An education model for the future

Our existing education model is even more outdated than our electricity grid model. I heard an analogy once that stuck with me. No one expects to fly in a plane that looks like the original Wright brothers plane a century later, but we expect students to learn in environments that look exactly like classrooms from a century ago. The contrast is striking. Why would we continue to think this is right way to educate students for our modern world?

There is one key problems that I would like to address in this post:

How can we ensure that every child on the planet has access to the latest and most useful knowledge taught by the best teachers in the world?

This seems like an impossible task, and it is, but we can get much, much closer than most people might imagine. Here is how it might happen.

1. We live in a world now connected by the internet. Of course many around the globe do not have access, but that number is shrinking daily and I think we can expect that trend to continue. This makes it possible to connect teachers in one location to students in another instantly.
2. We can assess teachers and teaching methodologies around the globe based on subjective student rankings and the objective test results and performance of their students. Combining this data with moderately detailed demographic information from the students and controlling it for contextual factors like community wealth, etc., we can begin to identify who the best teachers are for different types of students. This type of exercise is now standard practice in the marketing world. Car companies know that if I like granola and have a college degree, I am likely to want to drive a Prius or Subaru Outback (for example).
3. We can use this interconnectivity and this detailed information on what teachers and methodologies work best for different students to put every student in touch with the best teacher for them regardless of location. Because of the nearly infinite capacity of the internet, any number of students can be assigned to a given teacher unlike a typical classroom.
4. I am sure some people, especially teachers, are balking at this point because where is the human interaction and teacher to student contact that is so important? I would agree that a human presence for guidance, answering questions, etc. is critical. That is why students would still be in classrooms, but instead of a teacher assigned to each, a teaching assistant would be assigned to each. This assistant would be trained in pedagogy and child behavior and development and some level of appropriate content knowledge. This assistant would follow up after the instruction from the leader teacher, likely in a remote location, with activities, exercises, etc. as designed by the lead teacher to be effective. Some activities would involve the whole group socially to develop teamwork skills, etc. and others would be highly individualized using computers to provide perfectly paced examples that adjust to the students needs and learning curve.
5. We know from excellent service businesses like Enterprise Rent A Car, etc. that it is possible to have a large organization and control service at the customer level in a way that provides a nearly uniform level of excellence. These techniques could be applied to this education model to ensure great support from the teaching assistants.
6. This model reduces the need to find millions upon millions of masterful teachers to provide equitable education for the world. Instead we may only need a few thousand, supported by millions of teaching assistants who would not need the same level of global mastery.
7. This model also supports highly individualized learning, ironically, because instead of having to teach to a class of 20 or 30, the teaching assistants can run students through a range of group and individual activities with constant feedback at the student level as described above. If a student outgrows a certain class by demonstrating an aptitude or need that deviates sufficiently from the other students, or proves difficult for the teaching assistant to sufficiently support, they would be moved to a different, more appropriate class of students. This could happen multiple times a year if necessary and as a result would not result in stigma for students. It would reflect the wide range of abilities and interests out there.
8. In addition, this system would also make it possible to quickly disseminate new innovations in pedagogy or content so that the entire would can learn quickly and there would be greatly reduce delays in information dissemination. I think the delays in pedagogy dissemination are probably the longest know since teachers currently go through school only once and pick up most of their tools then, with some support from continuing education. This would be continuing education on steroids.
9. Finally, all of this should be linked to the real world needs of today's world of work. Businesses, non profit and government agencies would all feed information on their workforce needs into a global system. Students would have chances all throughout school to test out different career options every step of the way. As they find things they are interested that correspond with projected workforce needs at the time of their graduation, they will be routed to the appropriate classes. This also may change multiple times a year if necessary. An underlying map of competencies ensures that competencies are tracked in chunks that allow students to balance the needs to explore their interests with the need to make consistent progress towards large blocks of skills and knowledge.

That is just a rough sketch, but I hope it is enough to inspire you to believe that it is possible to make speedy progress towards the goal of great education for everyone. Let's do what we can to move in this direction, or please propose your own alternative! Together we can design and implement a better system.