DISQUS

Thanks for the great summary post. I read the transcript and this is a bit better organized.

I'm really thrilled your team has brought such a strong group of people together to discuss these issues. Entrepreneurs and open education folks are definitely making progress and there is no reason to doubt that education will look significantly different in a few short years.

We, at NIXTY, think that the educational system will ultimately have to be an integral part of the primary solutions that arise. I don't think this is an either/or scenario, but rather a both/and situation. We can empower people outside of school systems (homeschoolers, those looking to learn a new skill) and those in the school systems through more affordable and useful technology.

Our goal is to launch in late July. If you'd like to be a part of what we are doing, then please sign up for our beta at www.nixty.com.

Jon, you've captured much of what we've been working on at www.nixty.com. Your diagram is spot on. We've got a few other tricks up our sleeve, which should amplify the network effects that you can imagine would arise from this type of architecture.

Our goal is to launch late summer. If you are interested, then please sign up for our beta at nixty.com.

The financial crisis, as well as the teacher shortage in urban and rural areas, will also amplify the move to online education. Disrupting Class my Christenen and Horn provides a plethora of data to really back this up.

We've been working on a startup to address these issues for the last several months. For more info, check out our blog and sign up for our beta!

www.nixty.com

Jon, I think this is a really valid point and I think developers and educators both play a role in making sure that this doesn't happen in the future. First, developers have to create sustainable business models that will grow in difficult economic times. They have to balance the free 'web 2.0' models with the 37signals type business models; or said differently, they need to find a careful balance between free and premium accounts. Second, educators have to be partners and understand the economics behind running a web-based learning application. Developers have to have an open dialog about this on company blogs and in other circles, so that educators can be informed and understand the different dynamics. e.g., why it is helpful for people to purchase premium account, b/c it helps subsidize the free accounts.

Thanks for the overview. Very helpful information. We worked through a similar process with some MBA professors at William and Mary (part of a tech incubator) and they detailed much of what you detailed above. Nice work!

Great. Thanks for subscribing. I'll invite you to the beta when we roll it out. It'll likely be the end of the year or January. Thanks again for the post.

Homeschoolers are often part of a larger community. This can be part of a church, civic group, or homeschool co-op. They have a lot of socialization opportunities, but are often sheltered more than kids who attend public or private schools. In religious settings, you'll sometimes here kids referred in a negative way as 'so homeschool.' The idea being that they are less socially adept. Clearly, many kids who are homeschooled are very socially adept and quite advanced academically. Some, just like in public school settings, are not.

I'm with you. Christensen is one of those rare thinkers who can really use theory to illuminate real life business things. Refreshing. His work with Horn is pretty fascinating. If interested, you can find out more at the InnosightInstitute.org.

Josh, in your first paragraph, you bring up some excellent points. I think for most people in the developed world the traditional accreditation process will continue to serve as a heuristic or shorthand way to vouch for their academic background and competency level. However, for people beyond that - people in trades where academic degrees are less relevant (ie., computer programming), and people in countries where the accreditation infrastructure isn't yet crystallized -- there is a need for a parallel accreditation system that scales provides a way of measuring a person's academic experience and competency. George Siemens, and others, have written on this under the heading of open accreditation. I see this as a key part of any enterprise that is really going to help shift things. If interested, then you can read more on our company blog.

Steve, like the post and agree with you that much is needed to significantly revamp the system. I appreciate the systems approach you are taking here. I write some on this in our company blog: www.nixty.com. Also, you reference Steve Rubel, but I think it might be Fred Wilson you are citing.

Abachman, homeschoolers are huge innovators in this space. Recent #'s suggest that this collective group is as large as 2 million and growing. Through consulting with several homeschooling agencies, I've learned that there is still a need for a practical way for curriculum to be shared online, a way to log student hours to meet state requirements, and a way for parents to feel safe and involved. I see homeschoolers as one of the main groups that will drive this disruption. Other groups include those seeking AP courses in rural and urban areas, lifelong learners, and continuing education for professionals.

Hi Fred,

I remember an earlier post where you discussed the need for educational games to be used to promote learning. This post seems another step in the primacy that education is playing in your thinking. I'm delighted to see that an investor sees value in this both as a huge revenue opportunity and an amazing opportunity to help our children, our country and the world.

The market size is truly ridiculous. Information week puts eLearning at 52 Billion in 2010 and growing (http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/sh...). Christensen (yes, that one), Johnson and Horn have provided more figures, charts, and data to illustrate just how ripe the educational system is for disruption. I highly, highly, highly recommend their book: Disrupting Class: How Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns (http://www.amazon.com/Disrupting-Class-Disrupti...)
've consulted with Michael Horn a couple of times and I think that he'd be a phenomenal thinker to invite to your colloquium series. He is really sharp, humble, and has been thinking through these things for years.

At NIXTY, we've been working hard on solving these problems too. We are still developing our service, but would love any feedback on our thinking and/or intro video that you can find at www.nixty.com. Finally, for those of you who are more academically inclined, I've got an intro post up for a journal that will be coming out in January. You can find that post here: http://mfeldstein.com/web-20-lms-opportunities-...

Fred, I am also very interested in attending the seminars you put on. I'd also be delighted to help out in any way that would be helpful. I see cooperation as a critical aspect to solving this puzzle so would love to be a part of a dialog and effort to help solve these problems.

I think this tension between the institution and the individual is key. I'm with you Jon in that I don't think it is an either/or scenario, but a both/and scenario. However, getting at it so both the institution is happy and the individual is happy is going to be challenging. We think providing solutions for both might be one way that that is accomplished.

I also couldn't agree with you more. I like the concept of the open learning network. Things definitely have to be oriented more around the individual than the CMS/LMS.

Yeah, I think when it comes to administrators and programming schedules (!) you've got to overestimate, so that you aren't too frustrated. Unique background; that's gotta be helpful b/c it seems a good bit of academic technology is about training people and navigating committees.

Jon, really appreciate this post. Your point about convincing decision-makers with a bit of honey, in my perspective, is right on target. Sometimes it seems that some folks in the ed-tech space can be a bit harsh on these folks. Change is incremental and I think we have to find ways to make it very attractive to them for change and then bet on it taking 2x longer than we initially estimated. I wrote more over on Michael's e-Literate blog.

I also couldn't agree with you more. The paradigms that currently drive much of education really need to be updated. Serious games, or educational gaming, is going to be a key part of this process. I also really like the idea of teaching kids how to program games. We are hopeful that there will be a number of games that integrate with the OpenSocial API, so that educational gaming can occur across social networks and around the Web. It'll be great when educational gaming becomes part of the overall educational process. At nixty.com, we are hopeful that different school districts, fields, areas - more broadly, tribes - will compete with one another and help each other learn. I posted something along these lines here: http://nixty.com/blog/2008/05/13/opensocial-for....

Janet - yes, I totally agree, value is key. People have to want to do something. It really has to be intrinsic. What we are trying to provide is a platform on which others can add value - whether they be institutions, educators, or students. I think each of these groups find value in different ways.

Institutions often keep communities/LMS alive because they have to - they are the lifeblood of the school, college, or business. Educators, from the little bit of research I've done, are seeming to find value primarily in sharing learning materials, networking with other teachers to share teaching tips/hints, having a professional/easy to setup web presence, and making money.

Learners are an entirely different category with a bunch of subcategories. These are very broad sub-categories, but they begin to hint at the value these groups might be looking for.
-lifelong learners - want to learn new skills and keep their minds young.
-test-prep - a place to encourage each other and find study materials to pass the GMAT, LSAT, GRE etc.
-students - K-12 and college - ability to form study groups
-homeschoolers - place to connect, share curriculum and share teaching responsibilities amongst parents.

I'm really enjoying this discussion. Thanks for posting on it. I plan on writing a bit more on our company blog on this issue.

I appreciate the breakdown and the honesty. Sometimes it feels like there is too much of a pressure to imagine that all social networks thrive; when, in reality, many just run their course. They achieve their end and then pass on to dead shark land.

I think another key component to this is that there has to be *something* that the people are doing w/in that community of practice. There has to be some shared goal or activity that is interwoven by the users. We are trying to create such a community at www.nixty.com. We think teaching and learning will be that special *something* that draws people to engage and truly help one another. We haven't launched yet, but I'll keep you updated. I sure hope we don't become a dead shark!