At the Learning Counsel’s National Gathering in Houston, TX, the major theme was “Designed for Digital.  Keynote speaker LeiLani Cauthen, CEO of the Learning Counsel, presented a new way to do school turn around or just redesign schools for the digital economy.  Her topic, “Outside In, Re-Design for Digital,” first considered the frictions being brought against schools because of new norms in the outside world.

LeiLani explained to the audience that really the only way to do a re-design of teaching and learning was from the “outside in.” She noted that we currently have a “design flaw” in how education is delivered when considered against new cultural and business norms. 

She explained that consumers of education expect an infinity of options because of what they experience in every other industry, and schools on the whole are not operating that way. To schools, “personalization” is not the way normal people would define it, as something just for them, but a slight tweaking of the existing topics and schedules.  Her talk concludes with a view of a new organizational structure that is student-centered and not hierarchical but “workflow” oriented.  A true re-design would therefore not center on leaders, teachers, buildings and schedules only.   She mentioned that there are schools and districts out there that have some pieces in place, but not to the level of a complete reverse engineering from the student out.

Watch the full talk below.