Education is Life Long
What Nate is doing:
I believe in the concept of networked or curated learning. There are so many resources available at such wildly varied prices that it’s very difficult to tell what’s the best resource for learning a new skill. Everyone learns differently whether from books, videos and chats online or in a traditional classroom. I try to bring the most valuable and economical solutions to students in a complete way. I teach students not only how to do things but how they can pursue further learning. Learning begins in the classroom. If you make learning exciting students will want to experience more. My job as a teacher is to show them how.
Overview
There’s a paradigm shift happening right now in education. We used to believe that you learn what you need for life in four years in college, then you get a career that you work in until retirement. The financial recession and raising student debt has called into question the traditional value proposition that college always leads to more money. The reality for most of us now is that what we learn today doesn’t always prepare us for the world ten years from now. There are two solutions to this:
Everyone must learn basic critical thinking and entrepreneurial skills in order to analyze the quality of information. We live in a world of information overload. To stay on top we need to be able to recognize the difference between a huckster and a critic. We also must learn some basic entrepreneurial skills to survive. This isn’t to say all of us should be economists. But being smart about profit (not consumed by it) will move us towards sustainability.
Learning is lifelong. We must always be open to new experiences and accept that we will always need to learn new skills. The nature of the digital world is that rules change daily. Critical thinking and entrepreneurial skills will tell us which tools are the most relevant for us day to day but we also need to act. The future belongs to those who act. Even though there will always be things we don’t know we still need to strive to learn the skills that help us achieve our goals today.
