We launched this competition not knowing if the result would be stunned and shunning silence. Only to realize this week that there are a whole lot of people who have come to this insight too. 1010 applicants at the closing bell. It was pretty amazing, applications streaming 60 to 100 per hour as the day ended. Another 1000 serious enough to register, perhaps to try next year. 30,000 absolutely unique visitors to the competition website over the past two months.
Yes, you read that right.
This is unprecedented. A sea-swell of interest and engagement around 2.0 learning. Time to take a breather. This is so exciting, to see it happen.
And now how to find the most compelling projects from so rich a crop. To spell out compelling criteria for judging new modes of learning. Innovation, sustainability, reach, generalizability, interactivity. The right relation between technology as instrument and the generation, circulation of ideas.
Of form to content. Of teaching to learning, self-creation to self-learning. To build on a movement building on itself.
Stay tuned.
From an operations planning perspective, the lack of information or individual application status is difficult to work with for any real project. Technology moves too fast to wait until February to act. We can’t wait. That’s why we’ve been working on Red Rover every day and will continue to do so. From a resources perspective, it’s not easy for us to manage the growth without knowing anything from MacArthur, but strategically we can’t wait.
I wonder how the other applicants are handling their projects. Are they waiting until February to act? Will their project/research still be relevant by then? Do they have a backup plan? Will the project never happen without winning?
We’ll keep you posted if we hear anything more. Still crossing our fingers…
