Sir Martin Sorrel recently appeared on the Charlie Rose show.
Sorrel is the chief executive officer of the WPP Group, one of the world’s
largest advertising firms. WPP Group (here) is a London based company employing
100,000 people working in more than 2,000 offices in 106 countries. In his
conversation with Charlie Rose, Sorrel stressed that his company is currently
pursuing two strategies: emerging markets and digitalization. Sorrel thinks
pursuit of emerging markets and digitalization will bring profits to his
company. As Oregon’s governor and its legislature try to lead economic
development for Oregon, it is clear that neither “emerging market” nor “digitalization”
is on our state leaders minds. Otherwise, why would our leaders fail to pass HB
2719 or seek to pass SB 767.
First, go here for the youtube of the Charlie Rose-Sir Martin Sorrel conversation. Note the repeated emphasis on emerging markets and the digital revolution.
Also note Sorrel’s advice to young people in the 34th
minute (34:25): “And it would be certainly to learn Chinese…or even Portuguese...”
Thinking about the impact of the digital revolution on education brings us to SB 767 and Joel Klein. SB 767 is current working its way through the Oregon legislature. It would place restrictions on the growth of online education in Oregon. As I have previously blogged (here):
This “go-it-slow
approach” misses one central point: online or virtual educational programs are
a growth industry. They are an economic opportunity for Oregon, nationally and
internationally, not just an adaptation issue for our public educational
system, both K-12 and higher ed. Just as the digital revolution is reshaping
entire industries, it will reshape education. Oregon could be a leader and get
some of the economic benefits. But Oregon would need to be nimble and move fast
to get a competitive advantage.
Joel Klein is chancellor
of the New York City schools. In a NY Times article “Big Thinking and Radical
Dreaming with the Schools Chancellor” (here), Klein states how he sees the
digital revolution playing out in education:
Mr. Klein, who has made no secret that he wants to improve teacher quality,
came out with a doozy: Reduce the number of teachers by 30 percent, and
increase their pay 30 percent. “Slowly, over time,” he qualified.
How exactly would that work, in that pie-in-the-sky distant reality? Mr.
Klein referred to a book he had recently done a blurb for, “Liberating
Learning: Technology, Politics and the Future of Education,” by Terry M. Moe, a
Stanford political scientist, and John E. Chubb, chief development officer at EdisonLearning,
which works to improve charter and other public schools.
The book, the chancellor said, lays out the ways that “through distance
learning and other individualized teaching approaches, we may be able to reduce
the need in the future for teachers’ overall numbers and increase their pay.”
(He called back to clarify that this would mean not hiring as many teachers in
the future, as opposed to firing those we have now.)
Mr. Moe, n an interview, described his vision of a world in which real,
live teachers were welcome assets but kids could “basically work it out on
their own.” In 20 or 30 years, he predicted, most schools would be “a hybrid
model where there is a physical school, a place where they go and have clubs
and sports activities and drama, but then for their academic course work, they
might take most of it online.”
Sorrel’s other strategic theme is emerging markets. Oregon should have a strategy to support its business selling Oregon products and services in these markets. A part of that long term strategy should be teaching our students the languages of the emerging markets and sending them to those market to study. HB 2719 (here and here) would have created a Go Global High School Study Abroad Program to do just that. But it has died in the House Education Committee.
Oregon’s current leaders do not understand the world Sir Martin Sorrel
foresees. Poor Oregon!
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