Drop Out Now: The Economics of Unschooling - (8 Exponential Trends That Will Shape Humanity Part 2)

Drop Out Now: The Economics of Unschooling

Spring 2013

8 Exponential Trends That Will Shape Humanity

We live in a time of great abundance and unparalleled possibilities fueled by

exponential growth from the impact of technology. Our job at sparks & honey is to

understand the accelerators, balancers and patterns that are driving exponential cultural

change in the near term and foreseeable future.  Our team of cultural strategists and

curators works with leading brands and thought leaders to apply these trends and use them

as a catalyst for disruptive innovation.

We eat culture for breakfast in order to understand the value of emerging fringe signals,

cultural shifts and explosive doubling patterns. While monitoring thousands of inputs

and mapping and scoring them, we have identified 8 rapidly accelerating trends that will

shape institutions, governments, businesses and everyday consumers.

We have consolidated these trends into short vignettes in order to share a curated snapshot

of what will create either great opportunities or unexpected challenges. We will cover

these trends over the next two months. This report covers The Future of Education. We

hope you engage us in the debate and exploration on how these exponential trends will

shape your business and the World. 

Please enjoy and share this second of eight free reports. The discussion will also continue in

our core social channels - @sparksandhoney, www.bigthink/blogs/amped and

www.facebook.com/sparksandhoney.

[email protected]

Our blind spot comes from the fact that, historically, we have lived in a linear world.

But today’s changes are exponential. Exponential

Linear

5. Quantified Everywhere 7. Ancient Wisdom 8. Cyborg Marketing

Economics of Unschooling

6. Conscious Brands

1. Century of City States 4. 3D Printing3. Citizen Doctor

Part 2 in the series: 8 Exponential Trends that will Shape Humanity

2. Economics of Unschooling

image source

2.Future of EducationWelcome to the new learning model, a move from institutional learning to the school of Life. Learning is no longer linear, it is perpetual and lifelong. We’ve reached a tipping point this year, as the number of online learners has reached an all-time high.

Learning is becoming more about self-actualization and less about receiving a particular grade.  Education is being custom-tailored to fit the individual. It enables people to pursue multiple avenues of interest leading to the ability to live a portfolio life. This means that careers now become unstructured and less singular, and people are equipped with a wider range of skills.

1. Conscious BrandsEconomics of Unschooling

“60% of the best jobs in the next ten years haven’t been invented yet.”-Thomas Frey

Mainstream education practices are not sufficient to prepare students for a future filled with constant change.

economics of unschooling

The educational model is out of synch with our exponential world: “We teach and test things most students have no interest in and will never need, and facts that they can Google and will forget as soon as the test is over.”

20 pointsIQs of Americans today are 20

points higher than their grandparents, which is known as

the Flynn effectSource: The Week Magazine

economics of unschooling

Applying the ROI Approach to Education: U.S. and state officials are intensifying efforts to hold colleges accountable for what happens after graduation, a sign of frustration with sky-high tuition costs and student loan debt. ROI figures could help prospective students compare salaries by college and major to assess their best investment.

$30kIs the average student

debt at the time of college graduation

Source: Reuters

economics of unschooling

Online Learning Hits a Tipping Point: Computer based education is becoming a practical option for many students. From free “massive open online courses” to accredited online universities, it provides a cheaper, more flexible alternative to traditional college.

450%Percent change in online public school enrollment

from 2006 to 2012Source: US Dept of Education

economics of unschooling

Education Might Get Too Personal: The education system is already sourcing Big Data about students, amassing huge intel, which is worrying parent groups. While data enables courses to be tailored to individual learning styles, biology and even neurology, the worry is that third parties can access student data, making marketing to IQ a possibility.

economics of unschooling

Education Alternatives are Proliferating: With student debt at an all-time high and scarce jobs, traditional college may no longer be a sound idea. Blended offline-online learning systems and DIY education centers provide ways to embed lifelong learning into busy lifestyles.

economics of unschooling

The Not-Back-to-School Movement: Designed to encourage lifelong learning and independent thought, the Thiel Fellowship program provides funding for world-changing projects as an alternative to college.

economics of unschooling

The Birth of Hackschooling: Rather than pursuing a straight-through run of high school and college, innovators in the education space are piecing together their own custom learning experiences based on a mix of real world experience and personalized modular classes.

21%Of Americans say the best thing

for a young person is to skip college and instead learn a skill

Source: The Futures Company

economics of unschooling

economics of unschooling implications

Anticipate Brands As Professors: Brands will seize white-space opportunities in education, from funding teaching materials to product placements in schools. In addition, expect brands to adopt experiential storytelling to educate consumers about themselves, especially as consumers seek back-story and provenance. Consumers’ thirst for information will enable brands to take on the role of being the authority on a topic.

Serve Up Education in Personal and Packeted Ways: Big data will enable coursework to be highly tailored to individual needs and learning styles (even personality types, attitudes, lifestyles... and DNA). In addition, curricula designed for busy consumers will be offered in snack-sized modules with more emphasis on project-based and opportunistic “teachable moments.”

Play to the New Realities of Long-Tail Learning: The Internet galvanizes people with niche interests. The flexibility of tech-enabled education will fuel interest in fringe topics and skills, which will drive a surge in acute specialization (as opposed to education striving for generalists). Concurrently, as people “hack school” and learn from life experiences, they will develop unprecedented breadth of knowledge.

Facilitate Lifelong Learning: As 60% of the good jobs currently do not exist, and skills learned in school today will be outdated by the time students graduate, it will be imperative that anyone looking to get ahead will constantly update and upgrade their skill sets. Recruiters will put a higher premium on “what you did recently to expand your horizons” than an Ivy League education.

Curiosity CounselorAdvances in neuroscience are revealing the untapped power of the brain, and how “curiosity” is more of an indicator of success than IQ. Competitive parents will seek out experts to nurture their child’s curiosity to increase their CQ (curiosity quotient), while schools will initiate CQ testing.

Job of the Future?

p.

Economics of Unschooling Topic Clusters Content

NetworkTopic

Cluster Manifestation

Hacking Your Education

Opening a Gateway for Girls to Enter the Computer Field

Why Your 8-year-oldShould be Coding

My Kid Wants to be Liked on Facebook

The LoopersSugata Mitra: Build a

School in the Cloud California's Move to Break the Higher Education Cartel

This Database Could Save Education In America

The Digital Public Library of America

Essay-Grading Software Offers Professors a Break

Vine Tops List ofFree iPhone Apps in

App StoreThe 529 College Savings Plan Needs an

Update

Fewer Foreigners Eye U.S. Graduate Science Programs

What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success

Planting Seeds: The Power of Mindfulness

MOBILE NATIVES

DIY EDUCATION

CROWD IQ

HACK DESIGN

DATA DIVINITY

Knowledge Everywhere

Return onInvestment

Bite Sized

Information

ECONOMICS OF

UNSCHOOLING

Instant Gratification

SNACK MEDIA

Open Enrollment

Masters in Coding

School ofLife

DIY

Need a Job? Invent it

Big Data

80% of Mobile Time Spent in Apps

How Smartphones and Social Keep Us

Engaged

Always Connected

Constant Feedback

UnCollege

At sparks & honey we track and analyze thousands of cultural data sources in real time, incorporating live data feeds from numerous APIs as well as hundreds of offline sources. Using a proprietary Culture Mapping Platform, we monitor cultural bursts, identify clusters of activity and trends, score their energy levels, project their lifespans and analyze their cultural resonance. This intelligence helps brands understand and connect with popular culture in order to make more strategically informed business decisions.

Our platform incorporates three different frameworks to structure and contextualize raw data:

CONTENT NETWORKS

ENERGY SCORE&

PREDICTION SCORE

DNA

A mapping system used to model dynamic, interconnected webs of cultural activity.

The Energy Score is rated on a scale of 1-5. It reflects the speed of reach and volume of buzz, and incorporates a ranking of influencer activity that includes reach, resonance and relevance.

A unique set of attributes that describes the core concepts of each trend.

compactshareablecradle to cradlefrictionlessinnovative

ENERGY PREDICTION

The Prediction Score is rated on a scale of 1-40. It reflects anticipated duration of a trend.

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Methodology

TOPIC CLUSTERS Significant groupings of manifestations which signify cultural waves and trends.

MANIFESTATIONS Discrete data points that indicate change.

Digital Cities

Share Everything

Urban Farming

image source

5. Quantified Everywhere 7. Ancient Wisdom 8. Cyborg Marketing6. Conscious Brands

1. Century of City States 4. 3D Printing2. Economics of

Unschooling

Stay tuned for “Citizen Doctor,” the next installment in our “8 Exponential Trends That Will Shape Humanity” series.

Follow us @sparksandhoney to keep up to date with our latest free reports.

3. Citizen Doctor

“This Omnicom-backed "newsroom"-oriented agency starts each morning with a cultural briefing for clients such as Hyatt, Jarden and Life is Good, for whom it developed six "culture-to-commerce" T-shirts. In 2013 it grew from two to 17 clients and quadrupled its staff to 20.”

SPARKS & HONEY NAMED AS 1 OF 10 TOP AGENCIES TO WATCH IN 2014 BY ADAGE

1 Sa

Space in the Air

2 St

Shock & Transgress

3 Pl

Play

4 Mm

Memory Management

5 Ab

Absurdism

6 En

Enchanted

7 Rc

Refreshed Classics

8 Cx

Codex

9 Sm

Snack Media

10 Ax

Armchair Explorer

11 Nh

New New Hollywood

12 Bi

Binge

13 Rt

Radical Transparency

14 Ob

Open Brand

15 Pr

Premiumization

16 Le

Life as Entertainment

7 Cc

Convergence Culture

1 Uf

Unfat Generation

2 Nm

New Masculinity

3 Pw

Power Woman

4 Tg

Third Genger

5 Rr

Redefined Retirement

6 Hy

Hyper Culture

8 Ss

Second Skin

9 Si

Singletons

10 Mf

Modern Family

11 Sq

Squealing

12 Ex

Exponentials

13 Ft

Flattening

1 Rt

Real Thing

1 Dd

Data Divinity

2 Sc

Screen Culture

2 H

Hack Design

3 Gc

Geek Chic

4 Te

Ephemeral

5 Ki

Kidult

6 Sm

Small-scaling

Sm 7 Sp

Slow Perception

8 Ti

Tangible Intangible

15 Dc

Decay

9 De

De/re-materialization

D 10 Fh

First Hand Look

11 Ra

Raw

12 Lm

Living Matter

13 Wt

Warm Technology

14 Gl

Glitch

22 72

1972

16 Ne

Neo-psychedelic

17 Na

Nano World

18 Ma

Mashup

19 Hd

Hand Drawn

20 Ie

Immersive 360°

21 Fl

Flat Design

1 Ic

Icognito

2 In

Inwards

3 Ru

Rurban

3 Ru 4 Us

Made in the USA

5 Ec

Ecoboostering

6 On

Oneness

7 Lw

Living Without

Rs

Restoration

8 9 Ss

Startup Society

10 Mi

Moral Imperative

11 Rb

Rise of the Believer

R 12 Ll

Life Logic

13 Cq

Crowd IQ

14

Provenance

15 Se

Sharing Economy

16 St

Strangify

17 Io

Insumer/Outsumer

13 Mg

Mood Geisting

14 Fq

Focus Quotient

3 Sh

Super Human

4 Qs

Quantified Self

5 Sn

Sensor Network

6 Qe

Quantified Everywhere

7 Fl

Frictionless Life

8 Mg

Mind Gaming

9 Sf

Social Flares

10 We

Wearables

11 Mi

Micro Manufacturing

12 Cs

Cyborg Singularity

S&H CORE OFFERINGS

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INNOVATIONCULTURAL INTELLIGENCE CONTENT & AMPLIFICATION

• Macro Trend Identification & Quantification

• Projecting Segments into the Future (Consumers of the Future)

• Product, Service & Packaging Development

• Business Model Design & Reimagination

• Business Context Analysis

• Futurism

• Whitespace Identification

• Brand/Partner & Acquisition Recommendations

• Social & Cultural Listening

• Competitive Intelligence & War Gaming

• Segment Analysis & Tracking

• Topic Deep Dives

• Event Tracking

• Issue Monitoring

• Real-time Burst identification

• Channel Analysis

• Content & Influencer Strategy

• Editorial & Cultural Calendars

• Pre-Planned (70/30) Content Production - Online and Off Line

• Real-time Content Production

• Real-Time Commerce

• Social Media Content (short and long form) - posts, tweets, vines, videos, blog, etc.

• Community Management

• Influencer Outreach

• Channel Optimization & Fan Base Development

• Analytics & Measurement

• Real-Time Media Amplification

CULTURAL STRATEGY

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SYNCING BRANDS WITH CULTURE