Reflections on the adjacent possible

Social media hasn’t delivered. Education is broken. What’s next?

Hi all,

It’s been a while, so first, a reminder.

A little over five years ago you joined me in an experiment we called the School of the Possible. It was probably around that time that you subscribed to this email list for updates.

It was a fun and exciting experiment while it lasted, which unfortunately wasn’t very long! I take most of the blame for that. I hadn’t really thought it through and I thought we could make it happen ad-hoc, on Facebook.

Well, after five years I finally have an update!

Since that first experiment a lot of things have changed. Many of us have become disillusioned about social media. It has not delivered on its utopian promise and has become toxic, divisive. The profit-driven, ad-saturated, performative social networks are becoming stale.

Many of us are also rethinking school. Covid has taught us that we can do WAY more things virtually than we ever thought possible. Many of us now work from home.

I haven’t given up on the dream:

to rethink higher education as a co-created learning network, a community of creative people, teaching and learning from each other.

I think the School of the Possible was just a little bit ahead of its time. The world wasn’t quite ready to re-think education as a learning social network. But I believe that has changed.

I think many of us are craving the kind of connection and community we felt in the early days of social media: That feeling that anything is possible when good people connect with shared vision and purpose.

I’m preparing to relaunch the school. It will NOT be on Facebook or any other public platform. It will be a private space, a home of our own if you will.

You can help me think it through by reflecting on these questions.

What should we keep doing?

What was your favorite thing about the school? What was it that ignited your enthusiasm enough that you decided to sign up for this list?

What should we change?

What’s one thing we could change or do differently this time?

What else?

What else should I be thinking about?

I would really appreciate your thoughts on this.

There are two ways to share your thoughts:

1. You can leave a public comment and start a conversation with everyone on this list who wants to participate.

2. You can just reply to me privately, like you would to any other email.

You can also do both!

I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Thanks for your help.