Spark Capital: Why We Think Education is Ripe for Innovation

Yes it is, but the article is a little light on content. It mentions innovations in content delivery (open textbooks), social networking for education, and a company that is creating language courses emphasizing audio feedback. What's missing is a real discussion of game changing innovation. So here is $.o2 worth.

I've watched 50 years of educational crises since the Sputnik panic of 1958, nothing has gotten better except maybe math textbooks, probably because it is hard to be political (in the macro sense) about math. There are three givens: the public educational establishment is not going to change on its own, the establishment is necessary for its babysitting function, and most parents are not qualified to do home schooling. That said there is substantial room for innovation and even low budget entrepreneurial innovations.

One is in the area of collaborative multimedia textbook creation. There are already OSS textbook efforts, but why limit it to print. Create a core smallish textbook on a subject and augment it with targeted "pamphlets" and videos, so that a teacher can create a learning experience and students can follow paths of interest. Take a look at some of the Wikipedia animations on math topics, such as the tesseract. They make the topic come alive. Add a Civil War reenactment to a history text.

As the article suggests, create a social media site around the "textbook."

Market to parents at a fee they can afford, free for those that cant. They will be the early adopters and force public school adoption. Give schools free or low cost access.

Encourage moderated contributions from the public. Instead of a stock photo of Brasilia have a 10 minute video from someone who lives there.

Why [X] is ripe for innovation: [X] sucks! List specific reasons why [X] sucks, with a means for addressing each using the web, networks in general, or computing. Remember to think about monetization. (This can also include getting grants.)