I came across this excellent article on the Learning Without Frontiers blog http://www.learningwithoutfrontiers.com/blog/2011/4/14/the-napsterfication-of-learning.html#comment12691750 by @grahamBM on 'The Napsterification of Learning'. I think it's an excellent article on how technology usage in classrooms has stalled through being shoehorned into traditional means of teaching. Napster was the original model of Internet disruption and probably was the the spiritual inspiration in some ways for iTunes. It set a template for how to create open and free exchange systems and I would guess that Napster assured the the longevity of the MP3 file. I would say that come the end of this decade we will still be storing our music in MP3 format.
So taking into account the original article what could we possible learn from Napster and how could this apply to education? I am aware that what I am about to offer is a highly simplified view of what Napster was and also possible future outcomes in education applying some of the lessons from Napster however as a thought exercise this is still valuable.
Napster to me was
- obviously 'disruption' in the way it shook up traditional models of providing music to the masses#
- 'democratisation' or even the advent of 'socialism' in music in that anyone regardless of wealth (but still reliant on the Internet) could have access to music
- driven by an individual who was not part of the traditional powerbase of individuals and companies controlling the music industry. Shawn Fanning was in essence an outsider who managed to force his way into the industry not through long term experience but just outright skill and innovation.
- as I said earlier almost the true 'dawn' of the MP3 format which has instituted what I see as the greatest sharing of content in the history of mankind second to books.
So how can one apply this to the future of not only technology usage in education but education itself? I think we need in education the educational MP3. A software object which
- is very easy to transmit, store and share both on devices and in the cloud
- contains learning material itself but can also contain easily accessible links to learning content on wikipedia, youtube etc
- can be edited by pupils and parents
- can be rated and tagged
- is available to be downloaded through large content providers (iTunes, Amazon) for free
I am aware that I am proposing what sounds like a glorified resource bank and in a sense it is. However whereas existing resource banks will often provide good quality material it is still time intensive having to download this material, organise it and then the material itself is often only compatible within some systems and not others and to be transferred again many files will need to be zipped together in a file for easy transfer. Moving on from Napster perhaps what I am proposing here is almost an iTunes of educational content. Normal iTunes is a good example of how information can be easily organised and stored between multiple devices which a user owns. When iTunes hopefully moves into the cloud as well this then provides an excellent model of a massive ecosystem for content acquisition and sharing.
Developing the format of this educational MP3 could be tricky (have to provide not just auditory but visual content) but as an idea I think it could be an indication of a possible future way of developing information for usage in schools. I like the idea of freely available information and I like the idea of democratising and socialising education and this could be a way of doing it.
