Can Technology Transform Education Before It’s Too Late?

‎"Many in Silicon Valley have strong opinions on how education should be improved, perhaps most notably Peter Thiel, who believes we are in a higher education bubble and should be encouraging kids to skip college and pursue entrepreneurship instead. I agree that Americans are placing too much emphasis on higher education, but I think the debate over Thiel’s statements misses a much deeper point.

Why is higher education overvalued?

It’s because our primary and secondary education systems suck and are thus shifting the burden of educating our population to college. Of much greater concern to me than the college bubble is that 18 years of almost every American life are wasted learning nothing in primary and secondary public schools. By now we’ve become habituated to the alarming statistics that show America falling behind in all subjects. While the public sector struggles to innovate, however, the private sector is taking note."

‎"As Connolly explains in this video from Apple’s iPad 2 launch event last March, “It is difficult to keep students motivated in school, and keep them engaged in the curriculum…You put the iPad in front of them, and you’ll see the kids focus immediately on that content and start working through it … I really believe that this is the future of education.”

Classrooms using the iPads have seen gains of 50-60% in reading, math and science performance. Connolly is also working with Chicago-based start-up, eSpark Learning, to help teachers sort through the 27,000 educational apps in the iOS store and adapt instruction to individual students’ needs. According to eSpark’s CEO, David Vinca, the software, which he describes as “Pandora for education,” has helped students raise their skills by 1.4 grade levels."