Friday, December 5, 2008

Meatball Sundaes in Education

EducationInnovation talks about Seth Godin's book and its application to education. Here are some excerpts:

In his book, Meatball Sundae- is your marketing out of sync?; Seth Godin describes what he calls New Marketing. But, I call it “the new reality,” because what he is describing is a fundamental shift in the world’s organizations, caused by changes in media and technology. This new reality is what education must be prepared for and what we must be able to prepare our students for.

Media and technology have fundamentally changed the world and Seth says that change puts us all at a crossroads. One path leads to frustration as the typical organization, school district, or school continues to operate in out-dated ways, or, another path leads to organizations, school districts, and schools that are, “…nimble, intelligent organizations that are poised and prepared to be propelled by the fresh tactics of New Marketing.” The new reality. Which path do you think your school or district is on?

Meatballs are the old ways of teaching and running schools. It’s basic, we know what we are getting, and they used to work. But, the world wants the sundae. So instead of using meatballs we are going to have to think of something else that will taste good on ice cream and chocolate sauce. The whipped cream and the cherry on top are the new techniques, strategies, models, and levers education needs to used to create a sundae fit for the new reality.

I believe, new organizations, leveraged with new thinking, technology, and creativity is the whipped cream and the cherry on top we need.

Catalytic Questions for Educational Institutions

If the “new reality” were a slogan on a bumper sticker or T-shirt, what would it say?

What is one current educational or organizational practice you could substitute for another that would make an impact on your school or district to bring it more in alignment with the “new reality.”

What might that look like?

In what ways might you take a small idea or practice you are currently using and exaggerate or expand it across your school or district?

Imagine a deadline of one school year, what could you change within that time?

How might that change make a difference in the years to come?

What assumptions must you update, what ideas must you discard, based on the “new reality?”

How might a failed idea or policy at your district or school open the door for new ideas and thinking?

If you could substitute your thinking for that of Seth Godin, in what ways might you change your ideas or develop new ideas? What might they be?

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