Kahui Ako o Wakatipu keynote jan18 - exploring the idea of what education needs to be like by looking to the past to understand what shaped our current system, then to the future to understand the drivers we face, and finally to the present to consider what needs to be done now.

1. Future Focused
Education
Kahui Ako o Wakatipu
Cluster, TOD
Friday 2 February, 2018

2. • Where have we come from?

3. The mathematics of society
• Adolphe Quetelet 1796-1874
• Astronomy “method of averages”
• Applied to 5,730 Scottish soldiers
• ‘Average chest size’- 39.75 inches
• The ‘true’ soldier
• “Statue of the gladiator”
• “The average is ideal, and the individual
is error.”
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Adolphe_Qu%C3%A9telet_by_Joseph-Arnold_Demannez.jpg

4. The eminent and the imbecile
• Sir Francis Galton, 1822 – 1911
• From the wealthy, upper class
• Average is not ‘natures ideal’ – deviation
from the average doesn’t represent error
• Upper class are eminent, lower class are
imbeciles
• “If someone is Eminent they are likely
Eminent at most things”
Image source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Francis_Galton_100.jpg

6. Standardization
• Frederick Taylor 1856 – 1915
• Introduced ‘scientific managment” –
placing systems above man
• Provoked standardization of education
• Thorndike – “the main goal of
education is to sort young people
according to their ability”
Image source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:F._Taylor_1856-1915.jpg

7. Industrialisation of schools
“These educational Taylorists pointed out
that while it was nice to think about
humanistic ideas like educational self-
determination, at a time when many public
schools had a hundred kids in a single
classroom, half unable to speak English,
many living in poverty, educators did not
have the luxury of giving young people the
freedom to be whatever they wanted to
be.”
Image 1 - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:France_in_XXI_Century._School.jpg
Todd Rose; “The End of Average”, p.50

8. Industrialisation of schools
“These educational Taylorists pointed out
that while it was nice to think about
humanistic ideas like educational self-
determination, at a time when many public
schools had a hundred kids in a single
classroom, half unable to speak English,
many living in poverty, educators did not
have the luxury of giving young people the
freedom to be whatever they wanted to
be.”
Image 1 - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:France_in_XXI_Century._School.jpg
Todd Rose; “The End of Average”, p.50

9. But wait – there’s a problem
http://www.toddrose.com/endofaverage/

10. Ergodic Theory
You may use a group average to
make predictions about individuals
if two conditions are true:
1. Every member of the group is
identical
2. Every member of the group
shall remain the same in the
future
“Individuality matters”
Peter Moenaar
http://hhd.psu.edu/hdfs/directo
ry/bio.aspx?id=137

11. Our changing world
• Our world is changing and changing rapidly.
• What must we do to prepare students for living and working in the 21st century?
• How must our schools and teachers change to meet these opportunities and
challenges?
The
Future?

12. Year Million
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Xn6IDytVGw
How does that
make you feel?

13. Future shock?
“Future shock is the
shattering stress and
disorientation that we induce
in individuals by subjecting
them to too much change in
too short a time.”
•Alvin Toffler

14. Oh NO!
That can’t
be true!!

15. “The artificial intelligence revolution
and its impact on the US workforce is
not even on our radar screen…
…technology is still 50 to 100 years
from displacing human jobs.”
US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=11
825496

16. But wait!
What if it
really is
true?

17. An AI may write your next novel
https://youtu.be/XgTFYwolcsA

18. How was this written?
• “A shallow magnitude 4.7 earthquake was reported Monday
morning five miles from Westwood, California, according to
the U.S. Geological Survey. The temblor occurred at 6:25 a.m.
Pacific time at a depth of 5.0 miles.”
• “Benner had a good game at the plate for Hamilton A’s-
Forcini. Benner went 2-3, drove in one and scored one run.
Benner singled in the third inning and doubled in the fifth
inning.”
• “Tuesday was a great day for W. Roberts, as the junior pitcher
threw a perfect game to carry Virginia to a 2-0 victory over
George Washington at Davenport Field.”
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/03/08/opinion/sunday/algorithm-human-quiz.html

19. https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/ai-poet/
Poem One Poem Two
And what if from distress comes something fine,
And following this dress-rehearsal pain
Gives way to Joy, mistress of ardor, art,
And love, who sure this mess would straighten
out?
For Joy has no illusions of a break;
She brooks many ill fusions of extremes,
And shares her light ‘till few suns could compete;
Her binding love makes twos ones and keeps
peace.
So best not make a strumpet of this Joy,
Assert that she pays some debt with her smile,
Or name to her a numb set of stale sparks;
She never has succumbed yet, bless her heart.
Her love is full and indiscriminate
And even so you’ll find no sin in it.
The dirty rusty wooden dresser drawer.
A couple million people wearing drawers,
Or looking through a lonely oven door,
Flowers covered under marble floors.
And lying sleeping on an open bed.
And I remember having started tripping,
Or any angel hanging overhead,
Without another cup of coffee dripping.
Surrounded by a pretty little sergeant,
Another morning at an early crawl.
And from the other side of my apartment,
An empty room behind the inner wall.
A thousand pictures on the kitchen floor,
Talked about a hundred years or more.
Number one was written by a human named Ivy
Schweitzer. The second sonnet, however, was
written by an algorithm that was programmed by
Marjan Ghazvininejad, Xing Shi, Yejin Choi, and Kevin
Knight from the University of Southern California
Information Sciences Institute.

20. https://www.narrativescience.com/#home

21. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/08/opinion/sunday/if-an-algorithm-wrote-this-how-
would-you-even-know.html
The Associated Press uses Automated Insights’
Wordsmith platform to create more than 3,000 financial
reports per quarter. It published a story on Apple’s latest
record-busting earnings within minutes of their
release. Forbes uses Narrative Science’s Quill platform
for similar efforts and refers to the firm as a partner.

22. http://www.computerweekly.com/opinion/How-AI-is-disrupting-the-role-of-call-centres-
and-call-centre-staff
AI is now helping to predict customer
behaviour on the phone, to provide
recommendations to the customer service reps
on how best to deal with the issue.

23. https://soundcloud.com/zekejmiller/new-recording-68

24. http://www.bbc.com/news/education-39272841

25. “Economists may be
underestimating how fast the
robots are coming.
Robots and intelligent machines
threaten to replace workers in
industries from finance to retail to
haulage, with more than 15 million
British jobs and 80 million in the
U.S. lost to automation.”
• BOE Chief Economist Andrew Haldane
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-01/economists-may-be-underestimating-how-
fast-the-robots-are-coming

26. 8 Skilled Jobs that may soon be
replaced by Robots
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/8-skilled-jobs-may-soon-replaced-robots/
Accountants
Real estate agents
Writers
Attorneys
Professional Drivers
Medical StaffCashiers
Call Centre Operators

27. http://www.futureofwork.nz/

28. The Future…
• Food supply
• Water
• Cryogenics
• Nano-technology
• Superdiversity
• Human rights
• Poverty
• Religious intolerance

29. “We’re still working within the
same twentieth-century
framework.
The thinking hasn’t changed. It’s
just couching what we’ve already
done in much fancier production
values. It looks cooler and more
digitised, but the underlying
educational objectives have not
changed.”
Dr. Jane Gilbert
http://idealog.co.nz/etc/2015/03/educating-future-we-cant-imagine

30. Being right
Creating ideas
Listening to teacher
Questioning things
Working alone
Being active
Remembering facts
Showing initiative
Following instructions
Self-evaluating
Being adventurous
Accepting what you’re told
Discussing with peers
Copying down
Working with others
Sitting still
Taking responsibility
Showing respect
Imagining possible solutions
Being evaluated
What skills
are we
cultivating?

31. Being right
Creating ideas
Listening to teacher
Questioning things
Working alone
Being active
Remembering facts
Showing initiative
Following instructions
Self-evaluating
Being adventurous
Accepting what you’re told
Discussing with peers
Copying down
Working with others
Sitting still
Taking responsibility
Showing respect
Imagining possible solutions
Being evaluated
What skills
are we
cultivating?

32. Being adventurous
Creating ideas
Discussing with peers
Questioning things
Working with others
Being active
Imagining possible solutions
Showing initiative
Taking responsibility
Self-evaluating
Being right
Accepting what you’re told
Copying down
Listening to teacher
Sitting still
Working alone
Showing respect
Remembering facts
Following instructions
Being evaluated
What skills
are we
cultivating?

33. Being adventurous
Creating ideas
Discussing with peers
Questioning things
Working with others
Being active
Imagining possible solutions
Showing initiative
Taking responsibility
Self-evaluating
Being right
Accepting what you’re told
Copying down
Listening to teacher
Sitting still
Working alone
Showing respect
Remembering facts
Following instructions
Being evaluated
What skills
are we
cultivating?21st
Century
Explorer
20th
Century
Clerk

34. “We need to move beyond the idea
that education is something that is
provided for us, and toward the idea
that an education is something that
we create ourselves.”
(Downes, 2010)

35. The solution?
3 key concepts
1. Grant credentials, not
diplomas
2. Replace grades with
competency
3. Let students determine
their educational
pathway
http://www.toddrose.com/endofaverage/

36. Think about this...
• How does what you’ve heard inform your
thinking about future focused learning?
• How would you describe this to a parent of
your community?
• What are the implications for how and what
you teach as we start this year?

37. “…if we don’t change the way
we are teaching our young
people, they will be staggeringly
ill-prepared for the future.”
Dr. Jane Gilbert
http://idealog.co.nz/etc/2015/03/educating-future-we-cant-imagine

38. Thank You
derek.wenmoth@core-ed.org
@dwenmoth
http://www.wenmoth.net