Education Unchained

“Failure to unchain is an option!” Jef Staes

This year, I will host a Spotlight Session titled Education Unchained at Online Educa Berlin. Drawing from my background as a Software Designer in Digital Telephony, Training Manager, and Corporate Learning Officer, I’ll share insights on training & education, and lessons learned from failed transformation processes.

First Lesson: “Breaking Discipline – Breaking Toxicity”

One of today’s greatest challenges is breaking the rigid “discipline” that often dominates education and work structures.

“Discipline… the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience.”

You may not realize it, but discipline can only be enforced through power. Without the authority of teachers and managers, enforcing discipline becomes nearly impossible. And with power to discipline, often comes punishment. Just draw upon your own imagination (& experience).

The line between enforcing discipline and creating a toxic culture is very thin. You could say that education and organizations are made to be ‘toxic’ if they want to enforce discipline. We only hear about these toxic environments when they result in significant drama, but the truth is, we’ve grown accustomed to this toxicity. It may have become our “normal.”

Through my experience, I’ve learned that enforcing discipline never creates real learning or fosters innovation. You can only create production environments with objectives enforced by discipline. Such environments won’t help us tackle the complex challenges of today.

To boost true learning and innovation, we must unchain people’s potential. Allow them to discover their strengths and create genuine learning experiences and let them migrate toward tasks that energize them to ‘never give up’.

To make this possible, we need to reinvent how education and work are organized. It starts with giving authority to the right teachers and managers to lead this transition.

The real challenge in education isn’t learning technology or Artificial Intelligence. The challenge is understanding the – often neglected – dramatic impact that technology has on employment within education and the needed disruption in how our next generation should be allowed to learn what they really want to learn.

Second Lesson: “Disrupt Employment”

There was a time when “talking movie” technology was used just for background music in silent films. Producers were hesitant to fully embrace its potential due to fears of conflict with actors who lacked the talent or passion to transition into talking roles. This fear held back the technology, reducing it to a compromise that silent actors could accept.

The real shift occurred when producers found the courage to hire actors with the talent and passion to fully utilize the technology. The talking movie was born, unlocking a new wave of professions … the rest is history.

For me, disruptive innovation is about innovation that leads to shifts in employment. Without the courage to close down outdated professions and open the gateway to new ones, true disruptive innovation dies, and the potential of technology only gets downgraded.

This is happening everywhere, especially in education. For decades now, technology has had the potential to offer personalized learning – allowing individuals to choose courses based on their passions and talents, accelerating their growth. But to do this, you need educators with the passion and skills to harness the full potential of learning technology. You need the courage to disrupt employment.

Unfortunately, this courage is lacking and so the potential of learning technology has been scaled down to a level that most teachers today are comfortable with. The same is already happening with AI and tools like ChatGPT. Rather than being used to their full potential, they’re being integrated into the system as mere aids to support todays teachers. AI and ChatGPT will become part of ‘learning technology’ already sold to education. It will not result in a disruptive evolution in education … no way!

We’ve effectively chained our next generation to an outdated educational system that doesn’t allow students to explore à la carte learning. Instead of adapting to the enormous possibilities of ‘Technology Based Learning’, the system forces technology to conform to its outdated model.

Meanwhile, AI and ChatGPT are being hyped like never before, but the real issue isn’t being addressed: “Our greatest challenge is not disruptive technology, it’s the disruption in employment that follows!” Failure is inevitable if we lack the courage to disrupt.

Third Lesson – Engage!

I’ve been attending Online Educa Berlin (OEB) since 2002, and every year it showcases the evolution of learning technologies. However, it has never shown me real disruptive impact in the organization of education.

Ten years ago, I gave a keynote and workshop where I made the following statements:

• Students with passion & talents should have the freedom to accelerate their learning dramatically.
• Students without passion or talents in something, should have the ‘freedom’ to slow down or choose something else.
• Education without these ‘freedoms’ builds prisons instead of real learning environments.

While most agreed with these statements, nothing has changed. We talk endlessly but lack the courage to step into the unknown. We demand evidence yet fail to explore and deliver evidence for the unexplored.

At my Spotlight Session at OEB 2024, I’ll share three confrontational stories:

• What makes us valuable in an ever-changing world?
• What should the real impact of disruptive learning technologies be on learning and education?
• What courage is needed to fully embrace the potential of learning technologies?

To prepare for this session, I would like to start a conversation with people going to Online Educa Berlin 2024 and others. The only prerequisite is passion in learning and the future of education. I welcome questions, feedback, and even debate. All this is aimed at sharpening the focus of the session.

If you’re still reading, I believe you share a passion for this topic and are ready to engage in making the unchaining of education a reality. To facilitate this dialogue, I’ve created a webpage: www.jefstaes.com/unchained. There, you’ll find videos sharing my most confrontational thoughts on the future of learning, work, and education. Please take the time to watch, provide feedback, and join our upcoming podcasts as we take small steps toward transforming education.

Fourth Lesson – Spotlight Session!

Thirty minutes! That’s the length of my spotlight session. It feels like moving from a big house into a small apartment. What should I take with me, and what should I leave behind? So much experience, so many choices, and countless questions. Over the next four weeks, my mind will sift through hundreds of possibilities. But in the end, those 30 minutes will likely feel like one.

I hope your feedback and engagement will help make that one minute unforgettable!

Written for OEB Global 2024 by Jef Staes.