Brown, Duguid & Education

Brown and Duguid draw a difference between possessing knowledge and utilizing knowledge. I think higher education does a great job in merging knowledge with practical skills by combining classroom learning with internships. I know I was a big fan of internships when I was in college (some good, some bad!). Getting hands-on experience outside the classroom allowed me to be social, network with established professionals, meet other interns, and concentrate on acquiring the skills I would need to survive post-graduation.

B&D argue education in the future will need to be flexible and receptive to forward-thinking. Technology has changed the college game plan a bit, as B&D point out, by allowing a wider array of people to attend college. The web has broken down the traditional boundaries such as time and distance. Of course, with all this new access to information we as users are tasked with paying more attention to authority and sources (B&D use the pursuit of non-accredited online schools/degrees as a cautionary example).

B&D suggest education in the future will be a lot more social in response to the ever-growing list of social software available and a generation of young people who don’t know life without Microsoft. Programs may focus more on group work and students may find themselves undertaking projects with students thousands of miles away. Students will also need to have opportunities to be more engaged in their communities and find out how they can share their knowledge with others.

The world will never stop changing…technology comes and goes, new companies are born, the population changes, culture shifts…much of education is a delicate balancing act between tradition and vision.