Scientists agree that no two brains are identical
and that even if two children are born from the same family, they do not have
the same mental capacity. This makes me wonder, if this is the case, why does
our education system offer the same education to different types of minds,
while doctors prescribe to each patient the treatment appropriate to his or her
own condition!
Accordingly, we need to change the family culture
that focuses on directing children towards jobs to achieve a stable financial income
in pursuit of stability or those that provide a professional or social
prestige, even if they do not suit the scientific capabilities of their
children.
As I said in my book The Brave Knowledge World,
we need in this era of knowledge to have an education that is based on Information
and Communication Technology (ICT). Thus, we need knowledge-based schools and
universities and to utilize the capabilities of the artificial intelligence
(AI) in education. We need innovation incubators, not playgrounds and a campus.
We need to learn through technical intelligence
and to promote the culture of knowledge capital. We also need to establish
programs that turn inventions into commercial products and to invest our
research and development (R&D) resources in young inventors, whom we should
direct towards innovation. At Talal Abu Ghazaleh University College for
Innovation (TAGUCI), students do not graduate after passing a test, but rather
after submitting an invention.
Teachers must turn into technical advisors for
our children, not tutors or lecturers. Teachers now do not have any information
that is not available on the internet to provide to the students. I said this
in my remarks at Harvard University and at several regional and international
universities.
I can confirm that in the near future, there will
be no campus, school playgrounds, ministries of education, government education
institutions, printed books, tests for certification, white or black boards,
nor chalks. The knowledge revolution will make the current education system obsolete.
The brave digital revolution tsunami will eliminate traditional education and
students will teach other, instead of teachers.
Learning will replace education and it will be offered
through free, online schools that are globally available to everyone. Cheating
in exams will end because the focus will be on learning in pursuit of
innovation, not degrees that the learner obtains by memorizing.
As for the study programs, professional
qualifications will be compulsory within them and students will be required to
graduate with academic and professional certificates. The focus will be on
technical sciences, mathematics and engineering from the early stages of
education. Learning programming and electronic solutions will be a prerequisite
in the early stages of education. Learning will revolve around research,
analysis, and conclusion, rather than memorization. The technical guide will
replace the traditional teacher and digital, innovative humans will replace traditionally
educated humans. All branches of human knowledge will be available for all
free.
Technical intelligence will insert knowledge into
the mind without the need to memorize it. Google is working on a project to do
just this. The internet will play in our lives the role the nervous system is
playing in the human body. The capabilities of our minds will outperform those
of the computer’s. We will love with things and work with them to form together
one community.
In 1988, the Sci-Fi writer, Isaac Asimov, imagined that if everyone of us had a
device that was connected to a network, we would all learn from a big, virtual
library and would not need schools. Schools will be nurseries for children.
Science itself is not only the preservation of
information, but also training the mind to think. Elon Musk, President of Tesla
Corporation, says, “Do not confuse schooling with education. I did not go to
Harvard, but the people that work for me did.” Mark Twain says, “Do not let
your schooling interfere with your education.” Finally, Michael Faraday says,
“Lectures which really teach will never be popular. Lectures which are popular
will never really teach.”
Learning is not a commodity, students are not
customers, professors are not tools, and the university is not a factory. Students
cheat in exams because our education system focuses on passing grades rather than
on learning. Shakespeare himself did not obtain a Master's degree in English,
but no one can obtain a Master's degree in English without studying Shakespeare.
We want to graduate inventors who launch projects
that employ others instead of graduating (unemployed) people who are jobseekers.