I am also the parent of an 8yo who is VERY hands-on about education and my day-to-day interactions with teachers, parents and other kids has influenced my thinking as well.
Basically it's not so much about innovation as it as about ACCESS and ADAPTATION.
Education is a RIGHT not an option. What can we do to make sure that every single person has access to a good education out of the box? What does that mean? My experience is that kids are hugely influenced by parental interests and influence. So I'd like to see solutions that involve the parent in the education process (without overwhelming them) - parents often use tech (iPads??) as babysitters. Instead, one idea that I had worked on (and hope to go back to) was to use mobile devices to create "teachable interventions" when parents and kids are spending time together. Having dinner in the restaurant? What's a good conversation to have with your child that increases their IQ about various things? At the grocery store? What's a good exercise to do for applied math?
Adaptation is also key. We have a one-size-fits-all classroom and that is unfair to both teachers and students because they are expected to handle all these impedance mismatches in limited school time. Instead I think there have been ideas like "Flipped Learning" that need more exploration. I'm personally invested in an idea that is combining voice UI with peer learning but I can't say more right now.
These are looking at kids. For education at high school, college and higher levels, I think the MOOC and online tools are great but they need to solve the huge problem of retention - what are the mechanisms to keep people falling off the grid? If we solve this issue, then I truly think we have a shot at extending these platforms to solve the access and adaptation problems as well. I have ideas - find me in NYC sometime and we can chat :-)
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We need an entire day and separate AMA for this.
If you haven't watched it, see Ken Robinson's TED talk ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_changin... - it changed my view a lot.
I am also the parent of an 8yo who is VERY hands-on about education and my day-to-day interactions with teachers, parents and other kids has influenced my thinking as well.
Basically it's not so much about innovation as it as about ACCESS and ADAPTATION.
Education is a RIGHT not an option. What can we do to make sure that every single person has access to a good education out of the box? What does that mean? My experience is that kids are hugely influenced by parental interests and influence. So I'd like to see solutions that involve the parent in the education process (without overwhelming them) - parents often use tech (iPads??) as babysitters. Instead, one idea that I had worked on (and hope to go back to) was to use mobile devices to create "teachable interventions" when parents and kids are spending time together. Having dinner in the restaurant? What's a good conversation to have with your child that increases their IQ about various things? At the grocery store? What's a good exercise to do for applied math?
Adaptation is also key. We have a one-size-fits-all classroom and that is unfair to both teachers and students because they are expected to handle all these impedance mismatches in limited school time. Instead I think there have been ideas like "Flipped Learning" that need more exploration. I'm personally invested in an idea that is combining voice UI with peer learning but I can't say more right now.
These are looking at kids. For education at high school, college and higher levels, I think the MOOC and online tools are great but they need to solve the huge problem of retention - what are the mechanisms to keep people falling off the grid? If we solve this issue, then I truly think we have a shot at extending these platforms to solve the access and adaptation problems as well. I have ideas - find me in NYC sometime and we can chat :-)