> The web has not been kind to institutions which supply authority-determined
> artificial collections of content. The music, newspaper and magazine
> industries are examples of what the web has done to enterprises engaging in
> this business model as it has opened up opportunities for users to make
> their own decisions about what content they want to engage with.
>
> Since schools supply authority-determined artificial collections of content
> are we next in line for disruption as the web increasingly makes it possible
> for our users to pursue educational content independently of our strictures?
> Or will our credentialing / gate keeping function continue to force our
> users to stay within the boundaries we impose?
Pithy observation, Fred -- thank you.
Both education and medicine have been authority-driven (credentialed teachers, licensed physicians, board certifications, state curriculum) over the past century, with students and patients positioned in subservient supplicant roles, largely because information could be and was centralized and controlled.
The Internet changes this forever. Students and patients can now exchange and explore information themselves at the time and place of their own choosing without the mandatory need to appear at the appointed hour and facility to learn and follow authoritarian prescripts delivered at expensive price. Self-managed care and disciplined self-education, both directed by information and methods freely accessible on the Internet, are affordable and effective alternatives, though in both cases some guidance and advice are useful.
The US healthcare system and US educational system are deeply flawed and unsustainable in their present form. In both cases a more effective alternative at lesser cost is required that will insure access, quality and affordability. The Internet plus global cellular coverage are the technology innovations with greatest promise for new models of care delivery and learning that shift toward self-care and self-learning. Patient-centric and student-centric are emerging paradigms that shift away from traditional authority-controlled models. Music recording, book publishing/selling, newspapers/magazines, travel arrangements, car buying, financial services, accounting/tax preparation, insurance, post offices, telegraph offices, even pharmacies have been democratized and personalized for delivery of products and services in ways our grandparents could not imagine.
Healthcare and education, both highly authoritarian, are the last two industries to computerize and embrace technology that disrupts their traditional order. But change is inevitable, especially when the old order fails and can no longer be simply repaired and patched together one more time. We are there for US healthcare and we are there for US education, both measurably inferior in access, results and cost compared to other developed nations. Change is coming. The future no longer belongs to the elder tradition-bound authorities who are failing, but to the younger imaginative innovators who are rising.
The most obvious shift is movement away from centralized controlled facilities (pay phones, movie theaters, concert halls, libraries, banks) toward a geo-distributed personal focus (cell phones, iPods, Google, ATMs), following the same democratization model of personal-capability extenders evolved over the past century that leveled the field for speed (bicycles), strength (handguns), and smarts (pocket calculators).
The same will happen inevitably in healthcare and education as these domains are democratized, and we can anticipate the same exponential growth in access and variety experienced by other fields thrown open to personal technology and unrestricted information flow, beyond schools and beyond clinics.
I think of my Anglican grandfather listening to the BBC world service every evening after supper, marveling that he no longer had to wait for his London paper to be delivered later that week to learn of the news. But he still had to arrange his schedule for the appointed hour to be seated in front of the living room radio. I wonder what he would think about podcasts downloaded wherever and whenever he wanted, listening anywhere anytime to anyone, while walking his dog in the woods. Better yet, his favourite church music selected by swish of a finger for the service he would conduct next Sunday morning.
Learning. Anywhere, anytime, anyone. Unfettered by authority.
=== Bill
William New
Retired medical professor, Silicon Valley entrepreneur and past trustee of several independent schools
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