Back to the Future

by Dwayne Matthews, Head of School, Innovation & Partnerships, Ontario Virtual School

Where it started

The current form of K-to-12 education, as we know it in Western countries, is one of the many iterations of the Prussian education system pioneered in the late 1700s. The framework for this education system was decreed by Frederick the Great in 1763, making Prussia one of the first countries in recorded Western history to introduce compulsory education at scale. The model made it mandatory, for the first time, for all children between the ages of 5 and 14 to attend school. Children would learn to read and write from a professionally trained teacher; at an additional cost, students could also learn mathematics.

This pioneering form of the Western education system was enhanced after the defeat of Prussia in the early 1800s, and reforms were implemented with nation-building in mind. The creation of a unified education system helped to usher in a new economic era for Prussia. To create greater economic cohesion and increase the chance of regional prosperity, the model used a series of standardized tests that would help to categorize and organize a small selection of students for post-secondary education and provide a means to place the remaining majority of students into the various articulated segments of economic life. This model was the rudimen- tary precursor to the education systems we have around the world today.

The framework that I have just described leveraged the curation of critical-learning innovations and technologies that were available during this time period to capture the thoughts and ideas of thinkers across time, cultures and space, while empowering the user to aggregate information in a manner that allowed for the creation of new knowledge and value. The keystone technology was the printed book. While China had printed books for hundreds of years, this technology was now widely available in Europe because of the Gutenberg printing press. The 600-year-old technology was supported by the innovations of pencil technology from 1662, blackboard technology from 1801, and pen technology from 1888. This collection of technologies and innovations was leveraged strategically to establish formal education and resulted in the transformation of our spe-

Transformations From The Hts Community

cies, helping to create new social and economic realities. Once upon a time, 98 per cent of the planet’s population were farmers; today, it’s 2 per cent. We have an abundance of food (although we still struggle with effective global distribution), and one of the main reasons for this abundance is an innovative, paradigm-shifting technology: the printed book. Consider the power of the printed book. It started us down the path of being temporally agnostic. Books allowed us to aggregate ideas and the minds of thinkers through time. It also added complexity to how we connected locally, because we had more options for exploration and ideas. Once we selected a focus and purpose for this technology, we created an entire strategy around it and insisted that, for the first 15 years of their life, our children learn from this technology and its ability to transfer semiotic constructs.

The weight of books no matter how amazing their contents prevented us from carrying more than a few at a time. This meant that we spent a significant amount of time focused on memorizing different collections of information, in a series of books, organized in a siloed subject matter. To be successful at school, one had to deliver a perfect, or near-perfect, demonstration of memorized content by way of summative evaluation. This model made sense because our economies were primarily limited by current technological advances and the financial boundaries of geographic borders. As a result, economies were also constrained in the creation of value.

This education model was highly effective for a time, but it created significant inefficiencies within our systems and limited the types of contributions students could make to their collective societies. The reduction of friction between information and the distribution of information, coupled with a growing ability to see and understand each other, has created a series of circumstances that encourage a significant and emerging desire for change.

We are here.

Today, we are witnessing the birth of the fourth Industrial Revolution, where we have a number of paradigm-shifting technologies converging at an exponential rate. This convergence will have a profound impact on the future economy of life. Educational institutions around the world will require strategic adjustments. Regions, countries and schools that understand and prepare for this convergence will position students to maximize the emerging opportunities and solve some of our more persistent global challenges. These students will have a chance to co-create the new emerging economy.

It is worth mentioning that technology and innovation have always created an opportunity for us to express more of our humanity. In some instances, this expression has had a very negative impact; however, in more cases, it has had a very positive impact. Technological change and innovation have led us to grapple with balancing the forces of rapid change with the status quo and, by extension, stability.

Within this tension, we find patterns of innovation adoption that sustain and others that disrupt. We create habitual behaviours based on which technology adoption we focus on and then create intersubjective realities to support our habits. Some innovation-adoption pipelines are closed due to the absolute authority of the gatekeepers or those in charge. Other innovation-adoption pipelines are more open, with authority constantly negotiated between gatekeepers and innovators based on strategic intentions and value-driven objectives.

However, the fourth Industrial Revolution comes with significant complexity. This iteration comes with exponential speed driven by computing power and data storage. The speed of innovation makes it increasingly more difficult to create semiotic structures and intersubjective realities. For example, the smart device in your pocket is still referred to as a phone, even though the word “‘phone”’ fails to adequately describe the device. Technologies and techniques are not ends in themselves; they are tools that can be used to build strategies and protocols to unlock more of our humanity. Seeing them as tools, as opposed to ends, helps educators, parents and students foster a better sense of purpose and prudence.

The future of education is not a question of the metaverse or screen time, of in-person versus online. It is not a question of gaming in the basement versus playing outside. These are tactical questions that need to be based on bigger guiding strategic intentions.

Rather, we should be asking ourselves strategic questions, like:

• What are the articulated outcomes?

• What qualities and character traits would we like our students to have to allow them to adapt to constantly evolving innovations? What tools do we curate to help us achieve those outcomes?

• How do we know when we are on the right path?

• What are the milestones on the roadmap?

• How can we leverage digital technology and neuroscience to provide more access for more children everywhere?

• How do we provide more access for more of our students inside a sustainable disruptive model?

How can we personalize learning at scale to allow every student to flourish during and after school?

• How do we ensure confidence, trust and optimism, while reimagining the forms of outdated systems that no longer serve us?

• How can we use traditional and novel technology to personalize learning at scale, while helping us to provide for the socio-emotional connections we need to thrive?

Where to next?

This is an exciting area for growth because we now have a number of technologies and techniques that allow us to transform the future of work and the future of value creation, all of which have the potential to increase quality of life. Many of these innovations will also drive dramatic changes in the future of education, while providing the means to further unlock the human imagination. The standardized, centralized-location model of education is being transformed to one that is more personalized, geographically agnostic, and connected physically, virtually and everything in-between.

To meet this opportunity, leading global-minded schools like HTS are being transformed into learning ecosystems that not only meet academic requirements and augment cognitive abilities but also expand experiential learning across time and space. The timed orchestration of delivering personalized education, academic requirements, neuroscience, digital technology and economy is an imperative moving forward for K-to12 schools, because it will allow students to have a voice in the co-creation of new social and economic paradigms. This orchestration will allow students to uncover new passions, secure future personal prosperity and find novel solutions for persistent global challenges. Paradoxically, the right curation of learning innovations and models will provide students with more opportunities to delve deeply into their own humanity. The future of education is not technology-led. The future of education is human-led, purpose-driven and technology-augmented. I am radically optimistic about the possibilities.

Deepening Transformation at Holy Trinity School: