“Resistance is futile,” believes Richmond: although existing educational institutions are not generally embracing a digitally transformed future, “the educational sector will be dragged into the future kicking and screaming by the next perfect storm.”
The above statement by Todd Richmond is from his presentation on October 19th at the DIY [Do-It-Yourself] Media Seminar held at the Annenberg Center. You can read the report of the event here. What Richmond is say is that the same chaos that blew away the infrastructure of the music business is about to hit education. My favorite bit from the article is this idea:
The precipitating phenomenon that could turn open educational resources into a detonator of change would be the advent of digital learning objects that go viral, the “holy grail” of DIY media production; Richmond cited the Chinese Backstreet Boys video, viewed one and a quarter million times on Youtube, as an example of “going viral.”
Why not Do It Yourself to make a bunsen burner experiment for the mobile screen that is so cool it goes viral? That’s going to happen, and education ain’t never going to be the same. And that is a beautiful thing.
October 28th, 2006 at 1:31 pm
http://struten.org
already offers an AP Biology course featuring asynchronous learning that is open to any student who wants to take it, not just those meeting a bunch of prerequisites whose only purpose appears to be making the school’s “success ratio” appear as favorable as possible. The costs involved are about one half to one third of what a traditional school charges the tax-payers at the same time that this course offers a money-back guarantee. Furthermore, this course offers a virtual laboratory in enzyme kinetics at a level of sophistication that is far beyond what the College Board recommends for an AP Biology course.
The future is coming, ready or not. Some of it is already here.
M. “Mike” Mychajlonka, Ph. D.