In between all the education oriented books and articles I read, I try to have at least one“non-education” book as my go to when I want to relax and “not think” as much. Currently, I am reading Thomas Friedman’s “Thank You for Being Late” as one of those books. However, as I was reading that book this week, I came across a concept that I believe ties very well into our current situation in education.
In “Thank You for Being Late”, Friedman points out, to understand the 21st century, he feels you have to understand the planet’s three largest forces: Moore’s Law (technology), the Market (globalization), and Mother Nature (climate change and biodiversity loss) are accelerating all at once and as a result are transforming the workplace, politics, geopolitics, ethics, and the community. In one of the examples, from the section on Moore’s Law, he talks about the technological evolution from programmable computers to cognitive computers and how, because of Moore’s Law, computers have become astonishingly powerful. Without going into too many details, the premise is that programmable computers “are based on rules that shepherd data through a series of predetermined processes to arrive at outcomes” (Friedman, 2016, p.99) and although they are powerful and complex, they are also deterministic, thriving on structured data, but incapable of processing qualitative or unpredictable input (Friedman, 2016). He goes on to say, “This rigidity limits their usefulness in addressing many aspects of a complex, emergent world in which ambiguity and uncertainty abound.” (Friedman, 2016, p.99). In that same section, he states, “Cognitive systems, on the other hand, are probabilistic, meaning they are designed to adapt and make sense of the complexity and unpredictability of unstructured information” (Friedman, 2016, p. 99) and they do not offer definitive answers, but are instead “designed to weigh information and ideas from multiple sources , to reason, and then to offer a hypothesis for consideration” (Friedman, 2016, p. 100). One of the more famous examples of a cognitive computer is IBM’s “Watson”, which you might remember from Jeopardy fame. It is this shift and, in particular, the description of how a cognitive computer is designed to process information that got me thinking about education..
In “Thank You for Being Late”, Friedman points out, to understand the 21st century, he feels you have to understand the planet’s three largest forces: Moore’s Law (technology), the Market (globalization), and Mother Nature (climate change and biodiversity loss) are accelerating all at once and as a result are transforming the workplace, politics, geopolitics, ethics, and the community. In one of the examples, from the section on Moore’s Law, he talks about the technological evolution from programmable computers to cognitive computers and how, because of Moore’s Law, computers have become astonishingly powerful. Without going into too many details, the premise is that programmable computers “are based on rules that shepherd data through a series of predetermined processes to arrive at outcomes” (Friedman, 2016, p.99) and although they are powerful and complex, they are also deterministic, thriving on structured data, but incapable of processing qualitative or unpredictable input (Friedman, 2016). He goes on to say, “This rigidity limits their usefulness in addressing many aspects of a complex, emergent world in which ambiguity and uncertainty abound.” (Friedman, 2016, p.99). In that same section, he states, “Cognitive systems, on the other hand, are probabilistic, meaning they are designed to adapt and make sense of the complexity and unpredictability of unstructured information” (Friedman, 2016, p. 99) and they do not offer definitive answers, but are instead “designed to weigh information and ideas from multiple sources , to reason, and then to offer a hypothesis for consideration” (Friedman, 2016, p. 100). One of the more famous examples of a cognitive computer is IBM’s “Watson”, which you might remember from Jeopardy fame. It is this shift and, in particular, the description of how a cognitive computer is designed to process information that got me thinking about education..
We have made our own shifts in education over the centuries as well. Starting from a form of “learning while playing & observing” as Hunter Gathers, to an “internship-like education” while working on the farm in an Agricultural Age, and shifting to “apprenticeships” at the beginning of the Industrial Age to a full-blown “education of the masses” via today’s school model toward the end of this same Age. However, as we are now well into the 21st century, there has been a call to make a shift similar to what took place with computers. Our current curriculum delivery model of education, in which teachers are the center of the classroom, whose job is to fill the minds of the students with what they need to know, combined with the development of students who are able to follow-directions (be compliant) and efficiently come up with a product (test scores) is analogous to our current programmable computers. These “programmable students”, like their computer counterparts, can be powerful and complex, but are also deterministic, thriving on structured data, but incapable of processing qualitative or unpredictable input. In general, our kids are great at following directions and taking tests, but even our best students struggle with open ended questions, coming up with questions, or knowing what to do when they don’t know what to do. This rigidity limits their usefulness in addressing many aspects of a complex, emergent world in which ambiguity and uncertainty abound.
These “programmable students” are the product of the system in which they were “manufactured” It is a system that is not broken in that it gives us the product it was designed to produce. Students who are, for the most part, compliant (able to follow directions) and are “designed” to find answers with few mistakes made. How many times do we as educators ask a question to our students that we already know the answer? How many times do students expect us to know the answer because we are the teacher? When you live in an answer driven environment, you only ask questions you know the answers to and you only answer questions for which you know how to respond to the question . Very little risk of failure on either side takes place and as a result learning or growth is stunted. Asking a question to which you don’t know the answer can be complex and messy. However, in his book, “A More Beautiful Question”, Warren Berger points out “Part of being able to tackle complex and difficult questions is accepting that there is nothing wrong with not knowing” (Berger, 2014, p.186).
If you remember “cognitive computers” function differently than “programmable computers” just like “cognitive students”, the kind of student we should be nurturing in the 21st century, processes information differently than our traditional “programmable student” model. Students today should be able to be probabilistic, meaning they are able to adapt and make sense of the complexity and unpredictability of unstructured information and who don’t necessarily offer definitive answers, but instead weigh information and ideas from multiple sources , to reason, and then to offer a hypothesis for consideration. Sound familiar?
In an age and world which is constantly changing, we as adults have the responsibility to prepare our kids for the next phase of their lives. That “education” provided for our kids has changed as we have evolved and adapted to a world of Hunter Gathering, to Agriculatural, to Industrial, and now to a new age which is moving so fast that our kids need to know what to do when they don’t know what to do. Each “educational system” worked for the age in which it was designed to function, but a shift was necessary at each step in order for our kids to adapt and thrive for that particular time. Today is no different as we enter into a new age. I am excited to be part of this evolution, one in which I believe we need to look at Schools as a Greenhouse instead of a factory or business. It is the one “system” that will help our students to be more “cognitive” and ultimately more prepared for the acceleration taking place in the 21st century to which Friedman has alluded.
In an age and world which is constantly changing, we as adults have the responsibility to prepare our kids for the next phase of their lives. That “education” provided for our kids has changed as we have evolved and adapted to a world of Hunter Gathering, to Agriculatural, to Industrial, and now to a new age which is moving so fast that our kids need to know what to do when they don’t know what to do. Each “educational system” worked for the age in which it was designed to function, but a shift was necessary at each step in order for our kids to adapt and thrive for that particular time. Today is no different as we enter into a new age. I am excited to be part of this evolution, one in which I believe we need to look at Schools as a Greenhouse instead of a factory or business. It is the one “system” that will help our students to be more “cognitive” and ultimately more prepared for the acceleration taking place in the 21st century to which Friedman has alluded.
References
Berger, Warren (2014). A More Beautiful Question. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Friedman, Thomas (2016). Thank You for Being Late. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
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