* Alberto Arenaza, Founder of The Transcend Network

Podcast 🎙

“Everybody agrees that whatever the solutions are to the big problems, they... can never be without some element of education.”

- Nicholas Negroponte, The One Laptop Per Child Project

This week I had the pleasure of sitting down with Alberto Arenaza- an entrepreneur and writer exploring the frontier of learning and work at Transcend Network. In our wide-ranging conversation, we explore the second-order effects of Covid-19 on education, the future of universities, corporate universities, the corporate development market, and much much more. Here are some of the highlights:

On The Direct Impact of Covid-19 on Education

“When a lot of us in Ireland and Spain and the U S think about the impact of COVID on education. We think about kids taking classes on zoom, and how difficult it's been… that's actually not the reality of most countries in the world. If you look at the access to online learning through these past few months in high income countries, 80% of students that have been able to access some type of remote learning… but when you look low income countries, that is only 20% and the overwhelming majority of that has been radio learning, TV learning, paper based learning, which are less effective than online.

… What this has meant for a lot of students and for a lot of countries as a whole has been six months of total inactivity. The Brookings Institute tried to estimate the impact of those six months, and they came up with $10 trillion that it will cost our generation in terms of lifetime earnings lost.

… one of the really interesting things that I found through this research was that even though 16% of students have access to an online connection worldwide, 97% of students have access to mobile networks. so all of a sudden the idea of text-based learning is a lot more interesting…”

On The University of The Future - A Combination of Timeless + Timely Skills

“…at the University Level… you complete maybe a few years of basic training around competencies that you're going to need in your life- learning how to learn, learning how to be with other people, how to communicate, all these soft skills. And then you can move on to do a bootcamp that will teach you whatever you need to do to land the next job. And then you'll go Back into a bunch of different boot camps throughout your lifetime… once you have that as a base, then you can access all these different training programs to upskill you into the next role.”

Can Ed-Tech Companies Reach Venture Scale?

“from a higher level perspective, I think Ed-Tech is changing fundamentally… from a market selling to schools- getting a product, and selling it to a district or to a specific school.

… to a market where we're integrating the world of work and the world of learning in more meaningful ways… I think the market as a whole is changing a lot. And, I think that is a very appealing vision for venture capital investors”

I really enjoyed this conversation with Alberto, and if you’ve any interest in the future of work and learning, I think you would too.

Thought I’m pondering 🤔

Could we re-vamp apprenticeships for the digital age?

In Context-Based Adult Learning, Catherine. A Hansman lays out the five phases of a traditional apprenticeship:

* Phase I: Modeling – "Modeling occurs in two parts: behavioral modeling allows learners to observe performance of an activity by experienced members to share "tricks of the trade" with new members"

* Phase II: Approximating – “In private or in non-critical scenarios, the observer begins to mimic the actions of the teacher. This phase allows the learner to try the activity and lets them think about what they plan to do and why they plan to do it. Then after the activity the learner reflects about the activity. They examine what they did in comparison to what the expert did.”

* Phase III: Fading – “The learner, still within the safety net, starts operating in a more detailed manner, playing within the structure that has been taught. The learner's capabilities are increased as the experts assistance decreases.”

* Phase IV: Self-directed Learning – “The learner attempts the actions within real society, limiting him/herself to the scope of actions in the field that are well understood. The learner is performing the actual task and only seeking assistance when needed from the expert.”

* Phase V: Generalizing – “The learner generalizes what has been learned, trying to apply those skills to multiple scenarios and continuing to grow in ability in the field. The learner uses discussion in this phase to relate what they have learned to other relevant situations.”

It doesn’t take much imagination to picture what this model would look like online. Here’s a rough sketch:

* Phase 0: Teacher sets pre-work for anyone who wishes to be mentored by them to complete.

* Phase I: Teacher provides live (or pre-recorded) video content of them practicing their craft, explaining what they’re doing and why they’re doing it at each stage.

* Phase II: Student- based on the videos- tries to emulate the teacher’s creation and submits it for feedback.

* Phase III: Teacher starts to give learner small paid tasks to complete for their clients, correcting and editing their work where necessary.

* Phase IV: Teacher helps student to get his own set of clients, and is available for assistance when needed.

* Phase V: Student- armed with network of peers who’ve gone through the same process, the recommendation of a well-established teacher, and a portfolio of work- goes forth into the professional world.

The tools needed for such a process- collaborative tools, video conferencing, tools for creators etc.- all already exist. What’s needed is a compelling business model to make it worthwhile for the teacher. More on that in future posts…

Tactic I’ve Come Across 🗝

Write down and track the principles you believe to be true

“Principles”, according to Ray Dalio of Bridgewater Associates (the world’s largest hedge fund), “are fundamental truths that serve as the foundations for behavior that gets you what you want out of life.”

Who we are and what we produce are downstream of our principles- those things we believe to be true that govern our behaviour. And yet, few of us take the time to identify and refine the self-created constructs under which we’re operating.

Inspired by Cameron Porter’s list of principles, and by Will Minshew’s personal constitution, I’ve decided to create my own. The experience has been of enormous value to me and I encourage you to try it for yourself.

Tools and Resources I’m Loving 🛠

A Great New Podcast I’ve Discovered - The Paradox Podcast

“We live in a paradoxical time... where we have more comfort but less peace, more connectivity but less connection, more information but less wisdom. The purpose of this podcast is to explore these natural tensions with independent voices across tech, culture and politics who will expand and challenge our thinking. This is the Paradox Podcast.”

* Favourite Episode: EP 13 with Balaji Srinivasan

My New Favourite Website Builder - Ghost

I recently re-designed my personal website using Ghost. The whole process (outlined here) can be done in about 90 minutes.

Scrimba- an online coding school that's as good as Stanford but as cheap as a gym membership.

The YC-Backed Scrimba is on a mission to create the best possible coding school at the lowest possible cost for students. I know what you’re thinking, aren’t there a million websites doing that already. Well, yes, but Scrimba has come up with a novel approach that- after playing around with for a while- I absolutely love. They use screencasts which enable you to edit the teacher’s code and provide a much more immersive experience than static video.

Thanks for reading this week’s edition of The Mental Athlete.

Have a great week!

Best,

Will

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