In Ireland there has been very little progress made with our own technological and scientific syllabus — especially the one at the primary and secondary level. It is now a syllabus for a bygone era. Very little has changed in over twenty years, but the real problem in that there are not enough skilled or qualified people in place to implement the changes fast enough. This is where developing countries will have a a massive advantage. It is a time of opportunity and competitive economic advantage through being open minded and progressive in the area of education. Who would have thought it? :) Investments have been made in Ireland but mostly at the third level.
With the current pace of change we risk losing our competitive edge. There will be a massive race with skills and ever changing technology! There will surely be an opportunity for private technology schools to emerge! I believe the role of teachers will become more and more important. The teachers that use the technologies the most can expect more benefits. But it is ALL in the planning! We need to be able to innovate with what we currently have already and that might be a greater problem in remote areas where broadband access is not so great. There are learnings and take aways in what some innovative companies have done already. The learnings can be taken from them and applied to the educational sector.
Intuit is one of them:
http://www.businessinsider.com/intuit-campus-tour-2013-2?IR=T
To implement such changes as Intuit did, though the bureaucracy really needs to be put to one side. I think it will be a complete mind shift that is needed to help us thrive in the 4th Industrial Revolution. In particular from the educational side of things. The ecosystem for building startups is currently underway and there is massive disruption happening on the west coast of Ireland. Many incubators are opening up and there is a general awareness of something happening. :) However, it all still takes time. Time to think about something, time to develop something, and time to build it right. UX, UI and great design have become one of the most important parts of using technology intuitively.
It is incredibly interesting to think about how global all educational models will need to become in the Digital Age. The real question is who determines and sets the global syllabus? :)
