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?

Advancing access to world class education: IB Language and Literature

IB education has been opening doors to students for more than 50 years. Often regarded as an elite education for students described to be the “most goal oriented”, “academically driven”, or “most capable” , the Diploma Programme has been limited as advanced academics. But for more than two decades, public schools in the United States have been working to open access to any student who would like to participate, and going further, there are schools like Rainer Beach High School in Seattle, Washington and George Marshall High School in Fairfax, Virginia that have adopted the Diploma Programme as the only curriculum offered to students. Schools have shaped students futures, as a result.

This school year, 35 comprehensive public high schools from across the United States are strategically advancing their IB Diploma Programmes in a pilot initiative facilitated by the IB’s new Strategic Initiatives Innovation & Incubation (SIII) department. The project explores a range of enhanced support for schools to conduct the relevant and transformative IB self-study process known to IB schools as, Programme Development. Each school assesses their top barriers for school-wide adoption of the Diploma Programme Language and Literature course. Experienced schools and those exploring the idea for the first time share best practices in synchronic networking sessions and have been appointed an educational consultant to support their planning.

Joseph Obiagwu – Jacksonville, USA

“I found that believing in myself in the face of tough challenges was an obstacle that I had to overcome, and when I listened to people who believed in me, my perception of what I was capable of changed. ”

— Joseph Obiagwu

The project involves enhanced support for school-driven self-study process known to IB schools as Programme Development. Each school assesses the top barriers to school-wide adoption of the Diploma Programme Language and Literature course. Experienced schools and those exploring the idea for the first time share best practices in synchronic networking sessions and have been appointed an educational consultant to support their planning.

The new IB SIII department is collating resources that address priorities, identified by the schools as well as collaboratively with experts across the IB organization and lead educators to develop new resources that increase school readiness to expand the Language and Literature course to every student. The impact is slated to be significant. Among this cohort of schools, more than 11,500 students new will be included in one of the worlds most respected and well designed educational programs. That’s approximately a 67% increase in access to rigorous coursework for many students who may not have seen themselves as capable of participation, in the past.

But the vision does not end there. Just as many public schools across the country have embraced the IB as an opportunity to extend a world class education to every student, many of the schools in this pilot initiative see school-wide adoption of Language and Literature as the first step toward offering IB programmes as the primary curriculum for all courses, for all students. Fresno High School in California dove right into this endeavor, offering the IB Middle Years Programme, Diploma Programme, and the option for students to pursue career and technical education in the IB Career-related Programme. For the IB, the aim of this initiative is to collect, develop, and distribute the successful strategies IB world schools have developed to any school that wishes to join the movement.

Here is what Educators have to say about the benefits of school-wide adoption of IB Language and Literature.

What is the purpose of K-12 Education?

When I ask this question to audiences I have the privilege of meeting with, there are a wide range of responses. Some say K-12 is about helping students to learn to think critically. Others give a general and perhaps idealistic speech about preparing students for the future. While both of these answers are somewhat true and relevant, what are we missing?

If we review Table 4 in the World Economic Forum’s The Future of Jobs Report 2018 titled, “Comparing skills demand 2018 vs. 2022, top ten” (page 12), we should notice that critical thinking skills are at No. 3 in 2018 (as compared to No. 2 in 2017’s report), but slide down to No. 5 for the skills in demand for 2022. In its place are skills like “Creativity, originality, and initiative”, and above that, “Active learning and learning strategies” at No. 2! Hang on a minute. Active learning and learning strategies sound a lot like someone who is a lifelong learner. To have strategies for learning probably involves the ability to know when to research on your own, when to ask an expert, when to work with a team, how to source materials, how to evaluate your resources, strengths, and limitations. It sounds like something that would take quite a number of years to cultivate. Am I right?

The purpose of this post isn’t to answer the question I presented in the title. Instead, I hope we can begin a dialogue about where we are in education, at this time, and whether or not it is possible to actually prepare students for the future, if we don’t know what skills they are going to need. If you compare the lists from previous Future of Jobs Reports, it is easy to see the rapid change. There are skills listed in the 2017 report, that were predicted for the year 2020 that are no longer mentioned in 2018. “Complex problem solving” was supposed to remain at the top of the list for 2020, it was listed at No. 2 in 2018, and falls to No. 6 for the skills in demand for 2022. This is what rapid change looks like.

The field of education might need to reconsider whether initiatives such as early college, and a focus on individual skill development rather than integrated skill development, whether check the box standardised tests, and all the things we spend so much money running is all worth it. Do these things develop lifelong learners who will be active and self regulated in their learning, and equipped with learning strategies? Or will they hold a piece of paper with a list of A’s and a grade point average of 4.0 and the expectation that the completion now warrants college entrance, or a job. How can we shift the focus to learning in such a way that we shape the future for the next generation?

For further reading to consider the focus of K-12, check out this recent Bloomberg article “American Students have Changed their Majors”