“5 Years Since Starbucks Offered to Help Baristas Attend College, How Many Have Graduated?” by Rebecca Koenig, in EdSurge

“ ‘Putting a blueprint in place and hoping for the best doesn’t work,’ Young says. ‘There’s not just an operating manual and Starbucks has a copy and ASU has a copy and we all just follow the manual. We’re iterating.’ ”

Why does this matter to the future of learning?

This article offers food for thought about the future of learning, especially the rise of alternatives to the traditional, 4-year, residential college experience. That said, schools looking to innovate should carefully consider the quote above.

No one is going to hand you an off-the-shelf competitive advantage. You’re going to have to build —> test —> learn. Rinse. Repeat.

Schools that think they can purchase disruptive innovation should heed these words from Michael Horn, (an NAIS trustee), who recently said of “the innovator's dilemma”:

“Incumbent orgs naturally deploy technology as a sustaining innovation, not disruptive innovation & incur significant costs that ‘pure play’ disruptors don't.”

Are you using technology as a sustaining innovation or a disruptive innovation?

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“The 101 people, ideas and things changing how we work today,” by the Worklife 101 Team, BBC.com

“3. Adaptability quotient: In an ever-changing work environment, ‘AQ’, rather than IQ, might become an increasingly significant marker of success.”

Why does this matter to the future of learning?

While the list runs to 101 items, three themes predominate:

1. Adaptability

2. Pluralism

3. Teamwork to solve problems no one has thought of before

At Basecamp, we design Expeditionaries social entrepreneurship courses for these themes.

What are you doing at your school to design for adaptability, pluralism, and teamwork?

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Question of the week

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