Promoting future proof education in the era of influencers

Is it education, or learning?

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about how education will shift from the traditional paradigm of education for a life of work, to one where we are moving at such a fast rate, young people will not be prepared for more change if they do not develop effective learning strategies or possess active learning skills. Many societies around the world remain certain that what matters most is the formality of becoming educated rather than the capacity each of us has to learn on our own. This certainty is held in place by belief systems and culture that is very challenging to disrupt. And for the sake of the young people we serve, we must think differently about the importance of learning to learn, how we define success, and what we promote as the optimal education foundation for continuous learning. I have Heather McGowan to thank for pushing my thinking in this direction, as I make connections to why the International Baccalaureate and others design learning programmes over discrete courses.

But shifting the thinking requires a lot of unlearning. New perspectives are more difficult to validate and discern because the world we live in and what has changed in terms of what we each believe to be factual and in a content saturated world, ideas based on little evidence have a string of supporting content that is often mistaken as evidence. My former Literature teacher mind wonders if this is what the origins of a dystopian world looks like. Now baseless sentiments, some of which are harmful or dangerous, can become “popular opinion” and cause people to take action. Our communities that are no longer locally restricted or geographically bound. Instead, they form as a cyber-collective or movement of people who are like-minded and consumers of the same medias.

It is easy to put this new normal into a category beyond the concerns we have for education, although critical literacy, learned empathy, intercultural understanding and global competencies are certainly the stuff that can counter some of the crazy we see right in front of us, everyday. I’d like to propose that the new normal makes it more difficult to communicate in every matter of fact. Now that we are constantly email and text message spammed by marketers. But this isn’t just happening in our personal accounts, recently I change something on my LinkedIn profile and suddenly sales teams have located my professional email and are trying to sell me products that have nothing to do with my work…

Why. Not, what

For those thinking differently about their marketing practices, seeking solutions that avoid annoying prospective stakeholders, customers, and clients, like you and I, is fundamental. We see a greater shift from making products and brands visible, to increased effort to engage audiences with techniques built on the why. Smart campaigns group the most attractive features together in a central digital context and then try to place themselves in front of prospects in new and attractive ways.

At the core, new marketing is based on empathy. What to people care about and why? For example, tech companies focus on why this digital watch will streamline your work and everyday activities by making the right choices for you based on your behavioral patterns. Wow - I want that watch! Any feature chosen to be front and center are identified based on market research - which is simply getting to know people and what they need, like, and how they use things. Some leading tech companies have been doing this for a long time because establishing a brand is fundamentally related to the way human beings form habits to enjoy the comfort of what familiar and relatable.

The digital world has made content creation possible for all of us. But what content is worth making? If we don’t consider what we do with the content we make, we will never get the message out there.

The era of influencers

Enter, the influencer, and there is no need to overthink this term. An influencer still is someone who has the power to convince people to do something or buy something. Influencers are one of the ways marketing campaigns are reaching audiences without pushing out advertisements, catalogues, emails, and text messages. Influencers are planted in contexts where prospects are likely to see them, and the algorithms built into our search engines, clicks and likes, and lifting language from the content we post publicly (and in some cases privately - Yes, Google is reading this post and that direct mention will add to the trillions of data points collected and processed by A.I.)

Converting a marketing campaign into a service is exactly what the influencer approach does well to tap into our experiences to attract us. Reflecting on the principles of engagement tied to values, desires, aspiration, and needs could inform the way education providers and institutions communicate the learning opportunities they offer and provide an avenue to shape new attitudes to learning and the purpose and place of education, for the future. It is important that perspectives held by students and their guardians are challenged, so a broader range of factors than the most conventional ones, become tools for choosing a challenging pathway with the most benefits. Today’s students will leverage their learning not only their education and do so, not just for their immediate aspirations for higher-learning, but well into their lives as they navigating evolving industries and inevitable change. Presenting the what of educational pathways only addresses one dimension of what needs to be considered when making these decisions. And students are more conscious of the why, want to know the benefits. They are accustomed to an immersive marketing experience that engages their interests and aspirations.

Shaping attitudes to learning matters for the future

It is worth thinking about how this reality has changed the way we talk about education and communicate the most important benefits. How are K-12 institutions preparing students to pivot, assimilate, adapt, and redirect though the way schools programme to increase students’ awareness of how they learn. For those already there, how might a refreshed communications approach advance stakeholders attitudes to lifelong learning.

What is featured on your school’s digital media platforms, what do stakeholders see first when they land on your website, what does this say about the IB education you offer students, and what happens next?

School learning succession: written curriculum

Most schools in the United States still require teachers to write individual lesson plans to document strategies for meeting aims and objectives. Few teachers receive any regular feedback on these individual forms. And most are required to write them again, year after year. In these contexts, compliance is more important than quality and improvement is isolated and often managed by administrators who are busy with a range of priorities. The reality is, that individual lessons plans are an outdated approach to planning. Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins published Understanding by Design (UbD) framework in the late 90’s and here we are still forward planning, in most schools, and trying to use data to inform instruction, without using tools that can help improve practices.

Backward Planning vs. Forward Planning

Why do so few schools backward plan? Perhaps because to do so requires more than teacher training, time, and a willing culture. It requires a system for which to organize the progression of learning. Learning experiences that is happen in individual classrooms miss the opportunity to ensure students are transferring what they understand and the things they can do, across contexts. This kind of cognitive flexibility is increasingly more important for the future of work (Future Jobs Report, World Economic Forum, 2018). To design a connected experience across subject areas and grade levels, schools need a systematic framework that empowers students able to make their own connections across their learning experiences over time. Wouldn’t it be great if each educator had a clearer picture of what students have learned and developed in the years prior, and what they are working toward in the years ahead?

Connected learning is systematic

The most successful learning environments in the are interconnected and designed to facilitate student driven growth. Many nations have organized education in this way so that there is authentic continuity and alignment. The International Baccalaureate has created this system and structure to be portable across more than 120 different counties and taught in more than 90 different languages. Systems and frameworks should empower innovation, not restrict it. So why don’t we see this kind of organization in United States contexts? When I have asked lead educators what systems schools are using to organize themselves around learning, some have suggested they use NGSS or Common Core standards, others have talked about the accountabilities for teacher licensing. The reality is, that none of these are systems because they do not interconnect. They are not designed to intersect, correlate, or integrate learning across subject disciplines and are perhaps best classified as base-line tools for quality.  

Bigger design thinking for US education

Governing bodies and local governments could think of ways to develop a flexible framework for developing teacher quality through professional development that is related to the approaches to learning designed to connect learning experiences across contexts. Why shouldn’t we work to develop a systematic web for which teachers build units of study that can be refined and redefined over time. A UbD philosophy and practice provides a basis to reflect on the actions and strategies that drive forward targeted improvement, rather than reinventing the wheel every single time a lesson is to be taught. Through use of a written curriculum, we also have clearer reference points for what can be done to increase student success. Perhaps with a well-designed system, we could determine appropriate times for benchmark testing, and use the data as one of the resources for which to improve instruction. 

Leave a legacy of learning

Units of work that are grouped around themes and concepts enable students to develop deep, enduring understanding rather than focusing on content in isolation. A designed and integrated written curriculum which captures the aims, objectives, various methods of assessment, opportunities for differentiation, and other useful strategies is the core of what schools need for construct a legacy of learning, for the future student groups, and future teachers. We should use the written curriculum to reflect on what we have tried, what worked, and to know where we are headed. Improvement of our practices should be grounded in the immediate future, and  for the years to come. Future school communities can will benefit from schools who have learned, and document this growth as a resource for the future. 

QUESTION: How do we build this kind of quality without a systematic approach across schools and school systems?