We have already heard entrepreneurs claiming it; with the help of digital tools, we can create a different, even better, world. In some cases, we have actually also seen it happening in reality. But education; come on, it will just not happen there, because that is something totally different than developing Google, Amazon and Facebook. Or?
Around the year 2000, a financial analyst got a simple little idea; she proposed that the telecoms giant Ericsson should be analyzed using Moore´s law.
What she actually came up with was that Ericsson, in the future…either had to double the value of their products and services…or downsize by about 50% of their own employees…every second year.
Whoops…
Wasn´t that quite a bold statement to make? Ericsson had more than 100,000 employees globally at that time, 25 billion Euro in turnover.
What the analyst really meant by her statement was just this; we, as users of Ericsson´s products and services, gradually could, also should, get far better and more, but for far less. If not, then the company would, very probably, get into serious trouble as time went on.
The point is; she was right. But I don´t think that many people took note of her statement. Perhaps her statement was just too much to swallow at that point in time.
It is this simple little idea that explains why Ericsson, just a few years later after this financial analyst suggested it, found itself getting into trouble. It also explains why in some sense it still is in trouble, at least it doesn’t hold the same strong position on the market as it once did.
Now, the funny thing is…a similar statement can today be made about education.
Really, why not?
All this means, in practice, that on the overall society level, we actually can get far better, far more, education, for far less, already today. But we actually don´t, at least not yet – although some of us are working hard to make it happen.
But this also means that a single educator, already today, can provide far better, and/or much more, education, for something like half of the time/cost spent.
This is what is actually going on under the surface of the whole world of education. We just rarely see it this way. Perhaps it is because it can feel slightly mind-blowing to even think in this way, at least right at this moment.
We are gradually entering a different educational world because of this simple little idea. And really; it has nothing to do with what I happen to claim. It is because of digitalization as such, and people gradually taking note of it, gradually figuring out new ways to use it, in order to be able to deliver far more, far better, for far less.
We are gradually entering a different educational world because of this simple little idea.
Claiming that we can get far better, and far more, education, but for far less, is a pretty bold statement, to put it mildly. But it is actually a reasonable claim to make, now when we have digitalization all around us.
Really; It´s ‘only’ a question of ‘how’ to get there. It is not a question about if we will, or not, because finally we really will.
However one might wonder: will we be able to really believe in it, until we are finally there?
Disruptive Education 