What we believe

What we believe about AI and the internet and 21st century education

We believe … that we stand at the dawn of a new and glorious ‘neo-renaissance age’ for mankind. What the printing press did for the first Renaissance period in 1450, AI + the Internet will do to make world-class self-motivated learning accessible to all.

We believe that the shift is already well underway with a global move from a specialized, mechanistic, manufacturing, industrial-based society to a more organic, multi-faceted, service-based and information centered one.

We believe that the Internet will create a once in a 500 year paradigm shift in education. A revolution created by AI + the Internet learning platforms that will deliver context-specific, world-class, comprehensive and eminently affordable ‘work skill knowledge’ to every person on the planet – any time, anywhere, on topics relevant to their need and at a pace suitable to their learning preference, ability and start-point.

We believe that education is the problem in the riddle – “The Internet is a solution in need of problem”

We believe… that in the ‘neo-renaissance age’, learning will take precedence over education. That continuous, self-directed, informal, inquisitive and experience-based learning will take precedence over a point-in-time, institutionally driven, formal, procedurally based and externally assessed education. The new age will allow the spirit of self-motivated love of learning to thrive rather than live with a restricted, narrow and structured loathe of education that is the prevailing affliction of this age.

We believe in great learning experiences built on passion, creativity and collaboration.

We believe that “just in time” learning will replace the current “just in case” education.

We believe … that the scope and speed of new information sharing demands a new democratized learning model. Information is changing faster than we can comprehend and will continue to increase exponentially in both scope and speed. The pace of change mandates that we produce a faster, smarter, better grade of human being. Our current education systems are preventing that from happening. Democratized learning should be incorporated in education in the same way that ‘opinion’ has been democratized with blogs, social networks and YouTube. Learners will simply devour knowledge as it happens and through a process of ‘trial and error’ will have applied the gems to their great advantage long before the academic elite will have had the chance to even accredited it. The top down learning model is simply another creates a bottleneck and barrier to learning in the ‘neo-renaissance age’ where the crowd is smarter and more capable than any individual or institution.

We believe … that learning and education products will be one of the most in-demand, high growth and highly profitable industries of the early 21st century. Learning is a product that everyone on the planet needs, they need it every day of their life, it is highly valued and it can be manufactured and delivered in a scalable way to a global audience at a cost approaching zero. From an entrepreneurial point of view, there surly can be no greater attributes for a commercially successful product.

We believe … that learning ‘work skill knowledge’ should be decoupled from government policy makers. Learners should be free to explore interests based on their needs and those of their industry. Learning should be free from its reliance on government funding which politicizes learning, inhibits innovation, is slow to change and adds unsustainable compliance costs.

We believe …. that the new paradigm in education and learning will spawn an upsurge small entrepreneurial businesses Teachers may be the first to benefit from the new educational paradigm, but they will be soon followed by tutors, digital product creators (article writers, visual presentation creators be it infographics, movies, PowerPoints, animators) and social media specialists all working to create and organize the ‘work-skill expertise’ of domain experts for the benefit of the learner hungry planet. While the transaction values will be small, the scalability will be massive ensuring a sustainable income stream for all stakeholders.

What we believe about teachers and ‘skill-sharers’

We believe … that the best teachers and skill-sharers in the current system are not remunerated commensurate with their achievements Our teachers and skill-sharers are vital components in our education and learning processes and add great value to our economic well being yet they are well down the pay scale compared with education administrators and managers.

We believe that the new educational paradigm will reward teachers and skill-sharers to the point that they can earn a CEO’s salary while working in the field they love and in one for which they are perfectly matched – as teachers.

We believe … that the education revolution will be led from the ground up by teacherpreneurs. Innovative, passionate and frustrated teachers will come to realize that it is not the administrators, certifiers, auditors and education policymakers that the learner-hungry world really wants – it’s them. Add the internet’s global communication and distribution platform and entrepreneurial skills to their existing skill set and the best teachers can finally look forward to being financially rewarded at a level commensurate with their influence which will be many times greater than their current lot.

We believe … that a teacher in the 21st Century will be any person who can attract and sustain a following. That skill-sharers from industry should be a welcomed addition to the evolving democratized vocational teaching profession of the 21st Century. That teaching and learning are irrevocably intertwined and must co-exist at different times within both teacher and learner alike. That while we are all called to teach, most are never given the opportunity to do so or have not been awakened to the possibility of doing so.

We believe that skill-sharing is the natural third age of human existence with learning and applying being the first and second. To share with others the skills that we have learned and applied throughout our lives, gives us a higher purpose to our existence

We believe… in creating digital legacies by publishing the vast untapped gold mine of human intellectual capital that lies unearthed in the minds of experienced individuals. These individuals have contextualized know-how, specific expertise, broad-based inter-disciplined education, unique experience, intuition, original thoughts and uncommon knowledge which in the past, only the immediate geographic zone or employer organization could benefit from and to a large extent was lost with the passing of that person’s life. Their lack of academic station may have excluded them from contributing to learning in the old paradigm or the previous publishing paths were blocked by either the necessary endorsements of the academic elite or were thwarted by the commercial constraints of book-based publishing.

What we believe about learners in the 21st century

We believe …. that barrier-free access to relevant ‘work skill knowledge’ can change lives and help right international inequalities ‘Work skill knowledge’ shared at a fraction of the cost of existing education models will change the lives of the 50 % (3.5 billion people) of the world population who collectively own less than 1 % of global assets.

We believe that the current skill-sharing educational model has created learning barriers that are restrictive, lack currency, are more genetic than contextualized and are over-priced.

We believe … that what industry and learners want from their educational experienced has fundamentally changed.

We believe that the credentials that guarantees success in the global/information economy of the 21st century is your problem solving abilities, critical thinking ability that can discern ‘fact from fiction’, your ability to adapt (un-learn & re-learn), your creative and innovative abilities and your life-long love of learning. Industry and learners are no longer satisfied with a ‘piece of paper’ if it failed to deliver these skills. Furthermore, learners want to be free to learn. They want a ‘just-in-time’ learning mode, which is completed at the place of their choosing, at a speed appropriate to their learning abilities and preference (visual, auditory, reading/writing or tactile) and in accordance with their current situation and need.

We believe … that learning should only be measured by outcomes. Measuring learning by exams is a false yardstick that can be gammed and is no measure of applied skills. Learners want to know that they have acquired a new and worthwhile skill that they can leverage for a more rewarding job. Learning is to progress toward a future state. The only way to measure learning is to measure whether that state or competency has been achieved. Can the skill be repeated at random and in different contexts? Can the skill be managed within a task while applying other skills? Can you deal with contingencies as they arise and can you apply the skill to a specific job function? If not, then the learner will argue that the learning has not truly taken place.

Join us

If you would like to join with us and collaboratively share this great adventure, we would love to hear from you. Our advertisement for stakeholders could well follow Ernest Shackleton’s (1874-1922), who when looking for people to join him on an adventure to the South Pole placed an ad that read:

“Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold and long months of complete darkness. Constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success”