General Assembly
http://generalassemb.ly/
Elevator Pitch:
General Assembly is a global network of campuses for technology, design, and entrepreneurship.
We provide educational programming, space, and support to facilitate collaborative practices and learning opportunities across a community inspired by the entrepreneurial experience.
Founders (in 2011):
Jake Schwartz
Adam Pritzker
Matthew Brimer
Brad Hargreaves
Key ideas:
The teachers are practitioners.
Programs like GA offer a middle option: cheaper than a university but more structured than pure self-learning. It’s easier to teach yourself if it’s guided by some amount of personal instruction and encouraged by your peers.
General Assembly is far more flexible than an Ivy League institution. It iterates and updates its offerings every few weeks, based on detailed student surveys. When its students said they wanted to study Android development, General Assembly ginned up a class two weeks later. A traditional college might take years to meet a new need.
In the future of education, some General Assembly may be required.
Worth Reading/Watching:
General Assembly Provides Entrepreneurial Skills To A Chosen Few (Fast Company, 2011)
