Prodigies do not wait for educational change, they live it

Most of us eLearners and knowledge managers know that change is here to stay. In fact although social media has started a social revolution, the change was not that revolutionary in its core for as humans we have always wanted to connect with others. Networking and being known by our peers is what drives us since the beginning of time. Monkeys know it, flocks of any kind know it, we know it.

Big names, small actions
A lot of discussions have been started on the fact that education as it is now, does not cover what is needed for the adult workers of the future (or contemporary workers, for it is happening). Seth Godin (renowned author, famous marketer and visionair) said that traditional education is heading for a meltdown, simply because it does not teach learners what they need to know to get started in professional live in this blogpost of his. The renowned author, and educationalist Ken Robinson focuses on the economical and cultural changes that effect education and which we – throughout the world – need to take into account. Look at this great 11 minute animation on one of his educational reform speeches.

Small names, big actions
In the meanwhile the learners themselves are just paving their way, some of them even put together their own master and phd. You do not need to tell prodigies where they need to go and they do not wait for our educational institutes to change, they just go for it and learn/teach.

My favorite young teacher is a musician called Stromae . He is a Belgian/Rwandan artist who makes fabulous music that is picked-up worldwide AND who gives free music classes which he publishes on the Net so everyone can learn. When he started out, he posted all his music for free. Yes, he is a believer in openness. No big stories there, just big actions. Here is one of his lessons on how he made a song (which later turned out to be the hit song that got him a great record deal), the lesson is in French, but the beats are universal, by the way this musical lesson got over 400.000 hits, so how is that for a free online learning module and even if you do not understand French, have a quick look he really gets his audience enthusiastic about the lesson as well: