Learning from the Extremes

Learning from the Extremes (pdf) from Charles Leadbeater and Annika Wong is an informative read exploring innovation in education across formal and informal learning, one of the more interesting chapters covers disruptive innovation in informal learning. From the whitepaper:

"Transformational innovation does not create alternative kinds of school but alternatives to school— entirely new ways of learning.

In the developing world, schools do not work well in many of the most challenging social contexts where education is most needed. A social innovation created in response to industrialization and urbanization in Europe and the United States in the 19th century may not be the best answer to the needs of sprawling developing world cities in the 21st century, where most people will earn their livings in small, entrepreneurial businesses. The developing world needs low-cost, high-quality forms of mass learning to reach the millions of families who are coming to cities and who want to learn. Schools are a cumbersome and often ineffective way to meet this need.

The means are now becoming available to produce transformational innovation of this kind. The spread of the web, particularly through mobile phones, will allow more people than ever to access information, knowledge, and advice from skilled teachers and their peers, to participate in discussion, and to learn by their own discovery and through playing games. We have only just begun to explore how the web might be used to promote learning."

Most of the case studies are more social entrepreneurial than technology based, but definitely food for thought. 

Posted via email from Design in Africa