IN-PERSON: Applying Education

Abstract

The world’s view of knowledge has changed; no longer is the university or college the de facto place to obtain high level, theoretical, or even vocational training. The role of experts as sources of knowledge is also diminishing, or rather, the definition of expertise many be subject to change. So how do we as facilitators of higher education maintain our relevance in teaching and training, especially around emerging subject matter that simply hasn’t existed long enough to develop expertise in a traditional sense? This discussion explores the connections we have traditionally associated with expertise and mastery against the adoption and application of emerging technologies; in education and in industry. Celebrated novelists, ancient axioms and futurists in the tech sphere have all weighed in on the idea of mastery, but the world now looks to more than just it’s experts for learning and training. A discussion of the intersection of institutional and cognitive authority, of traditional views against emerging ideas, of wisdom versus enthusiasm; the difference between a virtual class from a university and a video on YouTube — And the discussion lensed from the unique perspective of the speaker, who is a career technologist, researcher, expert in technology and also a traditional master of Chinese martial arts. A Kung Fu Master. It is at these intersections where we might be reminded of the real value of experience as educators. Not necessarily in the content, but in its design. Not just in approach, but the context that only experience can bring. That the novice may teach the beginner, but the master corrects them both.