Is It Time?
Recently, while watching television, the following commercial with James Avery (of Uncle Phil on Fresh Prince of Bel Air fame) caught my attention:
For those who cannot see the video, here’s a transcript of the dialogue:
I stand before you today, to apologize. The system has failed you. I have failed you. I have failed to help you share your talent with the world when the world needs talent more than ever; and yet it is being wasted every day by an education system steeped in tradition and old ideas. So it’s time for a new tradition. It’s time to realize that talent isn’t just in schools like this one, it’s everywhere! It’s time to use technology to re-write the rules of education, to learn how you learn, so we can teach you better. It’s time university adapted to you rather than you adapting to it. It’s time for a different kind of university. It’s your time.
——————–
With advances in technology, shifts in priorities, and changes in the world climate, it should come as no surprise to anyone that organizations must understand and adapt to attract and relate to the general public. I thought the commercial was quite inspirational, and it got me to think about how the same message can be translated to so many facets of society today, especially when addressing the dire need for NASA to disseminate its message across the world.
Before I post my thoughts, though, I thought I’d open things up to you guys. The question’s simple and classic. Is it time that NASA actively works to draw the public, rather than passively attracting the science and technology enthusiasts? Let’s look past generational differences, cultural differences, any and all ideological differences when talking about how NASA should be operated.
How do YOU propose we, as an agency, reach out to the generic public? What can NASA do to change its outreach policy, its technology development, its proposal request process, its you-name-it (go ahead, name it!), to make the public more interested in what the agency is doing to further space exploration? What should NASA’s “main message” be?
5 Responses to “Is It Time?”
Leave a Reply
rquintanilla on February 20th, 2009
First, the last question is a loaded question. I won’t even attempt to tackle that one.
I think that the Kaplan model, with a twist, is a good outreach strategy for NASA. Here is an idea for creating a FREE school system ONLINE. If NASA leads an effort similar to this it has the potential to increase its reach dramatically. NASA is already doing something similar to this ( http://www.thejournal.com/articles/23990 ), but this idea expands on that.
Education Online
1) Lead a collaborate effort with other government agencies and institutions to create an online education system that would allow individuals to get an education from Kindergarten all the way through a Bachelor degree for FREE. If NASA takes the leadership role in making a FREE education online it has the potential to take a respectable position in America and the world.
a) It does not have to be expensive. The collaborative effort must create a structure that is large enough that civilians are willing to expand upon the work that has already been done — like in Wikipedia. Incentives have to be created so that individuals want to contribute.
b) Make money to sustain and improve the effort/website by : i) advertising for products that are either required or supplemental to the courses offered. ii) instead of charging to take the course, charge to take credit for the course through exams and homework — you might be a go-getter who wants to learn but does not need the credit, but if you need the credit you should pay because there are overhead costs iii) offer online tutoring by allowing independent individuals to sell their services for offered courses – charge the “contractors” a small fee for doing business in the website — This allows Americans a great venue to get extra cash while also providing funding to make the online school better.
c) Use the collaboration to open horizon of people that would otherwise not be interested in science and engineering. Most people know what they know because of their surroundings. Growing up my family new four things real well — business, mathematics, religion and flooring (carpet) — I grew up learning these things since I was a little boy. However, I did not have access to other things — engineering, science, technology — until later in life when I went to the university. Now there are children out there who have a limited scope of interests because they have limited amount of resources. These same people would otherwise make great engineers, scientists if they only had the opportunity to broaden their horizon. However, the lack of knowledge about these things would cancel any interest that they could have otherwise had. You don’t go after these children by shoving engineering, science and technology. You go after them by meeting them in their arena. Perhaps they love art, music, sports, or literature. You use those venues to introduce them to NASA (and/or other institutions). Collaborating with institutions in charge of art, literature, history, music, sports allows us to broaden the horizon of children from a very young age. It makes it possible to make the resources that a child has limitless.
d) NASA should take the lead, it does not have to complete every portion of the educational website. I believe that it should focus primarily on supplemental science, engineering and technology efforts. It should not shy away from teaching core science and mathematics courses (high school level) — but does not necessarily have to do this.
e) NASA can take charge in creating an online education for engineering, science, technology and mathematics at the college/university level. This will have NASA (in collaboration effort with other institutions) competing with Kaplan and other online institutions. Again the charge should be for the credit, not for the lessons…this way the courses are accessible to everyone.
f) It can use this venue to create science/engineering projects that can be used by people to learn. The projects can have a supply cost for $0 — $300. Advertising money can be made by directing the students to the vendors of the supplies. Depending on the student’s financial situation they might not be able to afford supplies, but those that can should be able to complete more fun projects — i.e. robotics.
———-
Where can I find out more about NASA’s “technology development” and “proposal request process”? I have thoughts on that, but I need to learn more before I make suggestions that most likely are already in place.
BD on February 27th, 2009
Re: Is it time that NASA actively works to draw the public, rather than passively attracting the science and technology enthusiasts?
By law, NASA is not permitted to do this.
Re: NASA should take the lead, it does not have to complete every portion of the educational website. I believe that it should focus primarily on supplemental science, engineering and technology efforts. It should not shy away from teaching core science and mathematics courses (high school level)
Formal education is not part of the agency’s charter. That’s why there’s a Department of Education (not that that’s working out so well). That said, NASA does do things and has programs the relate to or inspire education, such as internships, etc., and has an Academic Affairs office to allow teachers to access information they can use in their classrooms. NASA also provides the Digital Learning Network (http://dln.nasa.gov/dln/) as a way to reach students in their classrooms.
As far as online education goes, MIT has some good programs (http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm), which are all free and developed by professional educators. In short, there’s plenty going on, but federal law prevents NASA from marketing them.
rquintanilla on March 4th, 2009
BD,
I would like to see that law.
I didn’t know about the NASA Digital Learning Network, but I did know about the MIT program. Lots of Universities are doing this now. It is at the beginning stages right now. Actually if you download Itunes, the iTunes store has a section that allows you to download all the courses taught by universities.
I agree that the Department of Education should take the bulk of the budget necessary to get the online school completed. As our government’s civilian technology leaders, I think that NASA could take a “leadership role” in the effort by providing technical expertise and a plan.
The idea behind the online school is not original. It will eventually get done in some fashion or another. However, if NASA takes initiative they can be given the credit. Apple did not create the MP3 player, but today many people refer to MP3 Players as Ipods. Further, if NASA leads the initiative they can use the venue as an advertisment venue (I know that you have stated it is against the law — but I don’t believe that — the NASA channel would be against the law by that logic).
RQ
Justin on March 4th, 2009
It’s against the law for NASA to lobby Congress. It is not against the law for NASA to determine what the public values, figure out how to deliver value in what we do, and communicate that value back to the public. I’d go so far as to say that the Space Act demands that of us.
rquintanilla on March 6th, 2009
The “Space Act” great, thanks Justin. I have skimmed the Space Act on : http://www.nasa.gov/offices/og.....#Contracts
and it appears that there is nothing against actively drawing in the public. Some of the laws even lend themselves to encouraging public outreach.
The Space Act is likely the governing document for NASA. Are there any other documents?
Here are some things I found interesting in the Space Act:
Sec 203.a.5 — provide for the widest practicable and appropriate dissemination of information concerning its activities and the results thereof;
Sec 102.d.8 The most effective utilization of the scientific and engineering resources of the United States, with close cooperation among all interested agencies of the United States in order to avoid unnecessary duplication of effort, facilities, and equipment; and
Sec 313.a.1 Appropriations for the Administration for fiscal year 2007 and thereafter shall be made in three accounts, `Science, Aeronautics, and Education’, `Exploration Systems and Space Operations’, and an account for amounts appropriated for the necessary expenses of the Office of the Inspector General.