ASU+GSV Summit 2021: Peter Smith on understanding the value of personal learning

Plenty of innovative thinking as education and tech leaders gather to share innovative ideas
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“Millions of Americans are blocked from achieving their economic, social, and civic potential by an education system that fails to capture and recognize their knowledge, skills, and abilities,” writes University of Maryland Global Campus professor Peter Smith, Ed.D., in his recent book, Stories from the Educational Underground: The New Frontier for Learning and Work.

At the heart of this systemic obstruction of opportunity lies our failure to understand and value personal learning, says Smith.

Explaining the premise of his book, Smith says, “An attempt to get at real time, real life, in this case, the life stories of 20 learners for whom by circumstance of their birth, the higher education system, the way the ladder to opportunity is structured in America, however inadvertently, just doesn’t work for them.”

Click here to learn more about Smith and his philosophy on the connection between work and education.

WorkingNation—a collaborating partner of the ASU+GSV Summit—caught up with Smith in San Diego as part of our #WorkingNationOverheard social media series.

Hear from more innovators in education and tech in the public, private, and nonprofit spheres attending the ASU+GSV Summit 2021 here.

Follow the conversation on social media: #asugsvsummit #workingnationoverheard