Reflections on being kicked out of TED Global 2010
TED is a forum for ideas worth spreading and in my opinion there is no better idea worth spreading than the idea of free education for all. The time has come to put it on the global agenda and bring it to pass. The fact is we have the technology, the connectivity and the content to deliver free math, science, and language arts education autonomously to anyone with connectivity. The things is, what I am proposing is a revolution that could very well sake up and bring down the global educational complex. What I am proposing is taking education out of the hands of the few and putting it in the hands of the many. What I am suggesting is a radical shift in power and control. Ask yourself what would it mean if anyone could get a free 8th grade education in math, science and language arts autonomously? Because the reality is, if we can provide education autonomously to 8th grade we can provide it for all subject matter to any level. All of a sudden the $4.2 trillion educational complex that is built on controlling and selling knowledge has just lost its footing and is set to collapse. You see my idea is a radical solution that can irrevocably upset everything in society. Recently I found some great videos on education. Stephen Heppell talks about this approaching paradigm shift and how global education is set to be shook up in way we can't even imagine -- he is making the same predicament as me. Only I am tell you what the exact technology will be that will cause it. Yong Zhao talks about how standardization just doesn't work, something I have been saying all along, and that what we need to do is allow individual communities to decide on the content. This is something that the solution I envision for global education will do. Alan November talks about redefining schools and what he proposed is dead on except we can take it further. A handheld autonomous mobile learning devices will be the immersive school of the future that will link global communities and allow collaborations way we are just now starting to explore.
So what did I do to piss off TED and in particular Bruno? Here is my point of view... I had applied to attend and was accepted to attend TED Global 2010 at a hefty cost of $4500 for a three day conference ticket. My thinking was if I am going to shell out $4500 I might as well campaign to get The eSingularity message out and do what all great athletes do and that is visualize doing it -- thus my video talks. My thinking was that even if I didn't get to talk folks will at least be educated to the reality that "And Now The Good News... We Can Educate the World." My gorilla self promotion and marketing approach wasn't appreciated by blue blooded TEDster Bruno, who saw me merely as a groundling using my TED invitation as a way to bring attention to my idea and share a message about global education that I think is important. He further didn't appreciate making his emails public. The reality is even TED isn't ready to present and share an idea that seeks to completely redefine the global education complex and they probably didn't appreciate my innovative way I am using to get the word out.
Will my ejection from TED Global 2010 have any affect my efforts to bring about eSingularity? No. But, I can hope that maybe others will seriously look into my planned solution and that some media outlets might find it interesting enough to write a story about it and in the process provide me a venue to talk about how easy it is to flatten global education and provide everyone with connectivity with an autonomous education in math, science and language arts -- our beta. Bruno calls my action "a conspicuous breach of trust." I call it open access to information. When I founded the Southern Shakespeare Festival as a college student, an event that attracted over 30k its inaugural year, I used every means possible to get the vision of the festival out. In the process I pissed off powerful Florida State University, because I was trying to pressure their involvement in the festival, because I thought it was their duty to support it -- they didn't appreciate my heavy handed approach. Just as I think it is TEDs duty to support and promote the vision and scope of eSingularity and to bring the idea to a new level of exposure. I can't help the fact they are short sighted to see what it is I am seeking to do, and instead just are focused on silly me. All I can do is put eSingularity in their face and let them decide how they choose to handle it. The one thing I always regretted with SSF was that I never left a trail of bread crumbs on how I did what many saw was impossible for an undergrad to do with no experience in producing or raising money. My adventure to flattening global education is far more important and I plan to leave a ton of bread crumbs for anyone to follow. The thing is, eSingularity will happen, my goal is to bring it to pass far sooner than it would naturally occur, because a lot is at stake and in reality making all learning a natural human right for all is the only way that we will have any hope in saving humanity from ourselves.
