Putting a Dent in the Universe: Remembering Steve Jobs

The passing of Steve Jobs gives us an opportunity to celebrate his unique vision and lifetime of innovation. It's worth remembering that Jobs was passionate about education. One of his early financial ventures that failed paved the way for technological innovation in education and a world in which an online bachelor degree is a viable alternative to traditional education. He may be gone, but his spirit lingers. He wanted to put a ding in the universe and he succeeded. But what we should remember most about Steve Jobs isn't the commercial success that he created or the iconic Apple logo. The creativity and innovation that he brought to every project he was involved in is what we should seize on and begin to emulate in the education space. It's worth remembering too, that education was one of his early passions.

Measuring Success

When people talk about Steve Jobs, they usually focus on his ventures that resulted in financial success. And if those were all people focused on, it would still be an amazing story of American innovation. But the impact Steve Jobs had on the fabric of American life goes far beyond the iconic Apple logo. Adopting his attitude toward success could go a long way to achieving meaningful education reform. He didn't measure success by financial outcomes and education shouldn't be focused so heavily on tests as the rubric by which success is measured.

Innovation Can Result In Failure

We measure success so narrowly. As a result we stifle innovative and creative thinking for students. If innovation can end in failure and students are punished for failure, where's the incentive for innovative thinking? And it's not just students who are afraid to innovate. Teachers, politicians, parents and administrators are as well. In our education system we've built in disincentives for thinking outside the box and taking risks that could actually result in effective learning strategies.

Bringing Innovation into Education

But Jobs lasting legacy is the attitude he brought to innovation: "Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly and get on with improving your other innovations." That's the kind of approach to innovation we need in education rather than a pervasive fear of trying something different because it might end in failure. The best innovators have great successes. But they also experience far more failure than the average person. If we really want to innovate in the education space we're going to need to understand that we'll have failures along the way. But having the courage to keep coming back until we find a workable solution will require accepting failures. As long as parents, politicians, educators and administrators are unwilling to step out on a limb and get out of their comfort zones, meaningful education reform is unlikely.

Changing the Definition of Success

In 1985 Steve Jobs was pushed out of Apple—a company he was responsible for creating. That could have embittered the average person. And the company he went on to create—remember, the one that failed —wasn't really a financial success story. The company—NeXT—only sold around 50,000 computers. And if that were where the story ended, it would be unremarkable. But one of those computers—a NeXTcube workstation—would become the inspiration for the very first web server and web browser software. Without that relatively financially unsuccessful venture by Jobs, our world would look much different. Maybe it's time that we look to the legacy of Steve Jobs for the inspiration to begin real innovation in our classrooms. Let's put a ding in the universe too.