By Chris A. Heidelberg III, PhD, Publisher & Managing Editor
Why is it that no one was really paying attention when Gil Scott-Heron said, " The revolution will not be televised." Scott-Heron was not only right, he was absolutely on point because that is exactly what is happening! Remember when Apple introduced the iPod in 2001, this was the true beginning of true convergence because it put the power of technology literally in the hands of students and professionals alike. Once the iPhone, the iPodTouch and iTunesU officially debuted last year the revolution went into high gear.
The fact that schools like Stanford, MIT, Duke and many other prominent schools are on board with iTunesU is a shot across the bow of traditional education and the telecommunications companies that have been using traditional distance learning platforms in large rooms or directly to personal computers. What makes iTunesU special is that students literally can summon their course on demand on a computer or portable device anytime, anyplace and anywhere! Moreover, professors and students can utilize tools like Digg and Facebook to promote, share, bookmark, and blog the course internationally, and they can utilize video services such as blip.Tv, YouTube, Google video, Yahoo video, Vimeo, and Brightcove to to disseminate the content of the class through iPhones and iPodTouch devices too!
The fact that iTunesU is a free service is a winning hand for Apple and I am sure that Google and Apple will figure out a way to monetize this and share some of the proceeds with the schools through advertising in a non-distracting way so that academics do not hit the roof with anger. Nintendo is doing a very similar thing with its Nintendo DS model and its highly popular Wii platform with its Wii Fit game. Nintendo has already integrated learning into a few of its games and I see them taking a serious plunge into serious gaming already because of Wii Fit. Microsoft and Sony will definitely respond to stay competitive with Nintendo.
The Wii Fit is a game that teaches one how to get fit, and iTunesU gives you a class in your hand. The only thing missing is innovative content! Are you listening Jive Records, Warner Brothers, Def Jam, A& M, Virgin Records? I am listening to an edutainment based rap song that teaches multiplication and it is already a hit in the Baltimore-Washington area. These are two areas with high public school dropout rates and majority African American populations, and anything that can help these children learn and have fun in school is critical. The house is literally burning while experts are fighting over whether or not an esteemed Harvard professor should pay kids to learn! Why not! The rap game actually popularized the term edutainment with KRS 1 back in the early days of hip-hop, and now it is time that the new school rappers go back to the roots of rap and provide something lasting and positive to young people who are often from the same backgrounds and areas as many of the rappers.
I have an experiment with anyone that will take it. Ask your child regardless of age to tell you the words to Lil
Wayne's Lollipop and then ask them to recite a serious academic lesson verbatim. Most of them will flunk this test, but if you challenge them to write a rap about their history project, Hamlet or any other type of literature, basic science principles or a how to on math you may get a surprise. Say what you want about Bill Cosby and Barack Obama, but the education problem is an American issue and a matter of national defense. The country is turning brown and multi-colored and if we are serious about not leaving any children behind in this nation. KRS 1 said it years ago, " You must learn!" I guess the learning establishment was not listening! I can guarantee you that within ten years there will be a rise in learning rappers and I am looking for them.
The time is now, we cannot keep creating two jails: one for the mind and one for the person in America. Edutainment and convergence is a force that is here to stay! It is time for performers and media outlets to create, promote, and financially get behind serious hip hop that teaches learning principles, or are they really about money and all that stuff about social responsibility is really horse hockey? Victor Hugo once wrote, "There is one thing more powerful than all of the armies in the world, and that is an idea whose time has come!" Today that ideas is iTunesU but record labels as well as the rest of the entertainment world is missing out on a chance to make real profits and transform society. The question is this: do they have the intestinal fortitude to do the right thing the right way for the right reasons and still get
paid? I think we all know what the answer should be! These media firms often hate Apple and Google, but they often fail the creativity test instead of trying to work with these creative companies for the long haul they like suing them or punishing them even when it costs them big money like the Viacom and NBC fights have demonstrated! For once will someone show some leadership in academia and corporate America, and work with people like me to help to solve this problem.
I focus on tech things because I see the power of technology when combined with the arts and educational theories and practices in innovative fashions. Apple, Nintendo, and Google should not have all the fun and get paid! Let's share the love of gaming, convergence, and the joy of learning through music, drama, art, and dance. Gil Scott-Heron was right revolution has not been televised but it sure has been streamed and downloaded.
Now that's edutainment!
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