Silos in Education

As I reflect on my time engaged in student learning, I am confronted with a stark reality: our educational system exists in silos.  I am not the first person to make this observation and I am not pretending to be “profound” in this blog post.  What I do know is that the more one thinks, reflects and looks to change the way we educate kids, the more these silos become evident.  We live in an interconnected world.  Information, knowledge, and social ties are all interconnected.  The way in which students learn should reflect this inter-connectivity that exists in the larger world.  Silos prevent connections from being made and are detrimental to student learning.  I will discuss silos that affect student learning through what students learn and how they learn.

How students learn. A typical student in America goes from class to class (or subject to subject in the elementary school) with very little connection made between the classes and/or subjects.  What a student learns in second period is often totally disconnected to what they are going to learn third period.  In effect, these classes (or teachers) are acting in their own silos; not communicating with each other regarding the education of the student. Compare the rich, contextual world that exists outside the school walls where different types of information and knowledge combine and then the “siloed” school where knowledge is disconnected pieces of information not grounded in reality.  Students are also faced with a silo (or wall) that has been created between school and the “real world”.  Again, the students are learning (or presented information) that is disconnected from their everyday lives.  The learning process is an inherently interconnected process where existing knowledge is expanded and deeper connections are made.  Learning in a “subject silo” where knowledge is presented as a distinct set of skills unrelated to other parts of a student’s life is unrealistic and harmful.  Our challenge as educators is to create a learning environment (or community) where learning is honored as an interconnection of ideas and knowledge across subject areas.  Creating such a learning environment is something that makes common sense and can be done by educators who have the will to do it.

What students learn.  For too many years, secondary “education” has been fragmented into two areas: “academic” and “vocational”.   Academic students are “tracked” into subjects that will lead them into a college or university, while vocational students take classes (often at a separate vocational school) that will give them the skills to get a job or go to a two year vocational school after graduating from high school.  This model may have made sense in the mid 20^th century.  At that time most of the jobs available to gain access to middle class privilege were blue collar jobs that required the skills and knowledge gained at a vocational school.  Toward the end of the 20^th century, a college degree became more important to gain the same access to the middle class in America.  Today I think the pendulum between vocational learning and academic learning is balanced between the two.  Educators (and those really concerned with student learning) understand that the best learning for students occurs when the two silos of “academic” and “vocational” are torn down.  In today’s interconnected world of knowledge and work, skills gained at a vocational school are an essential part of a student’s academic learning.  Let’s just get rid of the labels and call everything that a student can gain from a K-12 education as “learning”.  When we do this, we will not have to concern ourselves with labels like “academic” or “vocational”  because the learning of the students takes precedent over labels.  We know that the silos that prevent students from experiencing both academic and vocational are flimsy structures that must come down.

MOOC's and Learning

Massive Open Online Courses (called MOOC's for short) are generating a lot of attention in education circles lately.  MOOC's are free online classes that anyone with an internet connection can sign up and take. By definition, the aim of offering a MOOC is to make available course content to as many people as possible from all over the world, free and online.  MOOC's have been percolating in education circles throughout the late 1990's and 2000's.  However, it was the MOOC offered by Sebastian Thrune and Peter Norvig from Stanford University in 2011 that started to get mainstream attention to MOOC's.  The class that Thrune and Norvig offered was called Introduction to AI and enrolled 160,000 learners from all over the world.  MOOC's are currently evolving as universities, professors, and everyday learners become accustomed to (and adjust to) this new method of delivering content.  There are three dominant course delivery systems currently carrying MOOC's; edX, Coursera, and Udacity.  The vast majority of MOOC's are offered by higher education institutions; however non-education organizations (most notably Khan Academy) offer MOOC's as well.  Although the history, development and criticisms of MOOC's are a fascinating topic, I will concentrate today's blog post on the implications of MOOC's on learning. I believe that MOOC's imply a shift in learning and education. 

When I was an undergraduate I pursued a minor in history.  In one of the required classes for the minor, I took a class on medieval history.  Although I do not remember much from the class I do remember one thing that the professor mentioned: universities developed because people wanted to learn more about a topic and students and teachers started to gather together to facilitate learning. In other words, people wanted to learn about a topic and sought out people that could help facilitate their learning.   The first universities did not have grades, credits or anything else that we might associate with the modern college or university.  To a certain extent this was a pure form of learning.  If you think about it, this model reflects what happens in real life.  Everywhere around us people are seeking out new knowledge for a variety of reasons.  In most instances we do not demand (or expect) a certificate, grade or credential proving to the world that we now "know" more than we did previously.  Most of the time when learning occurs, people are simply exploring a topic that they feel they want (or need) to know more about.  I realize that this view of learning is utopian, but it is not unrealistic.

Now let's look at education.  Education is the formalization of learning.  Education introduces formal procedures to the learning process.  Things such as grades, grade levels, credits, schools, universities, diplomas, certificates are all characteristics of a formal process overlaid on the learning process.  Education, to a certain extent, is a limiting factor on our learning.  As a high school guidance counselor I always encouraged students to pursue learning, not a job in their post high school career.  I felt (and still believe) that people should pursue learning in areas of interest and career objectives will develop based on this learning.  Needless to say, my guidance to the students in this direction was somewhat controversial with parents that wanted their children to pursue education that would lead to a job.  Thus a tension developed between me encouraging learning and the dominant cultural pressure to encourage education.  Although I never resolved this tension, I believe that it exists in every formalized education institution in existence today.

MOOC's reflect the desire of individuals to learn without the limits and boundaries associated with education and to a certain extent address the tension I mentioned in the previous paragraph.  MOOC's allow people to sign up for any course just for the sake of learning more.  One of the criticisms leveled at MOOCs is their abysmal completion rate.  In other words, the vast majority of people that start a MOOC do not finish it.  Critics of MOOC's use this information to try to diminish the importance or significance of MOOC's.  I disagree with this criticism.  I believe the fact that people are not completing a MOOC actually reflect the success in MOOC's in moving people away from education and toward learning.  A person may stay in the MOOC until their personal objectives for learning have been met.  These personal objectives are what a MOOC should be judged by, not traditional "education" metrics.  

I am hopeful that our organization (Appalachia Intermediate Unit 8) can use MOOC’s to enhance and encourage learning for all people with which we interact.  IU8 can create and offer MOOC’s that can help people reach their own personal goals and dreams in learning.  If a person wants to have a credential that leads to proof of education, we can do that for a fee.  For example, a MOOC can easily be turned into an Act 48 professional development opportunity for teacher’s professional learning if that is what the teachers ask for. Educators that spend time reflecting on their practice know areas in which they can (and should) improve.  MOOC’s will offer the opportunity for educators (and all people) to pursue knowledge for reasons of personal growth outside the confines of education.  At IU8 we will continually monitor the importance of MOOC’s and use them to meet our goals for our organization.