What Say You?

Feb 26
4 min read

It’s classic education culture: wait it out and the bandwagon rolling into town will eventually roll back out. Don’t like the new way of doing things? Hold onto what works for you. Think technology is just shiny toys? Ignore them long enough and they will be replaced by new bells and whistles. Thought COVID-19 created societal sea change? Watch the backslide in real time to the way we’ve always done things.

But wait. That’s not going to work anymore.

What? Our tried and true institutional inertia can no longer be relied upon?!

Nope. And here’s five reasons why:

Personalization

With the ushering in of personalized everything in this digital age, there is a loss of community. “It’s all about me! They told me I had to do it their way and I refused to listen! I know better, and they’re going to have to accommodate my way!” It’s not a matter of liking it or agreeing with it, it’s the way it is; an entire swath of the population who will accept nothing less than catering to their reality. And when your world is me-centric, the commitment to the greater good gets lost in the race to immediate gratification. For the upside personalization brings, the loss of considering how our actions impact others is a detriment that society will need to withstand, and who knows what it will look like coming out the other end? One thing’s for sure, there’s no going back.

Decentralization

Part of the current age of disruption is the pulling apart of centralized structures and dispersing them locally. In the light of the trend towards personalization, it makes sense. Reject larger, centralized authority and let each community decide for itself how it wants to move forward. People are selecting tribes, choosing sides and creating divides that may bring together birds of a feather, but polarizes disparate factions of society with less in common. The traditional ideal of compromise is giving way to high-stakes standoffs where entire communities are ostracized, vilified and excluded from constructive dialogue. As the dismantling continues, it's hard to see a way back to strong, centralized systems and services based on commonality and consensus.

Monetization

The influx of private money into education as a public trust, from a trickle to a fire hose as digital technology came into schools forty years ago. Local education agencies couldn’t foot the bill of the costs, and companies saw an opportunity to invest in schools in return for loyalty to their products. What started as hardware and software soon became honors and freebies for the people making the technology decisions, to the point that it's hard to tell the educators from the consultants from the district sales reps today. Even in hiring, from superintendents to technology officers, districts are forgoing educators coming up through the ranks for candidates with business backgrounds, changing their entire education equation.

Celebrification

With social media entrenched in our culture, everyone today is a celebrity online. You can be a creator or an advocate or a troll or any of dozens of other personas, and you can change your profile on a dime. Here are the titles educators are touting on LinkedIn today: learning architect, inspirational speaker, consultant, connector, equity advocate, education transformer, problem solver, transformational leader, disruptor, fixer, serial entrepreneur, patented inventor in education, award-winning educator, internationally recognized expert….and I just pulled these in the last five minutes. Everyone is crafting a personal brand, and in the process, moving away from their day job title to set themselves apart. How do you come back from being a self-proclaimed superstar?

Agenticization

With the breakthrough of new applications of artificial intelligence, now generative but rolling out agentic experiences as we speak, technology is improving in trying to simulate the human experience. It’s mind-blowing, realizing all the possibilities for transforming our existence, but even as we propel ourselves forward, the silos of isolation from one another and the struggle to have authentic relationships is taking its toll. And the more these applications offer convenience and economy of scale, the more we are at risk of losing our own agency in how we live our lives. How much are we willing to give up to have all of this permeating every facet of our lives, and by the time we figure out the answer, will it be possible to retrace our steps back to the line we choose to draw in the sand?

<uncomfortable pause>

So we’re not going back. Does that mean we’re moving forward?

Do we have a choice?

It’s not so much a question of if, but how.

Are you okay being a spectator in your own story?

Will you live and leave a legacy, “not with a bang but a whimper”?¹

Do you concede all of this by simply deciding not to decide?²