elearnspace

Over the last several weeks, appropriately timed with “back to school”, I’ve encountered several articles on the state of education. The focus is on two levels: education is out of touch with the needs of learners today…and education is increasingly expensive.

The education system needs an overhaul. The issues are: to what degree and on what kind of timeline. A few thoughts from Dave Snowden on innovation: “Some times of innovation are incremental in their nature
and goal driven…That said, there are times when we need breakthrough thinking, something I would term Eureka innovation. In this we gain new
perspective, create a whole new way of looking at the world. Interestingly such breakthroughs rarely arise from a structured process or a “creativity programme” but are a result of maverick behaviour or accident (look at the history of science for examples)….This distinction also helps us understand the role of KM in innovation. For incremental innovation it is about codification and distribution of knowledge and information, making and enabling connections. For Eureka Innovation it is about breaking patterns of thinking, avoiding best practice at all costs and sensitising ourselves to weak signals and new possibilities. We need both, and we need to understand the boundary between them. Practices that work on one side of the boundary will fail on the other.”