Toward Society 3.0: A New Paradigm for 21st
century education
John Moravec, Ph.D.
University of Minnesota
September 26, 2008
www.educationfutures.com
@moravec
The “dot-zero-ization”
of everything has
become the mullet of
the 21st
century.
Disclaimer
Agenda
Societies 1.0 – 3.0
So what?
What now?
Society 1.0
Agricultural (18th century)
• Family based enterprises
• Kids learned at home
• Kids worked at home
• Kids were engaged cross-generationally
• Adults could learn from kids
• Kids contributed at all economic levels
Industrial (19th and 20th centuries)
• Industrial economy• Job/wage/salary based enterprises• Kids learned increasingly at schools• Kids worked at low level, sometimes
dangerous jobs• Kids were engaged cross-generationally as
chattel, hirelings, or de facto (and de jure) slaves
• Kids learned from adults within division of age and labor formats
• Kids still contributed at all economic levels
Information Age
• Interpreted data
• Hierarchical
• Siloed jobs and roles
• Chaos and ambiguity are eschewed
Society 2.0
Knowledge Age
• Interpreted information
• Personally-constructed meanings
• Socially-constructed meanings
• Chaos and ambiguity are managed
A cut-and-paste culture
• Hip-hop
• YouTube
• Blogs
• Wikis
Examples of Society 2.0 cultural products:
• This presentation
• Frank Sinatra’s “Duets”
• Wikipedia
140
Citizen Journalists
Citizen Scientists
• Audubon society’s bird count
• SETI@Home, Folding@Home, Stardust@Home, etc.
• Moonshot
Citizen Capitalists in Democratized Markets
• Global markets for ideas
• Global markets for talent
• Global markets for products
• Global markets for capital
What drives Society 2.0?
Globalization
Dichotomies
• Local vs. global
• Homogenization vs. heterogenization
• Periphery vs. core
Looking back at our home in the 20th century…
Concerns
• Piracy
• Loss of literacy
• Loss of cultural heritage
…and, change, change, change, and change
Piracy is as American as…
• The Star Spangled Banner
• 19th century industrialization
• Edison’s phonograph
• Hollywood
Matt Mason wrote a great book on this (and Pirates 2.0!):
Mason, M. (2008). The pirate's dilemma: How youth culture reinvented
capitalism (1st Free Press hardcover ed.). New York: Free Press.
How do schools make the mostfrom a cut-and-paste society?
Society 3.0
Three drivers of Society 3.0
1. Accelerating change
2. Continuing globalization
3. Innovation society fueled by knowmads
Accelerating change
Accelerating change,Accelerating returns
Level of Advancement
Time
What is the Technological Singularity?
• The Singularity is the complex, seemingly chaotic outcome of converging technologies (i.e., nanotechnology, molecular biology, virtual reality, robotics, and human integration with all of the above) … and social change.
• The Singularity is producing Trans-Humans and within a few decades may be expected to produce Post-Humans.
Looking back at our home in the 21st century…
Earth
Jupiter
Callisto
GanymedeEuropa
Innovation Age
• Contextually applied knowledge
• Horizontalized diffusion of knowledge
• Heterarchical relationships
• Chaos and ambiguity are embraced and attended to
Paradigm
Domain 1.0 2.0 3.0
Fundamental relationships
Simple ComplexComplex creative
(teleological)
Conceptualization of order
Hierarchic HeterarchicIntentional, self-
organizing
Relationships of parts Mechanical Holographic Synergetic
Worldview Deterministic Indeterminate Design
Causality Linear Mutual Anticausal
Change process Assembly Morphogenic Creative destruction
Reality Objective Perspectival Contextual
Place Local Globalizing Globalized
Sources of innovation in Society 3.0:
(access)
Open knowledge is the energy of the 21st
Century.
– Cristóbal Cobo
Crowdsourcing
Pre-1.0 Nomads
3.0 Knowmads
Knowmads
Accelerating change impacts the half-life of knowledge.
• The amount of information available doubles at an increasing rate
• The half-life of knowledge is decreasing exponentially
So?
Society 3.0 drives Education 3.0.
Education 1.0 Education 2.0 Education 3.0
Meaning is… Dictated Socially constructedSocially constructed and contextually reinvented
Technology is…Confiscated at the classroom door (digital refugees)
Cautiously adopted (digital immigrants)
Everywhere (ambient, digital universe)
Teaching is done … Teacher to studentTeacher to student and student to student (progressivism)
Teacher to student, student to student, student to teacher, people-technology-people (co-constructivism)
Schools are located… In a building (brick)In a building or online (brick and click)
Everywhere (thoroughly infused into society: cafes, bowling alleys, bars, workplaces, etc.)
Parents view schools as…
Daycare DaycareA place for them to learn, too
Teachers are… Licensed professionals Licensed professionals Everybody, everywhere
Hardware and software in schools…
Are purchased at great cost and ignored
Are open source and available at lower cost
Are available at low cost and are used purposively
Industry views graduates as…
Assembly line workersAs ill-prepared assembly line workers in a knowledge economy
As co-workers or entrepreneurs
3.0 schools
• Produce knowledge-producing kids, not automatons.
• Share, remix and capitalize on new ideas.
• Embrace accelerating change rather than fighting it.
3.0 schools are not…
• based on hardware
• based on software
3.0 schools are built on mindware.
Ambient computing
O’Reilly: We really are moving beyond the era of the PC into the era of ambient computing, where we’re interacting with the global network through devices that are sprinkled throughout the world, smart objects, and I think the next big thing is really not to do with the Web at all. I think the next big thing has not to do with the Web at all. I think it's beyond the Web.
Ambient awareness is socially-distributed thinking.
Ambient education means 3.0 schools are located in:
• Taquerías
• Universities
• On our phones
• On television
• In our imaginations
…everywhere!
• Bricks
• Clicks
• Bowling alleys
• Coffee shops
• Parks
• Subway stations
Caveat:Technology is key, but…
1. Technology is not the answer.
2. Technology must be purposive.
“Technology is a word that describes something that doesn’t work yet... We notice things that don’t work. We don’t notice things that do. We notice computers, we don’t notice pennies. We notice e-book readers, we don’t notice books.”
– Douglas AdamsJavaOne Keynote, 1999
A global race for educational innovation…
So what?
Society 1.0 schools cannot teach 3.0 kids.
No matter how hard
we try to cover up
19th century
institutions, they
will still be 19th
century institutions.
Lasting legacy of Society 1.0: USA in the 21st century
• Emerging knowledge/innovation economy is stunted• Integrated activities between adults/kids are highly
limited• Kids and adults learn less and less from each other• Adults anxious about/fear learning from kids• Kids separated from adults, following legacy
industrial economy model• Kids work mainly at menial tasks• Kids still contribute to all economic levels, but at far
lower levels than possible, feasible, and desirable
Schools should not use
new technologies to
teach the same old crap.
Key point
We all co-invent the future.
We’re all white belts.
Let’s start now.
The New Paradigm of Society 3.0
• Increasing importance of creative human capital
• Increasing rates of change
• Increasingly inaccurate predictions
• Increasing need to create preferred futures
• Increasing sense that kids must share creation of new futures with adults
…also…
• Today’s kids participate in an increasingly globalized world
• Industrial society has given way to the knowledge-based society
…which is already starting to transition to an innovation and creativity society (3.0!)
So, shall we live in the past or create the future?
• In which paradigm do we place our kids?
• In which paradigm do we place adults?
• Where do each of us fit?
To move from legacy millstones to new futures we must all learn to…
Leapfrogging…
• means leadership rather than catching up.
• means using advanced, purposive technologies to assist students and teachers
• technologies permit moving from memorization to creative and innovative knowledge production
• greatly enhancing human capital
Leapfrogging just ahead of changeLevel of Advancement
J
Time
J’
“New” workforce: 21st century– Global Leapfrog
• Emerging knowledge/innovation economy can get a quantum boost
• Integrated activities can partner kids with adults
• Adults are eager to learn from kids
• Kids and adults learn more about each other
• Kids and adults partner and collaborate, teaching to and learning from each other
• Kids work increasingly at creative tasks
• Kids still contribute to all economic levels, but with better distribution of effort than in the past
Leapfroggers also think…
• Kids should mirror the creative workforces first and foremost
• Functionality should be emphasized first and foremost
• Technology supports reliable functionality
• Each kid and adult is a creative
• Each kid and adult is an innovator
The future we create can…
• Help change schools to create the future
• Help lead the world in educational change
• Help bring children and youth into the knowledge workforce
• Help kids and adults work together creatively
“Innovate, baby, innovate!”
No failures.
Thank you!
Education Futures
www.educationfutures.com
Leapfrog Institutes
www.leapfroginstitutes.org