Today’s DIY Media series talk on digital tools and the future of education by Bob Stein and Todd Richmond inspired a compelling meat-space discussion on the irrelevance of space and place in the digitized environment.

What will the future of education look like? Considering what Todd calls the “perfect storm” of technological innovation (mp3s, bandwidth, digital tools, social networking and common meta structures) it seems education, like other networked cultural industries, is in a period of radical transition. Todd thinks the future of education will have less to do with physical social space–campuses and classrooms–and more to do with online networks and information flows– Wikipedia and Google (or Googlepedia?). He thinks it will be more about virality than authority.

But what about the social aspects of centralized education systems? The most challenging questions under discussion veered away from technology and toward the role of education in society and the relationship between students, teachers and educational material.

Bob stressed the importance of imagining what we can do with technology to better education instead of focusing on what technology will do *to* education. And Sasha reminded us that educators and theorists like Paulo Freire and Agosto Boal (and I would add Henry Giroux) have long struggled with hierarchy in education and that any plans for the future of education should consider these idea about how to establish structures and practices that are liberating rather than oppressive.

Todd mentioned the buddhist saying “when you lose, don’t lose the lesson” to underpin his belief that education is often stymied by the fear of being wrong. This is particularly the case with educators, who seem for the most part loath to leave the comfort of the system that priviledges their authority. “Resistance is futile,” he says. What we have to to do is optimize the delta.

You can see Todd’s slides here and check out Bob’s work at the the The Institute for the Future of the Book.
Look for Howard’s discussion of their talk to be posted here soon.

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