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I have seen a lot on education recently. Whether that is due to it being an important and prominent issue or simply an action of reticular activation due to interest, I don’t know. The great thing is entrepreneurs and passionate individuals are finally taking action against an archaic, aristocratic educational philosophy. With the rapid shifts and flow of information, traditional education is 10 steps back, maybe 100 steps back. Education tends to have (or has had) little competition as well, considering the substantial regulations regarding accreditation and other barriers to entry. The interesting caveat is that people don’t seem to care about “accreditation” as much anymore and new educational programs are sprouting up all over the web and all of the world, many having little to do with the traditional acquisition of ‘degrees’. I don’t mean to dismantle traditional education entirely, it has done wonders for many, only to say that creative destruction may begin to play it’s course, or at least offer some viable competition and an array of options and choices for ’students’ (however you define a student).
One recent post describes an open-source textbook company that is leaking into traditional textbook profits. See some on the company here from VentureBeat. The concept of open-source textbooks is a powerful one. Cost of production is near zero, updates are nearly instant so information is current (not 2 years old by the time it is in student hands) and those with access to solid educational resources is near limitless. Combine this concept with those of other groups such as Singularity University (Not cheap but innovative) or Seth Godin’s ‘free’ MBA program and you can see some interesting evolutions in education. Check out The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman as well. Here are some excerpts from Josh’s program manifesto:
MBA programs don’t have a monopoly on advanced business knowledge: you can teach yourself everything you need to know to succeed in life and at work.
The PMBA is more flexible than a traditional MBA program, doesn’t involve going into massive debt, and won’t interrupt your income stream for two years. Just pick up one of these business books, learn as much as you can, discuss what you learn with others, then go out into the real world and make great things happen.
Fast Company also released a recent article regarding education as well here. They called it “Who Needs Harvard?” which hints at the obvious direction of the article. It is very interesting.
This is just the beginning and I’m excited to see what happens in the future and plan on more about it, if not some level of participation!
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