The Future of Education : A Manifesto for The Perpetual University

THE FUTURE

OF EDUCATION

WHAT IS

THE POINT OF EDUCATION ?

Education in India is as ancient as the land itself. Tracing it’s history from the ancient traditions of the Gurukul, education was viewed as always open to all and a way to achieve Moksha, or enlightenment.

Education has always responded to it’s time and context, and has been the central tool in humanity’s quest to understand the Universe it inhabits.

The Ruins of Mohra Murudu, Taxila ( founded 1000 BC )

Image : Wikimedia

The teaching platforms at Nalanda ( 5th Century CE )

Image : Wikimedia

The prevailing worldview at the time of imparting education becomes an important tool to understand the context of lessons taught.

Through the ages, education has reinforced vocation, provided direction, and even supported large edifices like the Caste system and Kingdom.

Our journey

The Modern Indian Educational paradigm we are part of began post-Independence, with the setting up of a few important Government institutions.

Tasked with setting the vision for a new Nation and providing it with an able minded workforce, these Institutions were created to achieve India’s ambitious development goals.

Laying the Foundation stone for the National Institute of Education, 1961

THE NEED FOR EDUCATION, 1961.

Unification.

Cultural and Economic Development.

National advisory.

Modernising the country.

Uniform Educational system.

THE NEED FOR EDUCATION, 1968.

Radical Restructuring.

Equalise opportunities.

National Integration.

Linguistic standardisation.

Sanskrit and Indian Heritage.

THE NEED FOR EDUCATION, 1986.

Removing disparities.

Focus on Women, Schedules Tribes and Castes.

Expanding scholarships, Adult education.

Child centred approach, and operation Blackboard.

Open University and Rural University models.

THE NEED FOR EDUCATION, 1992.

Common entrance exams to professional and technical careers.

Standardisation and maintaining professional standards.

Resolving overlaps and stresses.

A SUMMARY OF MANDATES Nationalism + Nation-building Unification Enabling Industrialism, Commerce and Growth Servicing the vast bureaucratic machinery Consolidating narratives, history and our own context.

A very brief glance at the mandates for Education over the years allows us to track the development mandate for the country.

It becomes clear how the country’s evolution in Education is backed by Government funding, National interest and Administrative support to create the foundations for Educational practice in the Country.

IDENTIFYING

COMMONALITY

In diagramming these approaches, we allow ourselves a sneak peek into the Nature of the Beast. Most decisions flow from a pyramidical thought process, down the branches of a tree-like flowchart.

These processes are, in Deleuzian terms, “Arborescent” or “Tree-like”.

The basic model remains the same.

The Government sees itself as the seed, or germinator of idea and policy.

The first few National Institutions are convened as a primary tier to translate that vision.

The trickle down then creates the vast landscape of schools, colleges, universities and educational institutions we are surrounded by.

The Tree Metaphor, in-turn, creates the basic building blocks for each of these Institutions as well.

Arborescent thinking manifests in flow-charts and organisational models that follow this basic structure.

These models are defined by causality and a if-then, or problem-solution framing.

The model proves hard to move beyond, since this thinking is ingrained in our sense of self, where we’ve come from, and where we’re going.

Our very notion of Evolution and Family are deeply ingrained constructs, and stem from this same mental model.

We manifest Institutions that, in turn, create hierarchies and organisational control, setting up National cause-effect control mechanisms.

The Tree metaphor then creates vast systems of rank and file, allowing an efficient system of communication and control, to serve the vast Nation.

Our public institutions emerge from the same mental model, creating familiar interactions in our day-to-day lives. The Arborescent model that defines our sense of self can now be tasted daily.

It is how we build our schools, how we structure our classrooms. It is what we teach our children.

This is no longer valid.

THE MANDATES of

ARBORESCENT THOUGHT. To create efficiency in the workforce and fit existing organisational pyramids.

To create a productive populace to feed Industrialism and the Government machinery.

To prioritise intellect, the head, and academia.

To occupy all positions on the organisational tree.

The Nature of Arborescent Institutions directly create a culture of hierarchies, that define the experience of work, play and schooling for the vast ma jority of the Nation.

The invisible mental map expresses itself in attitudes in and out of the classroom, the so called “Sage on the Stage� metaphor of teaching, which is intrinsically top-down.

The Arborescent Institution aims to “Make Learning Happen�.

This is no longer viable.

What is the future of education?

A New Future.

A New Metaphor.

A New Organism.

A Rhizome is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes.

If a Rhizome is separated, each piece may be able to give rise to a new plant.

Commonly known Rhizomes include the Bamboo, Ginger, Lotus and Turmeric. The Rhizome is remarkably resilient, dispersed, and always exists in continuum.

Your Brain is a Rhizome.

So is the Internet.

These images are interesting.

One is a Neuron, One is a City, the last is the largest known view of the Universe.

All are Rhizomes.

We believe Future Institutions will actively “Let Learning Emerge�

The MANDATES of

rhizome THought To promiscuously collaborate and create multiple new beginnings.

To constantly create new interconnections.

To prioritise emergence, and allow connections to hold intelligence.

To spread laterally, in flat circles, with dispersed intelligence.

THE FUTURE

Is rhizomatic

The cause and effect Binary thought model has exited from most modern institutions.

Problems and solutions are no longer seen as mathematically precise entities, and this fundamentally alters the mental map we create to visualise Institutions.

The fluid trans-national nature of issues we face today, enshrined in a shared atmosphere of constant global connectivity eventually percolates down into our expectations of the University.

Is Geography an opportunity or a constraint? Is the size of the University more important or the bandwidth of your Internet connection?

Are the fees you pay your school viable in a world where the fountain of Education runs in continuous abundance at the click of a button?

The next few years Trans-Nationalism Global - Local symbiotic outlooks Inter-disciplinary learning and Processes Polyvalence and Multiplicity The Union of Seeming opposites

How to NAVIGATE a rhizome.

THE ORACLE THE BUSRIDE LAB 2015

THE ORACLE ( detail ) THE BUSRIDE LAB 2015

A few

OCCURENCES.

More people signed up for Harvard’s Massive Open Online Course in a single year, than all the people who have attended the actual University in its 377 years of existence.

“The volume and complexity of what we know has exceeded our individual ability to deliver its benefits correctly, safely, or reliably�.

Atul Gawande, The Checklist Manifesto.

The

future university

The Rhizomatic University prioritises the breakdown of Hierarchies.

A series of dispersed Labs and Classrooms organically grow around ephemeral interests, and are always visualised in adjacency to other dissimilar groupings. Interactions are encouraged and new connections are prioritised.

The Educator is a Facilitator.

The oft-referred to example of “Sage on the Stage” permanently replaced by the “Guide at the Side”.

A manifesto for the

perpetual university.

1.

Education for life & REGULAR TOP-UPS.

“During the last fifty years, constant scientific and technological innovation and change has had profound effects on how learning is understood.

Learning can no longer be divided into a place and time to acquire knowledge (school) and a place and time to apply the knowledge acquired (the workplace).�

Source : Wikipedia

In this sense formal education borrows from progressive learning environments like Medicine, where doctors are required to go back to “topup” their education periodically in lieu of the criticality of the job they perform.

Schools of the Future may therefore, continue a relationship with their students far beyond the traditional years we see today, also altering their educational structure to be able to part of the longer more productive tra jectory of the student’s life.

By mentoring and facilitating the student’s eventual vocational success, the school gains an active traffic consisting of every learner or educator who has ever interacted with the Institution.

With Students and Educators getting increasingly inter-mingled in terms of age, experience and credentials, the University of the Future becomes a Simultaneous Learning and Teaching environment.

This mix of highly motivated individuals would be perfectly placed to be empowered leaders and changemakers, and respond to topical challenges of Job-loss and mass automation.

2.

A SERIES OF PERPETUALLY ACCESSIBLE MODULES

I would like to make it so that education was a right, and not a privilege.

Even though there is rampant unemployment in many parts of the world, there are still large numbers of jobs that are going unfilled because employers are having a hard time identifying people with the right set of skills.

Daphne Koller, Co-founder, Coursera

The idea of perpetually accessible education is the new normal. Increasingly professionals are relying on online educational content to top-up their skills, and foray into new areas of work and practice. With the ever-increasing number of platforms that offer specialised modules, the creation of more meaningful and measurable modules is imminent.

Schools of the Future will have a large virtual counterpart, with a large onus on classroom documentation, so any experience in the real-world can be re-consumed online. The perpetual access fills in the gaps in classroom learning, and allows much wider, tiered access to a vast community of learners.

By continuously documenting and populating the vast database of available educational material, the University transcends time and space.

The University is then a catalyst for events that live forever in the shared mind space of the Internet.

Schools of the Future mix the Real and the Virtual in a seamless new reality. They will maximise the benefits of physical face-to-face instruction with the obvious benefits of an augmented Virtual support framework.

This hybridisation pushes both ways, seamlessly integrating both worlds.

The big ideas will emerge once both the real and the virtual exist simultaneously, forcing a new kind of learning experience.

Intelligent classrooms, supported by intelligent tools, with intelligent output.

3.

Progressive fees & INCREASINGLY free modules.

Internationally, and increasingly in India, entering a higher professional education sometimes mean financial bankruptcy for a vast ma jority of Families. With the University remaining relevant for a much longer timeframe, comes the added advantage of a tiered fee structure.

The University of the Future will adopt progressive fee models, following current trends in Software purchases. The time on campus may well be heavily discounted if not completely free, with the University then becoming part of the student’s eventual financial productivity.

The University then becomes a partner in the continuing evolution of the Student, blurring the line between Alumni and Student.

With shifted priorities and a more open accessible knowledge framework, the University of the Future will benefit greatly from the Sharing and Application of Knowledge.

Projects co-created with it’s active Alumni network may push the University to take on the role of enlightened service provider, and an incubator for future needs. The split funding model would also encourage progressive tracking mechanisms and quantifiable outputs, helping in an overall atmosphere of transparency.

4.

PHASING OUT OF EXAMS & QUANTITATIVE PERFORMANCE METRICS

Current research into the Neuroscience of Examinations highlights some troubling facts. The stress of the examination format forces the secretion of stress hormones, Cortisol and Adrenaline, that create a fight or flight impulse in our bodies.

We are effectively shutting down student’s brains to cognitive and rational analysis by the very format of examination, and then demanding peak performance within this impossible constraint.

With the availability of new data visualisation and dispersed assessment formats, we can potentially have microexams, that test repeatedly for cognition and understanding, that offer a much better assessment of the Students intellectual development.

The University of the Future will adopt a blend of virtual and real examination tools, to be answered and responded to at times that better suit the Student. We move the emphasis away from a Quantitative model to a Qualitative model, where presentations and regular critiques will create a dayby-day performance graph, which can be computed and analysed much better than the big single exam format. Educators will be able to customise courses for each student, and suggest daily augmentation, without resorting to the pass or fail binary.

5.

learning, unlearning & re-learning.

The Future University will be relevant to all ages, at all times in their educational lifetimes. This means that students will be lifelong, and be setting out on a continuous learning curve, with regular checks and balances.

The methodologies of Learning would be implemented along with Unlearning and Re-learning, paradigms that we will most urgently need to deploy in the face of huge job loss and automation.

The Rhizomatic organisation would leave the fringes of the University open to make new connections, constantly in a feedback loop with the learner mix, being light and responsive to changing world scenarios all around.

The Rhizomatic Future University is always in an intermediary stage, with promiscuous new beginnings creating new strands of inquiry.

THE END IS HERE.