Open: How We’ll Work, Live and Learn In The Future

by David Price

Here are their common success strategies: - By insisting that their teachers and mentors share their learning, all three have de-privatised teaching and learning. - By opening up the commons, and by designing workspaces without walls, they have brought Edison’s ‘machine-shop culture’ into education. - By bringing into the commons, experts, parents and investors, they have given an authenticity to the work of their students that is impossible to simulate in an enclosed classroom. - By modelling collaborative working to their students they have fostered the peer learning which is at the heart of ‘open’. - By emphasising adult and real-world connections, they ensure that students are preparing for the world beyond school by being in that world. - By making their expertise and intellectual property freely available, they have created high demand from their peers and ensured that knowledge travels fast. - By seeing technology not simply as an aide to learning but as the imperative for change, they ensure that their programmes are relevant to societal needs and societal shifts. - By trusting in their staff and students, and by giving them freedom and responsibility in equal measure, they have fostered a culture of learning that rewards respectful challenge, shuns unnecessary deference, and therefore constantly stays in motion.