ETL Looks Back: Education Reinvented – Are We There Yet?

Education as a field is undergoing profound shifts. And well before the forcing mechanisms of a global pandemic and the massive influence of technology on learning, visionaries and innovators have been shaping how schools and education can better meet students’ and society’s needs. As part of our look-back series on Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders episodes to date (more than 250 speakers have taken the mic), we’ve pulled prescient talks on education from the archives.

First up on your playlist, Sal Khan, Founder and CEO of the world-renowned Khan Academy, who offered a blueprint for individualized, technology-enhanced learning long before Covid and the explosion of EdTech products. Today, Khan Academy partners with more than 500 public school districts and schools across the United States.  They have more than 150 million registered users in 190 countries, with free lessons available in more than 50 languages. Catch up with what Sal had to say about personalized learning, the role of technology in education, and how we should be thinking about developing the next generation of makers. 

Next week,  listen back to Jennifer Carolan, leader of the NewSchools Seed Fund. As a former science teacher turned venture fund leader, Jennifer talked with Steve Blank in 2014 about the rise of EdTech products before devices were 1:1 (one device per student) and the tech was ubiquitous in the classroom. She explores how we can bring the venture model and mindset into education. In part, it’s about asking the teachers, who are driving the ed-tech revolution. 

“We want technology tools that are as good as our consumer technology tools.”

Finally, we’ll revisit the episode with Richard Miller, who visited ETL in 2016. Richard was credited with reimagining undergraduate engineering education at Olin College, where he was founding director. Miller challenged us to consider who we teach, what we teach, and how that teaching reaches students. “The Old model is: follow orders. The new model is about following your passions.” Miller wants to shift the focus from showing up in class to learn, to learning 24/7, from learning in isolation to learning as part of a community, and to problem solving as the foundational mindset to design-centered thinking. 

So much of what these leaders shared with our students signaled what was to come for the field, and continues to shape innovation to come. Make sure you check them out every Wednesday.