#PaiRED: Gatekeeper Confidence
Since the University of Bologna was established in Italy in 1088 A.D. society has put its faith in Higher Education as a trusted institution to issue credentials. For a long time, it was unchallenged. People had faith in these institutions as gatekeepers of knowledge. They trusted their integrity and valued their credentials. In 1995 something changed. When the Internet came onto the scene in 1995, it opened doors to learning. Online Higher Education took time and space out of the equation. Student loan debt continued to increase. Where people went for information changed. You could Google it. You could find everything online. Tuition continued to soar. New models of education began to spring up. Our faith in Higher Education as the gatekeeper for creating new knowledge, distributing existing knowledge and preserving prior knowledge changed (Baggio, 2017).
As long as employers, governments and society at large continue to value Higher Education credentials we will be willing to pay for them. Higher Education will remain the gatekeepers for opportunity. But outdated pedagogy and an unwillingness to change to new ways of learning has put a dent in credibility even at the most prestigious schools. “A lecture has become the process in which the notes of the teacher go to the notes of the student without going through the brains of either” (Tapscott and Tapscott, 2017, p. 26).
Standards of trust and accreditation like academic tenure and the Carnegie hour are being challenged. New models of learning continue to spring up. Models that are professional, transferable, stackable, experiential, chunk-able and credentialed. It’s not just about knowledge or transferable skills anymore, it’s about the ability to continue to learn throughout a lifetime. The changes we face and continue to face with AI moving at lightning speed require an ability to problem solve, collaborate and communicate. Roles are being redefined not in terms of job descriptions but in terms of dynamic tenets. Organizations are becoming more agile. Everyone owns a piece of everything and is responsible for success. The watch words are agile, open and consensus.
Blockchain and AI together are incredibly powerful. They offer employers the ability to match projects with proven capabilities. They can match Human Resource training with increased capabilities and return on investments. Higher Education hasn’t changed. It is relatively isolated and disconnected. It offers scholarship. It has not yet used advancing technologies effectively to break down the division between institutions, professors, industry, parents and students. This will require institutions to make deep structural changes quickly. Time is not on their side. Blockchain offers trust, security and integrity and the ability to create a global network of learning accreditation without walls. Currently, most institutions see very little reason to change even though change is pounding on their door. The widespread adoption of the Internet caused them to lose their monopoly on knowledge. They still own educational brands and credentialing. But how long can this last? How long until the gatekeepers lose trust and the old immovable paradigm crumbles? Blockchain and AI together offer a promising future for learning and global networking that threatens to replace an old, outdated and expensive system for learning.
#PaiRED, #BobbeBaggio, #AI@Work, #WFH, #ThePajamaEffect, #Touchpoints, #Visual Connection
