Maps vs. compasses
In the last few weeks, I’ve seen articles about a student who 3D printed his own braces, and another who was making prosthetic limbs for children who had lost them. It’s humbling to think about all of the creativity and ingenuity that these children have, and amazing that there is now a way for them to bring their ideas to life quickly and relatively inexpensively. I was struck by the mention of disaster relief and 3D printing. The video mentioned printing items from disaster relief need lists and shipping them, but just yesterday morning, CBS Sunday Morning had a segment about how much worse it was to send items rather than money when a disaster happens. However, if the right people were involved, getting 3D printers to a disaster area and starting to print what was needed on the ground might be an effective way of getting the materials that are needed to the people who need them most. Rather than mountains of shoes that are inappropriate for the weather and the wrong sizes, what if we could print the shoes on the ground and give them to the person who needs them? That would allow you to meet the need immediately and appropriately, without the added costs of shipping the shoes overseas and finding ways to store them. That’s disruption in the most positive sense.
I love hearing Joi Ito speak about pull rather than push; the idea of not storing information that can be easily pulled down from the network. I’m forever telling my students not to memorize certain things (MLA formatting, to start), because as long as they understand the ideas behind it, they can always look up the details. I think as information proliferates as such an exponential rate, that’s going to be more and more true. No one can possibly memorize all of the information they might need, but as long as they can figure out how to find it, they’ll be fine.
I loved the imagery he used of compass over map. Sure, map reading is a fine skill, as long as you are going somewhere that’s been plotted. But once you go off the map, you need to be able to figure out how to get where you want to go without it. As long as you know how to use a compass, you’re never truly lost. You might take a few wrong turns along the way, but eventually, you’ll either get to where you wanted to be. You might even make it to somewhere better. We need to spend more time teaching our students how to use compasses rather than maps. We can’t give them a map to a future that we can’t even imagine. But we can help them develop skills that will allow them to navigate: how to explore and harness their creative power, how to solve problems, how to find the information they need when they need it. That will give them the freedom to go places that no map, or education, would ever allow.
References
TED. (2014, July 7). Joi Ito: Want to innovate? Become a "now-ist" [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsjTVGIw4z8
TEDx Talks. (2011, June 28). 3D printing -- this century's most disruptive innovation?! | David F. Flanders | TEDxHamburg [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChKwIUhx_ic
