when you find yourself leading others, you will inspire them with your words.

Trust me on this.

Alvin Toffler
This morning I was listening to Susan Bratton's podcast, "Dishy Mix."  I've spoken about her podcast before.  I really like it.  She interviews some of the most amazing people, especially people in my field of Marketing / Advertising / Technology.  This morning I turned on the iPhone and scrolled to the Dishy Mix podcast button and closed my eyes and put my finger down randomly on an unheard podcast.  And I hit Alvin Toffler.  I'd heard his name before but wasn't sure why.  Then Susan explained that he was the author of such well regarded books as "Future Shock" and "The Third Wave."  Ahh, yes, "I've heard of those," I thought with an excited and eager smile.  Very cool.  He is one of the original "futurists," one of the guys who predicted where we were going over 30 years ago.

Listen to the podcast, it is well worth your time.  But the reason I put him into this education topic is because he hit on something about 20 minutes into the conversation.  Alvin tells Susan that what economists don't realize or acknowledge is that different entities move at different speeds.  For example Businesses move at 100 mph while NGO's (basically not-for-profit businesses) move at 90 mph and Government moves at 25 mph.  Meanwhile Education moves at 10 mph.  Which led to Alvin's commentary on the miserable state of education and how most institutions are stuck in old methodology.

I'm not doing this justice.  Please, listen to this podcast:
http://personallifemedia.com/podcasts/232-dishymix/episodes/48389-alvin-toffler-road-race-21st-century

Brandon
Brandon is my 2 year old son.  And education is very top of mind.  My wife visits a new pre-school (what seems like) every day.  We are in the preparatory stage of getting our son ready for his educational path.   So what will Brandon face?

From the immediate public school perspective, at least where we live in Los Angeles, it looks horrible. Not much of an option.  It will cost us a fortune, but we'll figure it out and Brandon will get the best education possible for the next fifteen or so years.

As for college, based on that Fast Company article and the sea change that I can feel coming, I'm much more optimistic.  If he were going to college right now, he'd be at a disadvantage. He'd face the issues I described earlier.  He'd be a kid who'd grown up around technology and innovation but without the avenue to excel.  But when Brandon gets to college, it will be better.  There are just too many frustrated kids right now with little tolerance for accepting the ways "it has always been done."

Thanks goodness.