I find this George Siemens quote interesting on a number of levels:
Higher education is searching for a new value point, a new narrative that communicates what it offers learners and society. Part of this new value point is communicating what the university offers in an age where the mediator role of content curation and teaching is now starting to be addressed through organizations or agents other than the university. The Internet is happening to education. As a consequence, many of the previously held value points (content and teaching, for example) are being in a sense, reduced.
First, as a parent of two teenagers, I’m looking hard for the “new value point” of higher ed for my own kids moving forward. I’ve been thinking about how the “organizations or agents other than the university” will play into their learning for quite some time, and I remain convinced those alternatives will play a big role in their ongoing education.
But more, I think George captures the challenge for K-12 as well. What now do WE offer at a moment when it’s not so much about mediating content and teaching as much as it is about finding and creating one’s own content and the sharing of learning and knowledge? I’m not so sure it’s a “new” narrative as much as it’s about the appeal that a interest based, self-directed, co-operative progressive education has right now. I mean what good is access if we’re not using it in ways to develop the important mindsets and dispositions of learners?
Read the whole interview.