Future of Learning Top Reads for week of Dec 30 2019
“Degreed Acquires Adepto: The LXP Showdown Begins,” by Josh Bersin, on joshbersin.com
“Their vision for the future is to add ‘projects and assignments’ to this strategy. As you all know well, nobody learns just from a course – you really learn by ‘doing it.’ So if you can find a ‘project’ to match with your new skill, you can really reinvent yourself. That’s Degreed’s vision, and I agree with it 100%.”
Why does this matter to the future of learning?
Why would businesses subscribe to a learning experience platform (LXPs) that indexes skills (what employees know) to projects?
TO drive growth / development!
This is a clear sign that project-based learning (PBL) has migrated farther to the right on the Education Innovation Hype Cycle.
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“I Killed My Teenager’s Fancy College Dreams. You Should, Too,” by Melody Warnick, in Slate
“Let me clarify: By ‘couldn’t afford it,’ I mean that we’re like pretty much all the other middle-class parents we know—not poor by a long shot, but not loaded either, and chronically underinvested in our kids’ college accounts. We had not squirreled away every spare penny in a 529 account since the moment of conception the way the Suze Ormans of the world want us to. We hadn’t even opened a 529 till Ella was in fifth grade, because we’d been trying to get through my husband’s Ph.D.
“After that, we saved fairly aggressively, but you know how it goes. Two daughters. Clothes. Braces. Class trips. Like most parents, who save on average $18,000 for their kids’ education, we’d failed to sock away anything close to the $75,000 annual sticker price it would take for Ella to go to, say, Pratt in New York City. Our privilege was such that we slipped into a financial aid gap, where our daughter won’t qualify for grants, but we can’t pay cash up front.
“That left two options: Let her join the 69 percent of U.S. college graduates who take out loans to finance their schooling. Or scare the hell out of her about taking on student debt.”
Why does this matter to the future of learning?
This is most people.
So if you work at (or are a trustee at) an independent school, consider the complex calculations that parents have to make to determine whether your tuition is worth it.
And to understand the wider system within which this dilemma exists, consider entry #2 from last week’s Future of Learning Top Reads.
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