What Do You See Ahead? Seven Questions To Robin Good About Present And Future In Education, Communication Technologies And The Arts

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I am taking the opportunity of some kind of intangible relaxed universe I have just entered in my life, to take back up some mini-projects I had been sitting on for a while.

This one in particular, wins the time-record for sitting on it. My good friend Sepp Hasslberger sent me these seven questions back in the fall of 2003 and I have long indulged in the soft, tolerant acceptance of our friendship to let this gently slip in the background, at least until the urgent matters I had to attend in these last nine months would have come to an end.

And the time has indeed arrived.

While for me is time to look forward at a new phase of growth and expression which I have been seeding for long, I would like to thank Sepp for providing me with the opportunity to reflect and analyze on a few, critical issues.

Though I am here reporting on a great number of issues, tools and trends taking place in this fast changing universe of communication and new technologies, there are a few issues, that catalyze and amplify much of the many smaller concerns we are addressing, as they are often the root or the symptomatic expression of something deeply broken in our system of handling things.

I am thankful to Sepp for having so finely identified some of these critical issues and for having given me opportunity to share and contribute my vision and sentiments to them.

Here his queries:

1. Can you describe to us what you would consider an end product, or outcome, of education?

2. How would schools and universities have to change to achieve such a product?

3. Do you think that evolving means of communication will give rise to new art forms - if so, could you describe what you see coming?

4. Traditional media are losing ground to the internet. What changes would the media giants have to make to re-capture our attention?

5. What means are available to us to salvage the contents of the Internet (or as much of it as possible) in case of some catastrophic occurrence like general and prolonged blackouts?

6. If you were to propose a solution to the problem of pirated artistic content, how do you think the needs of artists to be rewarded could be reconciled with the desire of people to experience the art at reasonable prices?

7. Technically, there would be no problem to institute software that could run micropayments through the banking system. Do you think that there are other barriers that keep us from having such a useful tool?

1. Can you describe to us what you would consider an end product, or outcome, of education?

Thank you Sepp for asking this: this is a wonderful question and a very difficult one to answer.

To me the end product of education should be an individual capable of effectively evaluating reality through a refined ability to research, analyze and question information in a critical way.

The more we can equip the individual with mental tools and communication skills that enhance hir (his+her)ability to evaluate, analyze, study, learn and choose what is best for hir and for those living in hir same community/pool, the better off the whole system will be.

The more education provides for specialized know-how and weak critical evaluation capabilities in favour of notionistic learning the more we endanger our fellow woMan to be dependant on external authority and centralized resources of knowledge to direct the available opportunities in hir life.

That is what in fact generates that vicious circle of non-evolution that I have called the Invisible Perfect Loop.

2. How would schools and universities have to change to achieve such a product?

The answer is through the complete re-evaluation of how education is delivered, and in providing learners with effective tools, mental models and skills that would empower their innate curiosity, explorative sense, while providing close coaching individualized to the expressed needs of each student.

The student must be seen as the center and initiating force of a learning path, not as repository of information pre-selected, pre-digested and formulated by someone else.

Teachers shall be replaced with volunteer guides, mentors and coaches for all walks of life and evaluated and ranked, if needed, by each learner they help.

The word teacher, teach and student shall be banned. They shall be replaced with terms like "facilitator" who clearly indicate that the "drive" for effective learning sits strongly on the learner side.

Educational institutions will not be made anymore of classrooms and teaching labs. They will transform themselves in distributed, decentralized learning exploratoriums, research mini-labs, entreprenuerial craftmen boutiques, mini-farms, virtual game design parks, monitoring stations and in many other forms of exploratory research and study communities at which young learners can develop basic skills as well as cuttign edge solutions and prototypes, while being exposed to diversified expertise and to models from different cultures.

Learners must have the opportunity to compile a much richer and more personalized learning curriculum for which educational institutions should broker learning resources, access, tools and dedicated guides.

Over 30 years ago Ivan Illich elegantly anticipated the need for such a renewal in education, and envisaged something very close to what has emerged in the meanwhile under forces and pressures quite different from the ones that were at work when he wrote this. Ivan Illich properly named what would have emerged as a "learning web" and has clearly described it in his excellent book Deschooling Society.

3. Do you think that evolving means of communication will give rise to new art forms - if so, could you describe what you see coming?

Oh Sepp, thanks for this question. There is really a renaissance of the arts already taking place but we are still only at the very beginning. As the ability and also the legal support necessary to easily share and expose the works of art of many previously unknown independent artists grows, we are going to see also many new emergent models of supporting art and its own distribution.

The Creative Commons has already put in place a number of licenses and mechanisms that greatly facilitate the ability of independent artists to share, republish, create derivative works, remix and edit existing art pieces into new ones.

Both in the music field as well as in the visual world many new services are springing up that support and motivate artists in their path to sustainable expression. Two great examples are Magnatune and Stock Exchange. But there are a lot more that should be mentioned.

I would like for example to point your attention to an interesting idea brought forward by Amanda Koh from ProdigalArt, that would greatly help the distribution issues and the sustainability needs of independent artists. Go chek it out.

4. Traditional media are losing ground to the Internet. What changes would the media giants have to make to re-capture our attention?

Traditional media has been working to serve "mass" markets, where in many cases lowest common denominators have been driving editorial choices and quality independent news reporting has been a rare instance rather than the norm.

Today more and more people are learning that smaller independent news sources, including some professional bloggers and news sites provide much more timely, direct, and reliable reporting on key issues, products and trends than traditional newspapers or industry analysts are able to do.

This is mostly because the Internet has completely slashed any barrier to entry for would be-independent journalists, reporters, analysts and opinion leaders of different kinds. Anyone can own an online press, and given enough skill to be able to generate valuable unique content and to properly manage and package it for distribution, you can see how easy it is for us, independent newsmakers to have become in a matter of very little time, true alternative resources to mainstream media.

The weblog-based media has also enabled a true, open conversation between "journalists" and readers, allowing this second group to actively contribute and participate in the process of news media making.

I think that Barry Parr of Media Savvy does an excellent job at pinpointing what would be needed for a traditional media publisher to consider when understanding that fast and flexible adaptation is key to survival.

In essence, traditional newspapers and other mass media need to transform themselves into collectors and clearinghouses for quality information coming from the edges.

It is the audience, and each individual in it, that is the new media star.

5. What means are available to us to salvage the contents of the internet (or as much of it as possible) in case of some catastrophic occurrence like general and prolonged blackouts?

This is a question that I would like to turn to the readers of this article.

I don't have an answer to this outside of my appreciation for the value that answers to this question can bring. We do give too many things for granted and we rarely engage in analyzing alternative potential future scenarios (positive and negative) in order to be much better equipped to cope flexibly with the demands that this uncertain and rapidly changing future may bring to us.

It would also appear to me extremely valuable to see the emergence of some application tools and services that would allow the easy off-line storage of certain sections of the Internet through distributed P2P networks, and through a much needed individual ability to store and maintain every single bit of information and knowledge we deem of value.

6. If you were to propose a solution to the problem of pirated artistic content, how do you think the needs of artists to be rewarded could be reconciled with the desire of people to experience the art at reasonable prices?

I think that participation is key to this issue. The more individuals can participate in the process of creating, contributing, marketing and distributing art, the more art will benefit from it while contributing to a very fertile ground in which to breed new art forms and a much wider and diversified talent pool.

Re the issue we are facing at this time, where record companies and the RIAA are suing individual users for having downloaded music that was copyrighted without having paid a due share of that access, I would personally see the adoption of a monthly or yearly moderate fee as a simple way to resolve this issue.

End users are also the ultimate marketers and resellers of music, but only if we provide them with the means and the "rights" to add personal value to such content by way of remixing, editing, recompiling, collecting, restoring and repackaging all of the accessible art and music available out there.

Ultimately I don't see any of form of art as needing fees or royalties to be paid. Ultimately I see art as one information type, and one that challenges the status quo to reveal and indicate new and possible ways of understanding. Art, as information, can be a sustainable vehicle when it is let free for as many people to enjoy and learn from. The more we want to make a product out of it the more we will constrain its artistic potential, exacerbating the cultural divide and further alienating music from its natural role of transformative social force.

7. Technically, there would be no problem to institute software that could run micropayments through the banking system. Do you think that there are other barriers that keep us from having such a useful tool?

I think that if there are, you would be a much more qualified analyst to provide some explanations to us of why this is not happening.

From what I can see, banks may possibly be sitting on the fence for now and closely scrutinizing the new wave of micropayment systems that are now being used out there.

I am sure that if micropayments can be diverted to a use that enables greater content creation and distribution rather than closing off small chunks of know-how at negligible prices, we may see a larger and more passionate adoption of them.

I myself have yet to see a good use for them that will make me want to go out and recommend them to other people.

******

Sepp Hasslberger is an independent news reporter, activist, health freedom and consumer rights evangelist and is the author being Health Supreme, an independent news blog devoted to counter-information in the areas of personal health, alternative economic system, renewable energy, and world issues.

Sepp is one of the three Communication Agents that have started together with me the Communication Agents Initiative, a project directed at enabling independent news writers and social activists to embrace the potential offered by new media technologies to extend their ability to reach and touch someone.

The core mission of CAI is expressed in a public document called Areas for Change and which I have personally drafted with Sepp at the beginning of 2003.

Our progress into this mission has been nothing short of spectacular, with over 30,000 unique visitors per month reading one of the three Communication Agents site and over 60,000 pages being viewed in each of the least three months.

For more information on the Communication Agents Initiative please see: http://robingood.typepad.com/