[laglad]

All great ideas. I've always thought that the boldest and most innovative education experiments will end up being run in the developing world (Africa, Asia, South America). The developed world has centralized institutions that provide a decent education at astronomical costs to its citizens. But these centralized institutions have special interests and look to slow down the innovation to a manageable pace for them, instead of serving the best educational experience for the students. As Larry Lessig's refrain states, <i>"The past always tries to control the creativity that builds upon it."</i>

The high demand for education due to complete institutional failures in the developing world and the reduced cost of learning and coordination that the Internet provides will make students there extremely receptive to new ways of learning as soon as it becomes affordable. Sufficient penetration of the mobile phone and the tablet computer in these populations will be the vehicle for this change. I wonder if this penetration could put some of these developing countries in a position to leapfrog old ways of learning and ramp up both enthusiasm around learning and skill acquisition.