Sandbox Summit: The Future of Learning

Diana Rhoten
Cofounder and Managing Editor, Startl

Cited the movie Waiting for Superman that follows five families and their quest to get into better education through the state lottery process.

Says it’s hard to argue with the message and intent of the movie. However she does argue that it’s unimaginative and derivative of the solutions that it offers.

At Startl they’re trying to reframe the problem from one that is about reforming schooling to one that re-imagines the notion of education and learning.


Assumptions and Aspirations
She says solutions are not going to come from policy alone. Facing a design challenge. Solutions will come from environments and rooms, new ideas and new approaches.

Assumption 1 –
Future of education is about learning, not schooling. Needs to be rephrased to think about learning as anywhere, anytime. Retool education with a variety of new models and approaches, like the game initiative ‘Vanished’.

Assumption 2 –
We believe technology has a critical role in the future but it’s not a means to an end.
Concept of technology as being important to schooling is not new. Most recent technologies have been about improving the efficiency of schooling rather than the efficacy of learning. They are thinking about the learning.

Assumption 3 –
Power of tech to advance learning really depends on the context and the practice of use. Don’t believe technology is ever the silver bullet. Tech is a tool and it’s effect on learning depends on the people that use them, how the use them and where they use them.

Just as we design new tech we also design new contexts for those techs.

Aspirations:
1. Want to be disruptive and shock the system. Bring to life concrete real life examples of what the future could look like.
2. See their work as taking place on the edge – where the risk of failure and the opportunity for success are most allowable.
3. They want to work with thinkers, doers, makers and movers beyond the usual suspects. Recruit talented people who may not have necessarily seen themselves in this education system.


Technology and Theory

Tech will revolutionize education – this has been known since the 70s. Yet in schools there is still little evidence of a structural revolution in terms of tech.

The theories that people have about learning are grounded in what it means to be educated and skilled – in her opinion much of this is influenced by behaviorism and cognitivism. Believe knowledge is external and objective, that students should learn the same knowledge in the same amount of time, with standard models. This basic model has not changed.

How do we make it a learner centric model? This would involve interaction, exploration, collaboration and co-production. They look for products on the market that support this concept. Help learners become producers and not just consumers of information and knowledge.


At Startl, they want to focus on tech and the theory that can lead to change the way we approach education in this country. What does it mean to be knowledgeable in the 21st Century?

Haven’t come up with a framework for where education is headed.

Quoted: It is the framework that changes with new technology and not just the picture of the frame.


Programs and Products

Valley of Death in education. Traversing this valley requires talent to fuel promising innovations.

What do they want to explore?

- Play and learning through interaction
- Products that are learning rich and market smart.
- Help support entrepreneurs as they develop their products.


Partnered with IDEO, DreamIT, Sundance to help figure out business models and strategies for emerging businesses.

IDEO is their ‘design boost’, DreamIT is their ‘acecelerator’, Sundance becomes the ‘broker, tastemaker’.

They run a variety of showcases that companies can apply to – they focus on companies they consider to be smart capital. Sundance, through it’s channel has offered a variety of distribution pathways. How can they go direct to the learner and get around old ‘channels’ such as book publishers?

Also engaging with youth become platform testers. Eg. New Youth City learning Network.


Examples of products that have come out recently


Mind Snacks - multiplatform learning games

Toontastic - enables young kids to have an interactive experience about play and narrative, but also teaches about arc of narrative and storytelling.

Project Noah - a mobile tool that professionals and amateurs use to explore in a fun way their local habitat and wildlife.