Can we publish open source examples of school architectures?
What about some 'near term science fiction', publishing examples of people-powered schooling that could emerge in places. I want to see how we can use cheap computing resources, peripherals and models of human interaction to help schools create themselves.
I hope to do something with educational software abroad, including it with the 3D printing computer labs I hope to set up. They can make about $50-$100 of surfboard fins a day, using about $10 of filament. I'm linking to my site below, it works now but I've not done much to help with formatting issues. I'm just getting the content out and cleaning it up along the way:
https://stormfins.com
PS In case you're wondering, this post motivated me to set up a new account. My last one was sacrosurf, and prior to that it was toddio. This moniker matches the other .com I have, which I plan to use as a "School of Surfing" concept: thirdsurf.com
I want to get surf instruction to happen in an easier and more empowering P2P manner, but I'm focusing on completing enough of the stormfins website first.
Any support or assistance it welcome. I've got a B.S. in Computer Engineering from '97-'02 at UCSC, and a fun list of prior gigs and projects including helping get https://www.beelinereader.com/ started, and getting T9Space.com's app setup generalized into a browser, helping 100,000s of flip phone internet users have access to the internet like they had a desktop computer to use.
On a personal level, just call down to your local school or your old school and ask how you can help, given your skillset. A tech person in particular has a lot of valuable skills, from evaluating educational platforms to assisting with the builds of organisational tools and processes. Not to mention the ability to tutor or present a class on a specific topic, or organise a visit to your office.
On a society level, encourage continued investment in education. I, like most people, had very strong views on how we should radically improve education, until I started working with schools on a daily basis. Then I realised that it's incredibly complex field where practicalities dominate. I realised that educators actually know far more about their field than I did (as a student/parent) and the best use of the rest of society time was not to get involved in the "How to educate" debate but support the people who understand the topic in whatever ways we can.
On the startup side of things, there are a huge number of ways technology can assist educators. Eg we run a financial platform for 100+ Indonesian schools, basically cleaning up and managing their payments & books. There are lots of "infrastructure" opportunities like this. Digitising internal processes eliminates bureaucracy, saves time and cost that can be then dedicated to education.
What are the best things from your thoughts/research someone or society as a whole could do to improve education?