Future Learning in the Personal Ecosystem

And why education needs to earn its place.

During my more youthful years there were two predictions for the future that excited me. Partly due to the exciting future they offered. Partly due to the fact I thought they were actually achievable.

One was hoverboards.

The other was living our life online. A virtual existence where anything was possible. An cyber life so satisfying that we didn’t have to go out into the harsh realities of the real and unforgiving world. Except to use our hoverboards.

Well, hoverboards haven’t happened. But intriguing new tests by NASA and others suggest they may be on their way. And when they do get here, creaking bones permitting, I will be wheeshing all over town like I’m Marty McFly.

But what about the online life? Where is the digital diaspora?

The technology has certainly arrived. It just turns out we weren’t too keen to spend our entire existence in an online utopia after all. It seems we quite like the world we live in, despite all of its quirks and its flaws.

We do enjoy elements of that virtual existence though. Doing things that were often never imagined by the futurists of old. In the early years of the internet, we did enjoy splitting our time between online and offline existences.

The advent of mass mobile technology has changed that. We don’t really have an online and offline life. We have a life. Some of it online. Some of it offline. And a lot of it overlapping between the two. The differentiation doesn’t really exist anymore.

It’s more of a technology enhanced real life.

A Technology Enhanced Life

We interact with our real life friends online. More and more we have started to meet our online friends in real life with meet ups and conferences and the like.

Our professional, work based networks are not limited by geography. Shared interests and views are leading to people developing global networks.

Sometimes we search for goods online but buy from a shop. Sometimes we browse in the shop but buy online. At times we’re ordering online but picking up in store. We’re even browsing in the shop, checking reviews online while in the shop, before deciding to go ahead with the purchase (or not).

We use online info, reviews and recommendations to guiding us to where and how we socialise. How we entertain ourselves in real life. And the shenanigans that take place in these real life social occasions? We’ll they inevitably end up online. Unfortunately.

The various aspects (or nodes) of your online life now merge and interlink with with each other. And, significantly, the online nodes interact with the various nodes of your real life.

This is could be described as your personal ecosystem.

The Personal Ecosystem

And you know what? We have the onset of wearables. There is the growing allure of the internet of things. This is only going to increase the number of nodes and interactions that make up your personal ecosystem.

It will be an ever changing array of apps and experiences.

Your technology enhanced life in the bubble of your personal ecosystem.

An ecosystem that is curated with the aim of producing the most satisfying, productive and fun life for you.

So what will be the make up of these personal ecosystems?

Some of the nodes will be an almost permanent part of your ecosystem. For example, today they may include Facebook. Or your job. Perhaps going to watch a stupid football team get beat every other week. Twitter and Amazon quite possibly.

Others nodes may move in and out of the ecosystem. Like that time you used Runkeeper for a couple of months. And then for a couple of months a year later. And you’re going to start using it again soon. Honest.

Some seem like they’re candidates for your ecosystem but never quite work. For me that’s Evernote. Its just doesn’t quite work for me. Much like going for a run.

So what it is the relevance to education?

Learning and the Ecosystem

Well, we already realise the method by which learners will consume education in the future is going to change. It’s changing now. A growing number of students are accessing ever more online content. Already they’re accessing it more and more on mobile. And they’re doing this in shorter bursts.

Education is going to be designed differently in the future. The process of redesigning learning for the future has already started.

It will be worth bearing personal ecosystems in mind when developing these new designs.

The learning systems of the future need to be able to sit nicely within a learner’s ecosystem. And be comfortable and beneficial enough that it it becomes a long term part of it. Not a flitting in and out part. And not a part that doesn’t quite work despite the best intentions.

They need to give a learner all the tools to complete their learning. But at the same time, they must allow a learner to use their existing existing ecosystem tools as and when they see fit. Provide an online annotation tool. Provide a social aspect. Provide a communications system. But allow the learner to use their own if they choose. But still ensure that everything still interacts and connects nicely. The experience must remain seamless.

Develop for the Ecosystem, Not the Individual

The learning delivery systems of the future will need to have a broader remit. They will not just need to satisfy the requirements for delivering learning to an individual. They need to be developed so they play well with other nodes within a learners ecosystem.

Get it right and the benefits will be huge. A learning system that becomes a constant part of a learner’s personal ecosystem has huge potential. It has the opportunity to deliver something truly transformational for the individual.

And that is genuine life long learning.

Thanks for reading. If you think this article has any value please share and/or recommend. And you can always say hello on Twitter @steve_p_uk.

This article originally appeared on my blog.