Incorporating Self Education in Traditional Education

At Duke University, I spend time with top quality students who are attempting to launch their own ventures, many of which are technology based and require complicated programming.  Did they learn these programming skills in their classes?  Not usually.  Some simple web searches can result in many educational aids to turn you into a programmer just like these students.

If you think this trend is only at the high ed level, consider this exchange I had at my daughter's elementary school.  It was Wax Museum day and I was asking "James Madison" a question.

Me:  "How did James Madison affect our world for good?"

3rd Grader:  "I'll need to go search that on the internet."  

What to do?
Spend more time exposing young people to the real world of career options including entrepreneurship.  When the young people are exposed to something of interest they will latch on and educate themselves.  Plus the skill of acquiring new knowledge on their own will serve them as the skills they need will be outdated soon after they graduate.  

I wanted to launch a scalable startup but....

"Think BIG" is a familiar phrase in the startup world.  This usually translates to launching a scalable startup software company.  I tried that for a little while but shifted when I found the actual problem I was tackling.

The secondary education system in our country needs help.  This is a problem that can't be solved with software so I finally accepted the fact that I was not following the footsteps of Joe at Bronto, Aaron at iContact, Jess at Sharefile, etc.

Startup High is all about lighting fires in our young people by exposing them to inspiring people such as entrepreneurs.  We will be in 3 cities next summer and will slowly assist in solving the secondary education problem.

Creatives: The Ultimate Entrepeneurs

I've recently spent time with new friends who work at one of, if not the best, independent advertising agency in the world, McKinney.  As I've learned how they operate, it dawned on me that these individuals are the ultimate entrepreneurs since they must continually come up with ideas and execute.  While typical entrepreneurs do have to iterate, they usually only have to come up with one idea and execute really well.  The pressure to produce day in, day out is weighty and I'm in awe of those who hit home run after home run.    

You've likely already seen SPENT.  If not, it will change you for the good.

Growing Entrepreneurial Thinking on a College Campus

If a university wants to produce students who have the ability to think like an entrepreneur and solve big problems in the world, they could take a three tiered approach to starting the fire:

Sparks

This is the top of the funnel and includes all the events, classes, and interest groups that may cause a student to scratch her head and say, "I think I want to get more involved in entrepreneurship."  A campus probably can't have too many of these though they must balance these with the next two tiers.


The Fan
Internships, summer programs, and intensive projects with local companies is the next step students can take when they want to get more engaged.  The stage is crucial to help the student get a better sense of problems in the world.  Too often college students are only exposed to campus problems that may not be big enough.




Gasoline
OK.  Now you are ready to really go for it and sacrafice social time, showers, and ut oh....possibly a B in a class.  One way I've seen this done is through residential entrepreneurship.  I've spent every Saturday afternoon the past few months at InCube on the campus of Duke University.  It's been great and I'm now a huge advocate of very driven students living together and committed to launching a venture.  They are the real deal and I'm excited to see the results.

FireStarters vs. BucketFillers

 Who is the optimal high school teacher these days?  Those who can light a fire in a student's intellectual progression.  If you find something a student loves to research then by all means immerse them and help them begin to self educate.   If we light their fire, they will fill their own bucket.

In his recent book Global Achievement Gap Tony Wagner taught that it's not about how much students can retain, it's about how much they can explore.

How do we light fires?
The best fire starters are those teachers who have some type of work experience outside the classroom.  When teachers can bring in real world examples, the students can grab on to that and see the value of education.  Those teachers going from high school to college back to the classroom do not have the experience to train our students for the world.

Self Education: Our New Goal in Education

The past few months I have worked closely with college students at Duke, NC Central, and Durham Tech.  One conclusion from these daily interactions is that the traditional way of using experts (aka professors) to teach knowledge should be changing.  The reason?  Students must self educate to make it.

Example #1:
I gave a computer science student at Durham Tech a project to work on.  The project really needed to be done in PHP and HTML5.  Only issue was the student had not learned these languages.  I was proud of the student jumping in and trying to get up to speed fast so he could complete the project.

Example #2:
Duke is a fantastic school and I have grown to love it.  Liberal Arts education however was never structured to teach real world skills.  So most of the students I work with have picked up these skills on their own so they can launch their own ventures.

The Future
The ability to adopt new skills quickly will be key as technology continues it's growth.  What you learn this year must be added upon next year after you graduate.

So What?
How do educational institutions handle this?  They must have classes that encourage self education and entrepreneurial thinking.  Projects that require autonomous new skill acquisition will ensure students are ready to tackle real world problems.   For example, imagine assigning students to build a Wordpress site with little direction.  There is so much Wordpress documentation that enterprising students would have no problem learning in a couple hours how to do it.

Learn Turf Management Online?

Enough with online education!  I was recently descending the stairs of the parking deck at NC State and noticed a flyer for a Turf Management class online and it emphasized the fact that you would NEVER have to go to class.  Anyone else find it funny that a class that teaches you how to take care of turf would not require you to ever step outside?

Online education is about filling a student's knowledge bucket.  I'm convinced education must light a fire so that the student will self educate.  I do think online education has a place, mainly in a flipped classroom model.