The 20th century led with dogma and demand. The 21st century will lead with creativity, inclusion and conversation. We are a “talk with” and “learn from” culture. We want to gather people together to share what is known. We are as interested in what is happening in rural Indonesia as what is happening in Manhattan. The insights of a 14 year old in India are as valuable to our global community as the insights of a Nobel laureate in Moscow.
So called “modern approaches” to learning are primarily extensions of educational frameworks first developed in the middle ages. The idea that making a video of a classroom (or of a virtual office space) and substituting slides for chalkboards just does not cut it.
As old as the failing model of “classrooms” but profoundly more adaptable as useful is the concept of storytelling. Human beings, of all cultures, have been conveying knowledge through stories for millennia. And yet, these dated classroom approaches persist in pushing information and data instead of shaping metaphor and telling stories that engage our souls as much as our logic.
It doesn’t matter if you “give a man a fish” or “teach a man to fish” if he doesn’t have a reliable FISHING POLE. Tools matter. The best tools are based in science and technology, drawing from a deep well of validated data to create insights that START powerful solutions on the right path, MEASURE progress along that path and ADJUST in the moment of need to PRODUCE reliable, replicable and repeatable processes for sustained productivity.
We are declaring the classroom dead. We are reviving the power of storytelling as the primary framework for sharing ANY kind of information – physics, pottery, parenting or gaming – let’s learn through stories NOT through lectures.