How Technology and Covid-19 Are Reinventing Education

In the future, learning will bifurcate. “Horizontal skills” will be taught early in life: these skills will form the foundation for lifelong learning, giving people the ability to reinvent themselves again and again. Later in life will come “vertical skills”, which will be job-specific.

College isn’t going anywhere. If anything, the pandemic has reminded Americans of how much they value the “college experience.”

Going direct-to-learner broadens the set of potential learners while obfuscating archaic, slow-moving, highly-regulated systems.

The average teacher in the U.S. makes $60K a year, with starting salaries often under $40K. But with the Internet, teachers are able to quickly and cheaply apply their skills to learners around the world. This means that teachers can circumvent outdated systems, better earning income from a larger pool of learners. “Business-in-a-box” startups prov... See more

Covid-19 presents a rare opportunity for change in education. The pandemic is accelerating two major shifts: (1) Education is increasingly being delivered direct-to-learner, and (2) Learning is increasingly lifelong.

Historically, education has been a challenging sector for new company creation. The industry is highly regulated, and new products typically need to sell into schools, which have slow sales cycles and inconsistent decision makers: at one school, the principal may make the purchase decision; at another, the science teacher; at another, the district ... See more

But this no longer works in a technology-centric world. Tech has dramatically accelerated the pace of innovation, forcing workers to refresh skills throughout a career.

Yet a college graduate in 2000 paid $50K for her four-year degree at a public university; today, she has to shell out $100K (and $170K if she’s out-of-state).

But we’ll see an uncoupling of learning and socialization over the next decade. The most privileged Americans will continue to go to college, but for many Americans, the cost of college will be untenable. These Americans will learn skills through online providers, while finding community through other mediums.