General considerations

            As the heading implies, the education / information component of the proposed framework combines two concerns that often are seen as very distinct functions served by very distinct institutions: the education system -- 'schools' -- conveying essentially 'enduring' knowledge, skills, information, while the media are expected to tend to 'current', new information, and entertainment. There are good reasons to re-think that traditional distinction, not only because of the increasing crossover of technologies used in both realms, but because the very distinction between 'enduring' and 'current' is becoming blurred. Other functions and distinctions are emerging as more significant, for example the aims of informing, inspiring, enabling, and empowering people (children as well as adults) to constructively engage in society's meeting new challenges. As the means by which these aims can be met are changing as swiftly and rapidly as the challenges, the strategy and role of education and information within the project of developing the new 'model of survival' must be carefully reconsidered as well.

            The results of the work done in the Discourse and Research components -- the discussion and the analysis / theory realms, as well as lessons from the Action/Projects  initiatives, must be distributed and made available to the public everywhere. Two main concerns should be distinguished here, because they will need different approaches. The first: To increase awareness, induce awakening, a transformation of beliefs, values, principles, habits; to work towards a transformation of consciousness about the problems we face. The second task is to provide practical information, the necessary tools and skills: enabling and empowering people for action. Both might be seen as simply providing and distributing information, but arguably go beyond merely making information available: it really is an education function, critical in achieving a fundamental change of direction of the global human project.

            With regard to the first aspect, many voices are urging a mental or spiritual awakening and reorientation -- ethics, values are other labels for this concern -- as the key to a new model, even a precondition for meaningful change. Not much is said in the discussions about precisely how this will be achieved. It will have to be approached on several different levels. One level will involve the development and wide distribution of brief, concise, memorable information items -- ads, cartoons, images, short videos or complete movies or TV series -- to catch people’s attention and interest. A second level would be aiming at generating better understanding of the processes and problems, with easily available but more in-depth information. Both approaches should be as widespread -- global -- as possible, making best use of new technology and social networks, and it would have to involve and aim at the articulation of universal, cross-cultural common denominators: An overall set or framework of common principles and agreements.

            With respect to the second aspect, the label ‘education’ might suggest that the material in question should be injected into the existing education systems everywhere. A traditional approach would be for some entity / authority to develop a standard syllabus for this, which the various educational systems (schools) would then be expected to adopt and teach. This may be plausible for the long run, but unrealistic as a tool for achieving the necessary results in the short term; action and movement must be achieved much faster and with fewer resources than it would take to revamp all the world’s educational systems. Instead, a different approach should be considered. To be effective, new behavioral guidelines and rules cannot be imposed by authority. They must also be accepted by everybody, as mutual commitments freely engaged. In turn, this means that it must be the result of dialogue and negotiation (which of course can address traditional canons as well.) Only then will people take effective advantage of the actual content made available for learning. Therefore it is suggested to initiate a concerted effort feeding directly off the results achieved in the discussions of topics in the Discourse component, addressing the same list of topics or subjects, for a start. The results -- understood not as the ‘facts’ about the world that schools have been charged with conveying to children (with the frequently resulting destructive, unproductive fights about what should be counting as truth about facts), but as information about the issues and controversies people argue about, and what we (humans) ought to do -- presenting the different opinions with their supporting evidence, and seeking to empower learners to effectively and meaningfully evaluate that material and arrive at their own judgments to creatively construct their own future.

            The instruments for this crucial task must take advantage of the rapidly evolving information technology -- especially the internet and the increasing use of cellphones -- which could facilitate a global dialogue (discourse) with wide participation. Thus, the recommendation is: to initiate the development of a framework for not only disseminating the education material using these technologies, but providing the opportunity for communicating about it: it cannot be a one-way traditional instructional model but must be two-way.

            Similar considerations apply to the information function of this component. A particularly vexing problem is the role of the media in the political election campaigns; specifically, in the distribution of campaign advertising, which requires massive amounts of financing, which in turn gives the donors of campaign funding a disproportionate degree of influence over the outcome of campaigns and subsequent political policy. A suggestion for remedying this at least to some degree would be to devote the money dedicated (in US income tax returns) to the preparation of impartial campaign information stripped of rhetoric and repetition to the essence of actual information and argument, for all candidates or referendum proposals alike, and to make this information widely available under ‘equal time’ and public announcement rules. (Campaign information proposal, Appendix […]

            Reliance on technology should not be the only pillar of the education campaign. For one, people are more likely to accept mutual rules of cooperation if their understanding of the need for such rules arises out of actual experiences. There are two main possibilities for this: one is for ‘apprenticeship’ participation in experimental projects or emergency relief situations, where the normal societal structures have been disrupted and must be re-established. The Peace Corps offered such experiences, as an example. Another possibility is that of games. Even the traditional educational system relied on games (in sports) or game-like activities -- music, plays, -- through which qualities such as cooperation (besides competition), and sportsmanship are conveyed. The recommendation therefore is for an effort to start an educational campaign via the internet, possibly complemented by TV: a survivor- type series of episodes highlighting both the kinds of situations where current / traditional attitudes and rules must be replaced by a new ethic, and the interactions conveyed in an interesting, entertaining manner. An intensive effort should be directed at the development of more cooperative games,  [Appendix ….]  both real and video-games where the ‘winning’ scores depend on adherence to cooperative and sustainability principles. The overwhelming majority of games children and adults currently engage in is competitive -- resulting in ‘win-lose’ outcomes. It does not seem to occur to most people that in the process of supporting, watching and celebrating the 1% champions -- the winners, we are inadvertently creating 99% losers. A widely advertised competition for the development of ‘win-win’ shows and games according to the motto ‘If I do better, you will do better, and vice versa’ might be a starting point.

            An outline for such a game aimed at cooperative problem-solving, policy-making that could be run online with a wide number of participants, or as a ‘live’ game in a modified parliamentary setting assisted by an IT support system is presented in the Appendix […] It can be considered and run as a game that familiarizes players with the  argumentative planning concept underlying the discourse framework of the proposal. The hope is of course that once people become familiar with the approach, it will be used as a real problem-solving or planning technique.

            The design of a complementary education system along the lines suggested must take into account society’s dual expectation of education: On the one hand, the acquisition of knowledge, skills and factual - instrumental information must be freely accessible to all members of society (not only during childhood but throughout life, as the kind of information and skills change over time). Knowledge, skills and information are among the most important resources for people to be able to take advantage of available opportunities in a society. On the other hand, the outcomes of this process in the form of acquisition of skills etc. must be able to be certified  in order for it to be admissible to apply the skills in practice. That is, demonstrated, according to some articulated and agreed-upon standards: a document certifying the mastery of some specific skills must mean the same everywhere, to the extent public safety, health and welfare depends on the skills being applied appropriately. (To exclude fraudulent exploitation by charlatans and impostors). The balance between these two functions must be re-examined; the opportunities for acquisition of knowledge and skills through new information technology should be acknowledged and accommodated. The linkage of the demonstration / certification function to the traditional educational institutions that once were the exclusive means for acquisition of knowledge can be replaced by other, more effective means.

            This discussion is currently, it seems, made more difficult by the legitimate concerns for the second important level of the education system of a society: that of ‘socialization’, or acquisition of a common foundation of ideas and values -- a cultural dimension. In addition, the role of the ‘research’ mission of the educational system  -- the generation of new knowledge, traditionally also linked to the same institutions that were then transmitting research insights to students -- adds to the complexity of this challenge. The discussion might be more constructive if these different functions -- knowledge acquisition, certification, socialization, research -- were clearly acknowledged as separate tasks, but a common forum provided for the orchestrated exchange of information, opinions, discussion and resolution of concerns (such as allocation of funds for each function). This could allow experiments to be conducted for each function to arrive at innovative, improved means to pursue its purpose, without having to encumber the innovation process with negotiations about how the entire structure of a combined system would be affected by an experiment in one part.

            This is an example of a global initiative, and also one in which private enterprise (corporations in the technology and entertainment industries) should be encouraged to join the public effort. It can of course also be combined with any small-scale, local experiment or initiative.

Framework for the education / information component

            The education component will have to include a global forum on educational content, one in which the media should play an important role. The difficulties of establishing what should be taught in schools are a well-known source of controversy in most countries, from the local level to the international mutual certification levels; it is aggravated by the common assumptions that what schools should teach should be ‘the truth’; the fact that there are always widely varying opinions as to what that truth is, about almost any subject, and that even -- or especially -- in those areas where the ‘standards’ for what can be accepted as truth -- in the natural sciences, for example, new research is constantly revising and often completely challenging what was previously accepted as true information. Thus, there is little if any basis for optimism about the chances for agreement on teaching content if the ‘truth’ criterion is maintained. The global effort on education should therefore downplay if not entirely abandon the effort to specify 'true' content for education content for any but the most practical questions of skills and tools that are required for carrying out activities of responsibility in society. Instead, as mentioned above, the focus should be to establish a syllabus on controversies -- teaching children about the major issues of humanity, about which there are profound and significant differences of opinion, at present and throughout history, including different opinions about how truth (and plausibility, a term suggested to replace ‘truth’ that applies equally to questions of fact and questions about what we ought to do, which ostensibly are not ‘true’ in the same sense as past and current ‘facts’ of nature) should be sought, opinions about what people consider adequate guarantees fro accepting information or opinions as true or plausible -- and leave the resolution of the controversies to the learners as their life challenges. (This is the kind of approach the game suggestion mentioned above is aimed at.)

            Of course, such a solution would itself require a considerable amount of discussion before even minor consensus decisions can be expected.

Priority Topics for the Education Component

         Recommended tasks for the education component that should be initiated as soon as possible include the following:

   -   Establishment of a coordinating service to initiate and support the following tasks:

   -   Preparation of appropriate material for informing the public about the crisis challenges, increase awareness and above all understanding to the nature of the problems, the relationships between the forces involved, possible solutions and the need for cooperation and willingness to change habits.

    -   Development of appealing and interesting games and other educational material for children and adults that emphasize cooperation (‘win-win’ outcomes) rather than competitive (‘win-lose’ outcomes).  [Appendix …]

-        Development of ‘technical’ or ‘How-to’- information of innovative tools, procedures, approaches for sustainable practice, for wide public use at all levels from basic self-help to the development of sophisticated advanced technology.  An example of this kind of material is the proposed 'argumentative planning game' aiming at familiarizing users with the practice of cooperative, argumentative planning and policy-making, including the approach to systematic and transparent evaluation of planning arguments. [Appendix …]