I started reading Wikinomics this week. In the book, the authors observe that “deep changes in technology, demographics, business, the economy and the world” have ushered in a “new age where people participate” like never before (2008, p. 10). Moreover, they contend that we have already reached a “tipping point where new forms of mass collaboration are changing how goods and services are invented, produced, marketed, and distributed on a global basis.” In The Wisdom of Crowds, Surowiecki explains that large groups of people can be “smart” when they are diverse, individuals in the group are independent from each other, and thought processes are decentralized (2004, p. 42). Another view of so-called “crowdsourcing” suggests that humanity is now capable of “using the kind of collective intelligence once reserved for ants and bees—but now with human IQ driving the mix” (Libert, 2007, p. 1). The result? A “quantum increase in the world’s ability to conceive, create, compute, and connect. We are only beginning to comprehend the consequences.”

The troubling thing to me about all of this is how little mention there is of education in these books. For example, Tapscott and Williams specifically mention education only four times in their 340 page volume on “Wikinomics” (see Index p. 343). The references themselves are also enlightening. The first is a mention of the MIT Open Courseware initiative (p. 22-23). The second references TakingITGlobal’s efforts to reform education by providing a “set of tools and curricular activities that will get students collaborating with other students in other countries” (p. 51). The third refers to the California Department of Education’s Open Source Textbook Project (p. 69). The fourth is merely an additional mention of the California textbook project (p. 301). Note that only one of these references relates to the way students actually learn—the others are about content creation and distribution.

This is additional evidence that technology’s real impact on education is yet to be realized. In a 2007 IRRODL article, David Annand observed: “Much like the Industrial Revolution before it, rapid technological change in the Information Age has to date created significant, fundamental change in virtually all sectors of society except education” (2007, emphasis added).

What are the factors that will bring about a fundamental paradigm shift in learning? For starters, I believe we need to press onward in our efforts to make teaching and learning technology (both tools and content) more modular and interoperable. We also need to do a better job of leveraging the network effect, connecting more learners to more content and more fellow-learners. Finally, none of this will be of any significance if we don’t doggedly stay focused on learning (instead of on making administrative and teaching tasks more efficient).

This is all the subject of an article I’m working on with my BYU colleague Mike Bush. I’ll post a link to it when it’s published.