I have seen firsthand how the online revolution has inflicted convulsions across various industries, including retailing, the media business and financial services. Soon it will start to affect public services such as education profoundly. This shake-up will no doubt prove traumatic for participants, but in the longer run it could prove hugely beneficial for society and students. Many developed nations need more productive schools and better educated citizens. We spend too much to accomplish mediocre results. The way to achieve improvements is through technology – and altered attitudes among educational leaders.

Currently teaching is delivered in much the same way in schools as it was 50 or even 100 years ago. A single teacher talks to a classroom full of pupils, who work with textbooks, paper and pens. Few pupils are examined online. Libraries are still full of reference books but no tablet devices. Not only is this model out of date but in many countries, including Britain and the US, it is not proving effective – especially at teaching the skills employers want for the workplace.

High levels?of youth unemployment in many developed economies are partly blamed on a failure to provide our children with practical qualifications. Curricula are not fit for purpose, while bureaucracy and vested interests stop the necessary reinvention. Meanwhile, many are criticising the ballooning cost of higher education. From the scepticism of the billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel to a recent book by the former US secretary of education William Bennett called Is College Worth it? doubts are springing up about the value of an academic degree. This relates not simply to the cost of being on campus, but the types of courses taught, their content and how they are delivered. Who truly believes that attending a traditional lecture is the way to understand and remember a subject? And in a fast-changing society, can we really afford classic tenured professors?