Evolving Teaching

Dan Meyer talks about the process of learning. He questions our methodologies for teaching and encourages the use of real life examples. His premise explains how we can teach more effectively by changing text books so that students are forced to develop real world solutions instead memorizing formulas.

Will Apple make the same mistake twice?

I'm fascinated with fail culture and the movement to embrace failure as an opportunity to improve and evolve. It's something American corporate and educational culture has had trouble with for some time. If you've been following the evolution of cell phones lately you'll know that Adobe and Apple have been duking it out over the importance of Flash on the mobile device. Without going into the specifics Apple argues Flash is an old technology and Adobe argues in favor of open markets, a response hinting that Apple must let go of its strangle hold and yield control to developers. There are a variety of perspectives, but the fact is that Apple only has 10% of the mobile phone market and the other 90% of the market share IS supporting Flash.

The bigger question here is not about the success of Flash but rather the ability of Apple to learn from its past failures in the PC business. Didn't they fall to Microsoft because of their hard headed decision to open their operating system to other hardware manufacturers and isn't Job's following a similar path to failure within their mobile business?