Design implications of behavioral economics [and] Rethinking education in the age of technology

Design implications of behavioral economics,
David Fetherstonhaugh, IDEO

Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology, Allan Collins, Northwestern University

All around us, people are learning with the aid of new technologies. Children play complex video games, workers get advanced degrees through on-line courses, commercial learning centers prepare students for tests, and everyone on the web references Wikipedia. New technologies create learning opportunities that challenge traditional schools and colleges. These new learning niches enable people of all ages to learn on their own terms. People around the world are taking their education out of school into homes, libraries, internet cafes, and workplaces, where they can decide what they want to learn, when they want to learn, and how they want to learn.

These developments change how people think about education. This rethinking will take many years to fully penetrate our understanding of the world and the society around us. To be successful, leaders will need to grasp these changes in a deep way and bring the government's resources to bear on the problems raised by these changes. We will have to build our vision of a new education system around these new understandings. We are beginning to rethink the nature of learning, motivation, and what is important to learn. Further, the notion of a career has shifted, as has the way people transition back and forth between learning and working. Allan will help us understand the affordances of new technologies in support of a vision for education that will bring the new resources to everyone.