The Classroom of the Future? A Total Disruption of Education

For a long time, I have believed that we need to disrupt education.

I sat in many meetings and had lots of conversations trying to persuade my colleagues of the need for change.

What we teach? Too much of the content has become irrelevant. It makes no sense to teach the same facts year-after-year. Students can get the same knowledge quicker via Google. Also, we shouldn’t focus on skills that machines can do better and faster.

How we teach? It makes no sense to stand at the front of the room “lecturing” (read: transferring facts) when students don’t automatically listen or engage. Sure, we can try to force engagement. But what does that achieve?

When we teach? A two-hour class every week at a fixed time? The digital world offers so many more opportunities to interact with students. Can’t we at least experiment with different formats?

And, don’t get me started about examinations. Encouraging students to pull “all-nighters” to memorize facts, just to pass a test. It seems so twentieth century.

Education needed a “bit” of creative destruction.

But, no one listened. Any victories were slow and hard-fought.