Yves Bergquist on the Future of Education

OurBlook interview with Yves Bergquist, chief strategy officer of VZillion, Inc.
 

Will Web 2.0 suffice to help teach students in America's schools or will Web 3.0 bring a substantial improvement? Could you explain the differences?
 
YB: Web 2.0 was already a huge improvement over Web 1.0 (which is basically a huge and dumb pit of information, 99.9 percent of which is either useless or downright harmful to any user). Web 2.0 allowed students to input and collect feedback on that mass of information, which does two things: (1) it brings structure to the system, and (2) prepares them for the collective intelligence environment of a professional organization. Web 3.0, which VZillion will bring a substantial contribution to, essentially brings intelligence to the web by structuring that information based on a user’s needs and preferences. Currently we individually have to work (and sometimes hard) to build a coherent construct of information out of the millions of bits and pieces of information scattered around the web which are relevant to a specific task (say, buying a car). Web 3.0 will automatically compile all of this data based on a framework laid out by the user. Web 3.0 will be far more disruptive to our lives (in a good way) than Web 2.0 ever was, because it will compile intelligent browsing with social utility. Quite literally, Web 3.0 will be an extension of our own brain.
 

 Would this new technology have a bigger impact for older children than younger, or vice versa, or would it be across the board?

YB: I have two children: a 7-year-old girl and an 8-month-old boy. Both of them, and this is very striking, are not only fascinated with computers, but they both use them at their own levels. As we all know, children seem to adopt computers ever so early. Computer technology is really becoming almost a fundamental cognitive skill, which also leads me to believe that the web is becoming an extension of our own brain, and that the experience of growing up (exerting ever more control over your own environment) now clearly has incorporated computers and the web as a cognitive function on the same level as talking or socializing. This is neither good nor bad news. This is something new and powerful which every parent needs to manage. The concept of “knowledge,” which used to mean only what we individually know, now encompasses the totality of what everybody knows everywhere (the web). Think about it: we all share the same brain. How completely disruptive is that?

How is technology changing education in kindergarten and elementary grades? Are there any particular new techniques you foresee coming soon?

YB: Well, technology is one thing, education is another. I personally think, and I am far from being alone, that schools have yet to truly understand how to harvest the fantastic power of this new tool. It happens everywhere: technologies are born and evolve far more rapidly than organizations. We all see this in our professional lives. I would love to see schools use Web 2.0 to connect my children with children from other cultures, to enable them to grasp the formidable diversity of human civilization, and thus become more tolerant of each other’s differences. This in and of itself would make a huge impact. I also think that school’s main function now needs to evolve toward teaching children how to manage oceans of information, to give them the tools to build their own frameworks to find, trust and aggregate information in a coherent, creative and responsible manner. This starts the day our children are born. Web 3.0 will accelerate that need by truly changing not the way we access information, but the way information accesses us. In a way we need to teach our children how to control that process, and not be swallowed by it, which unfortunately is getting easier and easier.

How is technology changing education at the junior high level? Are there any particular new techniques you foresee coming soon?

YB: Well, from what I see schools still aren’t catching up, which means that education is being changed all around them and against their will, which is never a good process. I think at this level adolescents are fully immersed in Web 2.0, they have an extraordinary capability to visualize information, they are incredibly empowered and creative individuals. At the same time, they are still very vulnerable because we have yet to institutionalize the process of learning what this means. This creates huge imbalances between families with a high degree of comprehension and awareness of these technologies, and those without. I personally believes that this accelerates the progression of social inequalities. At the same time, by not embracing this new paradigm of social utility, information visualization and creativity, schools set themselves further and further apart from reality for our children, and risk being completely irrelevant altogether. I would love to see schools creating software development kits or incubators for young entrepreneurs, for example. Channel that creativity and deep understanding of electronic media into a very tangible, very empowering environment. And at the same time coach leadership and team-building skills around very concrete projects. That would be really cool.

How is technology changing education at the high school level? Are there any particular new techniques you foresee coming soon?

YB: My sense is that at the high school level children are already very entrenched in their computer skills, and that at this level it is almost too late. Senior high really is about something else: it’s about life choices, experimenting with different academic fields, finding your passion, and making a clear and tangible connection between knowledge (which can be a bit dry) and the development and practice of this knowledge. At this level I think that the individuation process runs into Web 2.0 in the sense that social networks are also very coercive: they are instant-feedback stereotype factories, which runs against the whole point of high school.

How do you see technology changing education at the college level? Are there any particular new techniques you foresee coming soon?

YB: Here again I think college is the space where you put these already built frameworks into practice, either directly or indirectly. In my view, college is less about learning and more about stepping beyond the barriers and frameworks of your own education to find and realize yourself. Here again I think at this level Web 2.0 is a liability because it exposes people to extremely powerful social stereotypes and puts a lot of pressure on them to conform. This is the opposite of what college should be about.

At any of these levels, if you haven't discussed online instruction, or wish to discuss it more, what impact does and will it have?

YB: Online instruction will have tremendous impact. I live in California, and the present or future landscape of public education is very, very bleak. Extremely important pieces of curriculum, such as arts and science, are being cut. This is where online instruction can make a difference, especially now that broadband is finally reaching interesting levels throughout the country. I believe that online instruction will become one of the largest growth areas of education in the future, and we at VZillion are already working on delivering very powerful, fun and innovative solutions to bring kids and instructors together in a way that’s never been done before. 

 Is there a psychological aspect to this as well as technical ... e.g., do young people learn better with a combination of personal and technical methods?

YB: Definitely, and we all need to understand that computer technology is less a tool than a cognitive function: as such it is extremely vulnerable to our psychological frameworks. I really think that the combination of personal and online instruction can be very powerful but we have yet to find how. But for that we need to experiment, which is anathema to the education system. What are we afraid of?

Are there any disadvantages to the use of technology in education?

YB: I would consider that there are huge dangers, not disadvantages. The biggest problem, in my view, is that education too often ignores technology altogether. Which leads to considerable problems, one of them being the scattered, passive and uncritical way children access, consume and analyze information on the web. It is very easy to be dominated by this “beast” that is the web. I know it, because I am a victim of this: I never received any technology education in school. As a result, I found myself being completely alone in understanding and using the power of the web.

(VZillion calls itself "a lifestyle & technology innovation company. VZillion utilizes virtureal environments, hardware, applications and entertainment to merge both our online and offline lives." Before joining it, Yves Bergquist was an academic advisor at Singularity University, a partnership between NASA, Google and ePlanet Ventures, which aimed to "assemble, educate and inspire a cadre of leaders who strive to understand and facilitate the development of exponentially advancing technologies and apply, focus and guide these tools to address humanity's grand challenges." Additionally, he spent several years as a consultant, designing business models and competitive strategies in high-velocity environments for clients including the Walt Disney Corp., Ubisoft Entertainment, the Abu Dhabi Executive Council and the Japan External Trade Organization. He received his MBA from the Monterey Institute of International Studies.)