Designing the
future of education
in Society 3.0
John Moravec, Ph.D.
May, 2009
john@educationfutures.com

Disclaimer
The “dot-zero-ization”
of everything has
become the mullet of
the 21st century.

Society 1.0

The 1.0 Paradigm
• Interpreted data
• Hierarchical
• Siloed jobs and roles
• Chaos and ambiguity avoided at all costs

Society 2.0

Knowledge Age
• Interpreted information
• Personally-constructed meanings
• Socially-constructed meanings
• Chaos and ambiguity are managed

Ci#zen Scien#sts

140

How does education make the most
from a cut-and-paste society?

Society 3.0

The future is already here –
it is just unevenly
distributed.
% of popula#on with access
– William Gibson
Past Future

Innovation and Design Age
• Contextually applied knowledge
• Horizontalized diffusion of knowledge
• Heterarchical relationships
• Chaos and ambiguity are embraced
and attended to

Three drivers of Society 3.0
1. Accelerating change
2. Continuing globalization
3. Innovation society fueled by
knowmads

Accelerating
Accelerating
Change
change

Accelerating change,
Accelerating uncertainty
Level of Advancement
Time

Accelerating change impacts the
half-life of useful knowledge.
• The amount of information available is
doubling at an exponential rate
• The half-life of knowledge is
decreasing exponentially

Earth
Jupiter
Callisto Europa
Ganymede

Sources of innovation in Society 3.0:

Everything is

Crowd
sourcing

Pre-1.0 Nomads

3.0 Knowmads

Knowmads

Paradigm
Domain 1.0 2.0 3.0
Fundamental Complex crea#ve
Simple Complex
rela;onships (teleological)
Conceptualiza;on of Inten#onal, self‐
Hierarchic Heterarchic
order organizing
Rela;onships of parts Mechanical Holographic Synerge#c
Worldview Determinis#c Indeterminate Design
Causality Linear Mutual An#causal
Change process Assembly Morphogenic Crea#ve destruc#on
Reality Objec#ve Perspec#val Contextual
Place Local Globalizing Globalized

So?

Society 3.0 drives Education 3.0.

Educa;on 1.0 Educa;on 2.0 Educa;on 3.0
Socially constructed and
Meaning is… Dictated Socially constructed
contextually reinvented
Confiscated at the
Cau#ously adopted Everywhere (ambient,
Technology is… classroom door (digital
(digital immigrants) digital universe)
refugees)
Teacher to student,
student to student,
Teacher to student and
student to teacher,
Teaching is done … Teacher to student student to student
people‐technology‐
(progressivism)
people (co‐
construc#vism)
Everywhere (thoroughly
In a building or online infused into society:
Schools are located… In a building (brick) (brick and click) cafes, bowling alleys,
bars, workplaces, etc.)
Parents view schools A place for them to learn,
Daycare Daycare
as… too
Teachers are… Licensed professionals Licensed professionals Everybody, everywhere
Hardware and Are purchased at great Are open source and Are available at low cost
soLware in schools… cost and ignored available at lower cost and are used purposively
As ill‐prepared assembly
Industry views As co‐workers or
Assembly line workers line workers in a
graduates as… entrepreneurs
knowledge economy

3.0 schools
• Produce knowledge-producing kids,
not automatons.
• Share, remix and capitalize on new
ideas.
• Embrace accelerating change rather
than fighting it.

3.0 schools are not…
…based on hardware
…based on software

3.0 schools are built on mindware.

Ambient computing
O’Reilly: We really are moving beyond the era
of the PC into the era of ambient computing,
where we’re interacting with the global
network through devices that are sprinkled
throughout the world, smart objects, and I
think the next big thing is really not to do
with the Web at all. I think the next big thing
has not to do with the Web at all. I think it's
beyond the Web.

Ambient awareness is socially-distributed thinking.

Ambient education means 3.0
schools are located in:
• Bricks • Taquerías
• Clicks • Universities
• Bowling alleys • On our phones
• Coffee shops • On television
• In our
• Parks
imaginations
• Subway stations
…everywhere!

So what?

Have schools reached their singularity?

Key point
1.0 schools cannot teach 3.0 kids.

No matter how
hard we try to
cover up
19th century
institutions,
they will still be
19th century
institutions.

Beware, in 3.0 schools:
Technology is key, but…
1. Technology is not the answer.
2. Technology must be purposive.

“Technology is a word that describes
something that doesn’t work yet... We notice
things that don’t work. We don’t notice things
that do. We notice computers, we don’t
notice pennies. We notice e-book readers, we
don’t notice books.”
– Douglas Adams
JavaOne Keynote, 1999

Key point
Schools should not use
new technologies to
teach the same old crap.

We all co-invent the future.

We’re all
white belts.

We can design the future.

“Innovate, baby, innovate!”

No failures.