The Public Knowledge Enterprise
The Public Knowledge Enterprise
Douglas McConatha
Contemporary educational structures are not meeting the needs of people in today’s knowledge economy. Our global society demands new approaches and tools to answer the IM from the Digital Age:
DA> We must create open, accessible and widely distributed platforms for information exchange and inquiry if, as a society, we are going to address the extraordinary challenges facing 21st Century citizens!
The public knows this, parents know this, businesses know, government knows. Only the traditional educational establishments and the newly arrived online for profit education businesses positioned to reap billions of dollars from this need seem unwilling or unable to recognize this sea change.
It is widely acknowledged that Americans are under-prepared to meet the challenges of tomorrow’s economy. Numerous experts have echoed Thomas Friedman’s distressing scenario in his best-selling The World is Flat, which claims the United States is slowly seeping down the economic drain because its citizens are not trained or educated for the skills, knowledge, and aptitudes they will need to succeed in the new global economy.
Friedman captures the urgency of America’s declining global competitiveness by decrying, among other concerns, the current educational system—a system attempting to teach (with limited success and expanding costs) the “basic R’s” but is increasingly unable to help people succeed in an economy that demands technological savvy, analytical abilities, problem-solving skills, and scientific and mathematical expertise. In short, say some experts, American schools have lost our trust by failing to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
The resulting impact on American prosperity, economic productivity and business development is already being felt by individuals and families in lost jobs, decreased opportunities and eroding personal security. The degree of awareness citizens share about the complex array of public and private initiatives affecting their lives also continues to diminish, due to a decreasing interest in and understanding of current events, news, and issues.
Given the daunting economic and social challenges our schools now face, we must come up with a trusted, cost-effective solution to ensure that all Americans get access to the education they need to compete in today’s new economic reality. In short, the issue is less about “schools” and more about what kind of education is needed and the expanded venues in which learning must take place. Again, a new solution is needed.
The good news is that we already have the capacity to educate millions of U.S. citizens in timely, cost-effective, comprehensive and user-friendly ways via new technologies that are just waiting to be harnessed and channeled toward this goal. Among these technologies are the innovative strides being announced by the Library of Congress with its World Digital Library, Google’s move into digitized and searchable texts from major libraries around the country and its “GoogleScholar” program, and the rise in mobile learning using the iPod, SmartPhones, PDAs and other platforms that are emerging almost daily. New organizations like NetSquared.org and TechSoup.org are rapidly emerging and are dedicated to sharing these and other technologies to help all people solve the problems faced by all people.
Douglas McConatha
Contemporary educational structures are not meeting the needs of people in today’s knowledge economy. Our global society demands new approaches and tools to answer the IM from the Digital Age:
DA> We must create open, accessible and widely distributed platforms for information exchange and inquiry if, as a society, we are going to address the extraordinary challenges facing 21st Century citizens!
The public knows this, parents know this, businesses know, government knows. Only the traditional educational establishments and the newly arrived online for profit education businesses positioned to reap billions of dollars from this need seem unwilling or unable to recognize this sea change.
It is widely acknowledged that Americans are under-prepared to meet the challenges of tomorrow’s economy. Numerous experts have echoed Thomas Friedman’s distressing scenario in his best-selling The World is Flat, which claims the United States is slowly seeping down the economic drain because its citizens are not trained or educated for the skills, knowledge, and aptitudes they will need to succeed in the new global economy.
Friedman captures the urgency of America’s declining global competitiveness by decrying, among other concerns, the current educational system—a system attempting to teach (with limited success and expanding costs) the “basic R’s” but is increasingly unable to help people succeed in an economy that demands technological savvy, analytical abilities, problem-solving skills, and scientific and mathematical expertise. In short, say some experts, American schools have lost our trust by failing to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
The resulting impact on American prosperity, economic productivity and business development is already being felt by individuals and families in lost jobs, decreased opportunities and eroding personal security. The degree of awareness citizens share about the complex array of public and private initiatives affecting their lives also continues to diminish, due to a decreasing interest in and understanding of current events, news, and issues.
Given the daunting economic and social challenges our schools now face, we must come up with a trusted, cost-effective solution to ensure that all Americans get access to the education they need to compete in today’s new economic reality. In short, the issue is less about “schools” and more about what kind of education is needed and the expanded venues in which learning must take place. Again, a new solution is needed.
The good news is that we already have the capacity to educate millions of U.S. citizens in timely, cost-effective, comprehensive and user-friendly ways via new technologies that are just waiting to be harnessed and channeled toward this goal. Among these technologies are the innovative strides being announced by the Library of Congress with its World Digital Library, Google’s move into digitized and searchable texts from major libraries around the country and its “GoogleScholar” program, and the rise in mobile learning using the iPod, SmartPhones, PDAs and other platforms that are emerging almost daily. New organizations like NetSquared.org and TechSoup.org are rapidly emerging and are dedicated to sharing these and other technologies to help all people solve the problems faced by all people.
posted by P. Douglas | 5:21 PM
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