Education 2.0 - For the classroom

Enterprise 2.0 For the Workplace - And Education 2.0 For the Classroom?

A leaked draft of the new primary school curriculum has been seen by a UK tabloid and it all centres around proposals drawn up by former Ofsted chief Sir Jim Rose

Proposals which are reckoned to be the biggest overhaul in English primary education in twenty years.

The proposals make interesting reading and cover lots of ground, but the thing that caught my attention was that if they go ahead, then it will be a requirement for our kids to be familiar with things like blogging, podcasts and wikis as information sources and forms of communication by the time they leave primary school. Education 2.0 perhaps, to coin a phrase? A flexible way of learning and sharing knowledge that is open to all, without barriers.

Children are actually leading the way…

Children are already interacting and learning in this way though, aren't they? I know lots of parents that will answer positively, myself included.

The thing about making it a requirement of the Curriculum though is that the understanding of how to use and apply social networking tools to every aspect of life - whether to study, research, teach, share knowledge or communicate - will be more universally developed and streamlined so by the time this generation of kids reaches our workforce, Enterprise 2.0 will be the only known way to work.

Education 2.0 will see children learning in the same way that they will eventually work; the transition from Education 2.0 to Enterprise 2.0 will be seamless.

Liberation through education

Enterprise 2.0 will liberate the workforce and Education 2 will liberate the learners as early as primary school level, giving them instant access to the right information at the right time courtesy of a network of easily accessible tools that require little or no training.

I think the new curriculum proposals have hit the nail on the head. Whether at work or at school, whether Education 2 or Enterprise 2, we're looking at ditching old architectures built on hierarchy and bureaucracy and replacing them with platforms that naturally ease information flow, making it open to users of all levels.

User control comes in to put a stop to workers, teachers and students feeling like they lack a say in how information is distributed, shared and presented, and in doing so, opens the channels of learning and achievement to a much wider audience, in a much more flexible way.