Wow, what a response – it’s heartening that last nights look into the Future of Education on ABC Local Radio Nightlife Program with Tony Delroy’, around what education must evolve into, who provides it, when, where and how were the building blocks for a stimulating and far reaching discussion on what learning and education must become.

My take on this over the past few decades is that the education system many Baby Boomers and legislators romantically think of as best practice is based on an Industrial Revolution – Just In Case learning model.

This system and delivery method suited the times and purpose of a society where jobs were relatively plentiful, future vocational skill easy to predict and long lived, where change was generational and educations imperative was for us all to be stand alone self sufficient individuals, because there was no easy real time way to know and discover what we didn’t know.

In tomorrow’s landscape our education is moving to a Just In Time approach, with  ubiquitous technology allowing us to discover on as as needs basis, which is imperative moving forward because the skill sets and knowledge our children will need in their future professions and vocations are less obvious as the work landscape of tomorrow sees them working project and task, not 9 -5, working digitally and physically, locally, regionally and globally doing tasks in industries that we can’t name or comprehend today (just think back to the last 10 years and ponder the range of jobs, tasks and industries that have evolved around social media).

Our current education system doesn’t readily cater for this paradigm shift, it is bloated, anachronistic and better suited to a previous age and need.

The 3R’s writing, arithmetic and reading -(and notice that only one starts with an “r”)once served us well as the foundations of a great education system, but today and tomorrow we have to add to these the 3C’s – Collaboration, Communication and Creative Problem Solving because these are the skills sets that will allow our students to find their way in tomorrows workspace, to work and engage with others and to find tomorrow’s solutions to problems that have not yet been identified.

Let’s rise above the competing and erroneous excuses not to innovate and as a society demand exponential change to our Education system and understand that if it is not revolutionised, we are jeapordising our children’s long term future and in turn Australia’s future economy and well being.

Our classrooms of tomorrow must be dynamic, flexible and offer on-going real time student diagnostics and feedback.

They must readily flex to accommodate all learning styles and ensure each child regardless of their perceived abilities maximises their potential.

It must be a space in which teacherpreneurs ply their craft, encouraged by a system and technologies that allows them to instruct, engage and enthuse their students.

If we are going to build Australia as a wisdom nation and turn knowledge into our major export commodity, then we have to start today by educating tomorrow’s workforce, leaders and innovators into how to thrive in a transparent world of change, where today’s certainty is tomorrow’s fallacy and where life long learning is the blissful norm.

Wonderfully the audience was up for the challenge as the switchboard lit up with suggestions and comments on how we might best achieve these audacious aims. So have a listen now, let me know your thoughts on the Future of Education and help spread the word about Australia’s education revolution.