Education is evolving. The traditional is clashing with alternative modes of learning, creating an uncertain future academics promise are complimentary.
Roughly one year ago, Harvard President Drew Faust addressed the future of education in Harvard Magazine. She spoke to local online learning nonprofit edX, co-founded by Harvard and MIT in May 2012, and hinted at how the online and offline worlds connect. Her wording, however, also sounded like the confusion prevalent in conversations surrounding the future:
I believe that online education offers us possibilities we have just begun to imagine for sharing knowledge more widely and teaching more effectively. But the power of residential education and interaction will not be undermined.
Is the conversation either residential learning or alternative? Or, is there an "and?" And if there is an "and," what does that look like in the classroom? How can educators most effectively reach and teach their students?
All those questions and more will be addressed at BostInno's second annual State of Innovation Forum, an afternoon full of big-name main stage speakers, panel discussions, breakout sessions and a once-in-a-lifetime networking opportunity. More than 1,000 people will be flocking to the Westin Boston Waterfront on June 12, including Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and AngelList Co-founder Naval Ravikant.
Among the topics being covered is education, and we've gathered together an impressive group of panelists who come from every side of the education equation. Take a look for yourself, and then go snag your seat in the room.
Rob Rubin, Vice President of Engineering at edX
Rubin has been building infrastructures of Internet companies for nearly 20 years. Prior to joining edX, he served as the vice president of engineering at Carbonite, a provider of online backup and cloud-based applications. The company went public in August 2011, raising $62.5 million.
Debbie Cavalier, Vice President of Online Learning and Continuing Education at Berklee/CEO of Berklee Online
Cavalier helped Berklee believe in online learning before it was cool. In the last year alone, under her leadership, Berklee partnered with Southern New Hampshire University to launch the nation's first fully online MBA in Music Business and then became the first nonprofit music institution to offer accredited bachelor's degrees online — one in music business and another in music production.
Aaron Feuer, CEO at Panorama Education
Feuer co-founded Panorama Education to provide K-12 schools with the ultimate survey and analytics platform. The Cambridge-based company received $4 million in October 2013 from Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg's three-year-old Startup: Education. With that funding, Panorama Education became the foundation's first national equity investment.
Anand Chopra-McGowan, Director of Business Development at General Assembly
Chopra-McGowan has been working with education firm General Assembly since November 2011, and currently partners with and builds long-term relationships with some of the biggest brands, including American Express and General Electric, to help them build digital capabilities for their executives and teams. General Assembly's "academy for coders, designers and marketers" raised $35 million in March and has expanded to nine cities worldwide.
Sarah Hodges, Vice President of Marketing and Strategy at Smarterer
Hodges, also a co-founder of Intelligent.ly, has been working with Smarterer for two years, after years of scaling various Boston startups. Smarterer can quantify any skill in as few of 10 questions and 120 seconds. The company recently raised $1.6 million to help companies discover their skill gaps.
Lawrence Neeley, Assistant Professor of Design and Entrepreneurship at Olin College
Neeley joined Olin in 2011, and is recognized by the administration for making a big impact through "his passion for entrepreneurship, creative design-thinking and teaching." All first-year students will take his new course Products and Markets next year, which will require they launch a real viable business.
Hugh Courtney, Dean of Northeastern's D'Amore-McKim School of Business
Courtney was appointed dean of Northeastern's D'Amore-McKim School of Business in early 2012. Prior to joining Northeastern, he served in the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, College Park as vice dean, overseeing the undergraduate, MBA and MS degree programs.
