education reform

Passion-based learning in the 21st century: An interview with Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach [Norton]

On 04/22/2011, in 21st century, communications, dangers of the status quo, education reform, education technology, K-12 related, passions, pedagogy, staying relevant, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teaching & learning, trends, by Daniel Christian

Passion-based learning in the 21st century: An interview with Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach — from plpnetworks.com by John Norton

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach often speaks of the “moral imperative” for K12 educators to assure that all students gain the skills, knowledge and dispositions they need to be successful in a connected world “where the ability to think critically, collaborate effectively and master increasingly powerful digital technologies” will determine their success in school, college and careers.

Nussbaum-Beach has been an educator for 20 years, serving as a public school classroom teacher, technology coach, charter school principal, district administrator, university instructor, and digital learning consultant. She is a frequent international speaker and the chief executive officer of Powerful Learning Practice LLC, a company she founded with educator-author Will Richardson to provide “professional development for 21st century educators.” PLP’s client list includes public, parochial and independent schools in the United States, Canada, Australia and Norway.

Nussbaum-Beach is also president of the digital consulting firm 21st Century Collaborative, LLC and a doctoral candidate at The College of William and Mary. She serves on the advisory board for the 2011 Horizon Report on trends in K12 education. Her first book, The Connected Educator, will be published by Solution Tree later this year.

In this interview, Sheryl describes the “shift” she believes must take place in teaching and learning practices if elementary and secondary schools expect to remain relevant in an era when information and communication technologies will continue to expand exponentially.

Also see:

Passion-Based Learning for the 21st Century — from Education Week — for shorter version

Tagged with: 21st century • communications • dangers of the status quo • education reform • educational technology • K-12 • passions • pedagogy • staying relevant • student teaching/teacher education • student-related • trends

A hugely powerful vision: A potent addition to our learning ecosystems of the future

On 04/09/2011, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, change, colleges, convergence, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, disruption, distance education, e-books, e-readers, education, education reform, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, global / globalization, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, immersion, informal learning, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interaction design, interactivity, interface design, internet, IT in HE, K-12 related, learning agents, learning ecosystem, learning spaces, lifelong learning, marketplaces, mobile learning, mobile technologies, multi-touch, multimedia, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, new media literacies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, pace of change, personalized/customized learning, platforms, play, podcasting, professional development, reinvent, RSS, simulations, smart classrooms, social learning / networks, social media, society, storytelling, strategy, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, surviving, tablets, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, technology (general), telecommunications, telepresence, television, transmedia, trends, ubiquitous learning, universities, user experience (UX), using teams, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, webinars, by Daniel Christian

Daniel Christian:
A Vision of Our Future Learning Ecosystems

In the near future, as the computer, the television, the telephone (and more) continues to converge, we will most likely enjoy even more powerful capabilities to conveniently create and share our content as well as participate in a global learning ecosystem — whether that be from within our homes and/or from within our schools, colleges, universities and businesses throughout the world.

We will be teachers and students at the same time — even within the same hour — with online-based learning exchanges taking place all over the virtual and physical world. Subject Matter Experts (SME’s) — in the form of online-based tutors, instructors, teachers, and professors — will be available on demand. Even more powerful/accurate/helpful learning engines will be involved behind the scenes in delivering up personalized, customized learning — available 24x7x365. Cloud-based learner profiles may enter the equation as well.

The chances for creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship that are coming will be mind-blowing! What employers will be looking for — and where they can look for it — may change as well.

What we know today as the “television” will most likely play a significant role in this learning ecosystem of the future. But it won’t be like the TV we’ve come to know. It will be much more interactive and will be aware of who is using it — and what that person is interested in learning about. Technologies/applications like Apple’s AirPlay will become more standard, allowing a person to move from device to device without missing a beat. Transmedia storytellers will thrive in this environment!

Much of the professionally done content will be created by teams of specialists, including the publishers of educational content, and the in-house teams of specialists within colleges, universities, and corporations around the globe. Perhaps consortiums of colleges/universities will each contribute some of the content — more readily accepting previous coursework that was delivered via their consortium’s membership.

An additional thought regarding higher education and K-12 and their Smart Classrooms/Spaces:
For input devices…
The “chalkboards” of the future may be transparent, or they may be on top of a drawing board-sized table or they may be tablet-based. But whatever form they take and whatever is displayed upon them, the ability to annotate will be there; with the resulting graphics saved and instantly distributed. (Eventually, we may get to voice-controlled Smart Classrooms, but we have a ways to go in that area…)

Below are some of the graphics that capture a bit of what I’m seeing in my mind…and in our futures.

Alternatively available as a PowerPoint Presentation (audio forthcoming in a future version)

— from Daniel S. Christian | April 2011

TEDxNYED Talks

On 04/06/2011, in change, dangers of the status quo, education, education reform, education technology, engagement / engaging students, K-12 related, love of learning, passions, pedagogy, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

Some presentations:

From DSC:
A couple of my take-aways from Will’s presentation:
We need life prep, not test prep.
We need a “different” system vs striving to make the current system “better”.

Also see:

Also see the TEDxNYED Speaker Lineup:

Don Buckley, Co-Host
Sylvia Martinez, Co-Host
Rinat Aruh
Steve Bergen
Patrick Carman
Luyen Chou
Brian Crosby
Maria Fico and John Ellrodt
Lucy Gray
Heidi Hayes Jacobs
Dennis Littky
Morley
Stacey Murphy
Will Richardson
Alan November
Gary S. Stager
Samona Tait
Homa Tavangar

Tagged with: change • dangers of the status quo • education • education reform • educational technology • engagement • Keeping students engaged • love of learning • motivation • passions • pedagogy • vision

Excerpt of “Rethinking colleges from the ground up” [Frey]

On 04/05/2011, in budgets, business side of he, cost of getting a degree, education reform, face-to-face, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, online learning, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Not that I’m on board with everything here…but the following excerpt from Rethinking colleges from the ground up — from the World Future Society by Thomas Frey — is worth reflecting upon; and so are some of the questions listed at the bottom of this posting.

(NOTE: You may need to be a member to access this article in its entirety; emphasis DSC)

So What’s Changed
The obvious question to start with is simply, “What’s changed?”

Why is it that an education system that has produced some of the world’s top scientists, engineers, and business executive is no longer good enough to serve today’s young people?

The answers can be found in the following five areas:

From information poor to information rich
Fierce competition
The cost to benefit ratio is changing
New times require new intelligence
Shift from individual intelligence to group intelligence

The following are but a few of the reasons why changing times demand different solutions…

…

Colleges are being pushed in a number of directions but the big dividing points will be oriented around in-person vs. online, and for the in-person side of the equation, doing the things in-person that cannot be done through online education.

Also see:

Education and the New Normal — The WorldFuture 2011 Education Summit | July 7-8, 2011 | Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre Hotel, Vancouver, BC, Canada

What does the “new normal” of shrunken classroom budgets, greater reliance on information technology and the ongoing science and math skills shortage mean for the future of education? Join fellow futurists this summer in Vancouver to solve these and other questions during our two-day WFS-exclusive Education Summit. This year’s speakers include FUTURIST magazine authors Maria H. Andersen, David Pearce Snyder, and Tom Lombardo among many others.

Sessions include:

Defining the “New Normal” for Education
Education as a Service
Where’s the “Learn This” Button?
Learning in Depth: A Simple Innovation That Can Transform Schooling
A New Education Vision: Reinventing School-to-Employment Systems for Knowledge-Based Global Economies
The New Tech Network
Jump-Start Your Career as a Foresight Educator
Reinventing Educational Activism by Creating Linkages: Technology, Content-Driven Collaboration, and Financial Literacy
A New Century: A New Instructional Paradigm
Educating the Wise Cyborg of the Future
Deconstructing the Education Monopoly in the United States
Futurists and the Future of Education

WorldFuture 2011 Education Summit: $295 for WFS members/$345 for nonmembers. Learn more and register here.

Tagged with: budgetary • business side of he • cost of getting an education • education reform • face-to-face • future of higher education • game-changing environment • higher education • new business models in he • online learning • vision • Walmart of Education

From DSC:
The first article/item I want to comment on is:

A Potential Market for Courseware Developers — from Brandon-Hall.com by Richard Nantel

First of all, thanks Richard for tackling this subject and for putting a posting out there regarding it. For years, I’ve wondered what the best way(s) is(are) to pursue the creation of professionally-done, interactive, personalized/customized, multimedia-based, engaging content. It is expensive to create well-done materials and/or the learning engines behind these materials. Also, as at the faith-based college where I work, some colleges would want a very specific kind of content or take a different slant on presenting the content. So the content would have to be modified — which would have an associated cost to it.

Some options that I’ve thought of:

Outsource the content creation to a team of specialists — at educationally-focused publishing companies out there

Outsource the content creation to a team of specialists — at other solution providers focused on education

Develop the content in-house with a team of specialists

Don’t create content at all, but rather steer people to the streams of content that are already flowing out there. Some content may be changing so fast that it may not be worth the expense to create it.

Have students create the content — that’s what school becomes. Learning enough to create/teach the content to others. (This would require a great deal of cross-disciplinary collaboration and cooperation amongst faculty members.)

As a relevant aside, I have held that if an organization could raise the capital and the teams to develop this type of engaging, professionally-done content — and scale the solution — they could become the Forthcoming Walmart of Education. The attractive piece of this for families/students out there would be that this type of education will come at a 50%+ discount.

The second article/item that caused some additional reflection here was the article at The Chronicle of Higher Education by Marc Parry entitled, “Think You’ll Make Big Bucks in Online Ed? Not So Fast, Experts Say”

What if the United States could reallocate even the cost of 1-2 high-end planes in the United States Air Force? Our nation could create stunning, engaging content that could reach millions of people on any given subject — as online learning has the potential to be highly scalable (though I realize that much of this depends upon how much involvement an organization wants to integrate into the delivery/teaching of this content in terms of their instructors’/professors’ time).

Anyway, Marc highlights some important points — that creating content, marketing that content, etc. can be expensive.

But I have it that if you don’t get into this online learning game, you won’t be relevant in the years to come. People want convenience and students’ expectations will continue to rise — wanting to learn on their own pace, per their own schedule, from any place and on any device; finally, they will want to have more opportunities to participate/collaborate/control their own learning experiences. (And this doesn’t even touch upon whether it will become even more difficult to get through “the gate” — that is, getting the student’s attention in order to make it into their short-term memory, in hopes of then moving the lesson/information into long-term memory.)

Tagged with: 1:1 • 21st century • 24x7x365 • cost of getting an education • customized learning • Daniel S. Christian • education reform • entrepreneurship • future of higher education • game-changing environment • higher education • ideas • instructional design • leadership • online learning • personalized learning • staying relevant • strategy • surviving • vision • Walmart of Education

Well done video re: teaching in the 21st century, asking, “What does it mean to teach?”

On 03/29/2011, in 21st century, education, education reform, engagement / engaging students, learning theories, student teaching/teacher education, teachers, teaching & learning, by Daniel Christian

Originally saw this at:
The Educator’s PLN- posted by Chris McEnroe on 3/28/11

Also, very relevant here is the following posting from Arne Duncan at ED.gov blog:

The Changing Face of American Education
(Cross-posted from the White House Blog)

One of the greatest challenges facing our country is the coming retirement of more than 1 million baby-boomer teachers. This challenge has presented us with a once in a lifetime opportunity to help reshape education in America by recruiting and training the next generation of great American teachers.

Teaching is a rewarding and challenging profession where you can make a lasting impact. Teachers have a positive influence on students, schools, and communities, now and into the future. Schools across the nation are in need of a diverse set of talented teachers, especially in our big cities and rural areas, and especially in the areas of Math, Science, Technology, Special Education, and English Language Learning.

That’s why the department launched the TEACH campaign — a bold new initiative to inspire and empower the most talented and dedicated Americans to become teachers. We know that next to parental support, there is nothing more important to a child’s education than the quality of his or her teachers.

Many of you are already thinking about becoming teachers. The TEACH campaign provides tools at your fingertips to navigate the academic and professional requirements that will credential you to succeed as a teacher in one of our schools. TEACH.gov features an online path to teaching and over 4,000 listed, open teaching positions.

Also see:

Four Characteristics of Successful Teachers — from Faculty Focus by Maryellen Weimer

Tagged with: 21st century • education • education reform • engagement • engaging students • learning theories • student teaching/teacher education • teachers • teaching & learning

21st century education requires lifewide learning [Dede]

On 03/24/2011, in 21st century, digital learning, education, education reform, innovation, lifelong learning, teaching & learning, by Daniel Christian

21st century education requires lifewide learning — from Harvard Business Review by Chris Dede

I have decided to spend the remainder of my career helping to replace industrial era schooling with educational structures better suited to our 21st century, global, innovation-based economy. This sweeping goal of total educational transformation may seem overly ambitious for someone whose work centers in learning technologies. However, in my research I consistently find that new media are at the heart of innovative models for education: contributing to the obsolescence of traditional schools/universities as educational vehicles, while simultaneously empowering new forms of learning and teaching.

Tagged with: 21st century • education • education reform • innovation • Lifelong learning • teaching & learning

From Anya Kamenetz on 3-21-11 — DIY U: The transformation of higher education

On 03/22/2011, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, accreditation, active learning, career development, change, changing business models, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, digital learning, disruption, education reform, education technology, engagement / engaging students, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, global / globalization, higher education, informal learning, innovation, learning, learning ecosystem, more voice more choice more control, motivation, new business models, participation, personalized/customized learning, presentations, professional development, relationships, social learning / networks, staying relevant, strategy, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, surviving, teaching & learning, technology (general), traditional / tradition, trends, web-based collaboration, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
For those of us in more traditional institutions of higher education, if this is where things are heading — or even if pieces of Anya’s presentation come to fruition — what is our response? Strategy?

Tagged with: 1:1 • 21st century • 24x7x365 • accreditation • active learning • career development • change • dangers of the status quo • digital learning • disruption • education reform • educational technology • engagement • engaging students • eportfolios • future of higher education • game-changing environment • Global learning • higher education • innovation • Keeping students engaged • learning • learning ecosystem • more choice more control • motivation • new business models in he • nontraditional • participation • personal learning networks (PLNs) • presentations • professional development • relationships • social networking • strategy • student teaching/teacher education • student-related • teaching & learning • teaching online • traditional • vision • workplace

The Education Game-Changer [Neal Bascomb]

On 03/22/2011, in education, education reform, education technology, educational games / serious games, future, game-changing environment, by Daniel Christian

The Education Game-Changer — from the Huffington Post by Neal Bascomb (author of THE NEW COOL, a story about science, education, and robots)

Charter schools, standardized tests, merit pay, teacher tenure — worthy topics, but ones about incremental movements in an American educational system desperate for a game-changer.

…

A noble ambition, but the truth is we already have the technology to transform education and return American schools to their preeminence in the world. The game-changer is the creation of a first-class, digital educational platform with enhanced, immersive lessons across a range of subjects at all grade levels. Technology will be in our schools, the focus should be on the quality of content on their screens.

For generations calculus has been taught the same way.

…

Now imagine learning calculus in a new way. Color tablet computer in hand, students choose their preferred learning style (lecture-based, symbolic, text, or visual). They set their own pace and level of interactivity. They select the avatar of their choice to deliver lectures (will.i.am, anyone) and how often they need to be quizzed to determine/aid retention. The standards of what is taught do not change, but their presentation is remarkably transformed. Instead of a blur of equations and two-dimensional graphs, imagine calculus illustrated with 3-D animations and defined in terms of its real-world applications. Solving a differential equation to determine trajectory is a lot more interesting if we make it about a doomsday scenario of an asteroid crashing into Earth — or just missing. Such video game-like techniques would be part and parcel of this new platform. Add in a social network, where students can interact with their peers, and an “app” market where experts offer their own pieces of the puzzle, and this platform comes even more alive.

More here…

Tagged with: education • education reform • educational technology • future • game-changing environment • games

Customized schooling

On 03/21/2011, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, education reform, education technology, future, personalized/customized learning, strategy, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

Customized Schooling — from edweek.org by Rick Hess

Excerpt:

So, if you’re ready to get your geek on, have I got a treat for you. Harvard Education Press has just published Customized Schooling: Beyond Whole-School Reform. The book, edited by Bruno Manno and [Rick Hess], is an attempt to pull together a bunch of sharp thinking on how we get past just trying to “fix” schools–or to merely give families a choice between school A and school B–and how we start to think about using new tools, technologies, and talent to transform the quality of teaching and learning.

School turnarounds are a swell idea, and will occasionally work. And I’m broadly in favor of choice-based reform as a useful way to open up systems to new providers and permit schools to sharpen their focus. But these measures retain and even enshrine the assumptions of the 19th century schoolhouse, and those assumptions seem an unlikely answer to the challenges of the 21st century. (For my full riff on this score, go peruse last fall’s The Same Thing Over and Over.)

Contents

Introduction
Bruno V. Manno and Frederick M. Hess

1 Creating Responsive Supply in Public Education
Kim Smith and Julie Petersen

2 Reframing the Choice Agenda for Education Reform
Chester E. Finn Jr. and Eric Osberg

3 The Rise of Global Schooling
Chris Whittle

4 Multiple Pathways to Graduation
Tamara Battaglino and JoEllen Lynch

5 The Evolution of Parental School Choice
Thomas Stewart and Patrick J. Wolf

6 Education Tools in an Incomplete Market
Douglas Lynch and Michael Gottfried

7 A Typology of Demand Responders in K–12 Education
Joe Williams

8 Price Competition and Course-Level Choice in K–12 Education
Burck Smith

9 The Data Challenge
Jon Fullerton

10 Will Policy Let Demand Drive Change?
Curtis Johnson and Ted Kolderie

Conclusion
Frederick M. Hess and Olivia Meeks

Tagged with: 1:1 • 21st century • 24x7x365 • customized learning • education reform • future • personalized learning • strategy • vision

What is the place of learning theory in policy discussions? In educational reform?

On 03/21/2011, in change, Daniel S. Christian, education, education reform, leadership, learning theories, legislatures / government / legal, organizational change, pedagogy, policy, strategy, tools, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
In my recent class at Capella University, one of the last discussion board questions asked:

Do you think learning theory should be more explicit in official discussions of policy?

What a great question! My answer was yes, as it makes sense to me to guide educational reform by what is best for the students…for learning. Hopefully, we can make informed decisions. Though I’ve learned that there is no silver bullet when it comes to learning theories, each learning theory seems to be a piece of the puzzle for how we learn. Graphically speaking:

If viewing the above graphic on the Learning Ecosystems blog (vs. in an RSS feed/reader):
You may need to right-click on the above image and save it, then open it.

Such theories should have a place when policies are drafted, when changes are made. But I don’t often hear reference to the work of Thorndike, Bandura, Vygotsky, Gagne, Kolb, etc. when legislative bodies/school boards/or other forms of educational leadership are exploring future changes, directions, strategies. What is it that these people were trying to relay to us? What value can we gleam from them when we form our visions of the future? How does their work inform our selection of pedagogies, tools, organizational changes?

Tagged with: andragogy • change • Daniel S. Christian • education • education reform • leadership • learning theories • legislation • organizational change • pedagogy • policy • strategy • tools • vision

The TED-ED Vision

On 03/17/2011, in creativity, education, education reform, future, ideas, innovation, social learning / networks, teaching & learning, by Daniel Christian

Tagged with: creativity • education • education reform • future • ideas • social learning • teaching & learning

Items from today’s Cisco Virtual Forum for Education Leaders

On 03/09/2011, in change, changing business models, education reform, emerging technologies, vendors, videoconferencing, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Notes and most of the slides from the Keynotes [11.02MB]

John Chambers, CEO, Cisco
John reflects on why he believes we are better positioned than ever, as a global community, to take advantage of the major transitions that are occurring in education and technology today.

Michael Stevenson, Vice President, Global Education, Cisco
Michael discusses the journey for 21st century learning around the world, and how Cisco is working on critical partnerships to advance education transformation globally.

Gregory B. Whitby, Executive Director of Schools, Diocese of Parramatta
Leading learning for today’s world requires a deep understanding of learners, pedagogy, content and cultural change. Good teachers positively influence student learning outcomes so every school leader has a responsibility to lead and sustain educational change.

Salman Khan, Founder, Khan Academy
There is a lot of talk of how to use technology to improve technology, but very little discussion about using technology to RETHINK education. Salman Khan will outline his path to building the Khan Academy–used by over 1 million students every month–and think through what it means for transforming what happens inside and outside of the classroom.

Gay Krause, Founder, Krause Center for Innovation
The Krause Center for Innovation (KCI) was established to design and implement innovative professional development emphasizing technology integration and STEM subjects, to support the diverse workforce needed to compete in the knowledge economy. Our programs include: (1) MERIT (Making Education Relevant and Interactive through Technology) for enhancing curriculum, pedagogy, and technology skills for educators; (2) FAME (Faculty Academy for Mathematics Excellence) for using Internet technology to support student learning in Algebra; (3) FASTTech – short technology classes to enhance software-based skills. This presentation will address what we’ve learned from our ten years of professional development experience as well as the recommended future direction for PD in order to train educators to guide students to succeed in a global economy.

Gene Wilhoit, Executive Director, Council Chief State School Officers
What do today’s graduates need to know to succeed in tomorrow’s world? In the US and around the globe there are heightened expectations for education, and the multiple attributes students need to acquire to become active contributors in a complex global society. In this session, you will learn how the Council of Chief State School Officers is reshaping American public education, through clear, focused standards, more robust assessment designs, and accountability systems; redesign of our education workforce: and enhanced and dynamic information systems.

Notes and most of the slides from the College and University Breakout Session [9.52MB]

Tagged with: change • education reform • emerging technologies • new business models in he • vendors • videoconferencing • vision • web-based collaboration

Tagged with: education • education reform • K-12 • teachers

Common curriculum/content: Is this a step in the right direction or in the wrong direction?

On 03/07/2011, in curriculum, education reform, K-12 related, leadership, strategy, United States, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

Leaders Call for Shared Curriculum Guidelines — from edweek.org by Catherine Gewertz
Diverse group says framework needed for new common standards

Seventy-five respected leaders in education, business, and government issued a call this week to devise shared curriculum guidelines for the new common standards.

The move is notable for finding common ground on a sensitive topic among an ideologically diverse group of thinkers. Signatories include political liberals and conservatives, and those with varying views on controversial education issues such as charter schools, testing policy, and ways to evaluate and compensate teachers.

From the “A Call for Common Content” webpage:
To be clear, by “curriculum” we mean a coherent, sequential set of guidelines in the core academic disciplines, specifying the content knowledge and skills that all students are expected to learn, over time, in a thoughtful progression across the grades. We do not mean performance standards, textbook offerings, daily lesson plans, or rigid pedagogical prescriptions.

From DSC:
This concerns me…as such a call for common content would be more palatable to me if ALL academic disciplines were available and represented equally — not just STEM-related items. Also, does the common content represent the average citizen? (Come to think of it, who/what is the average citizen and what do they want to pursue?)

I think that we need to move more towards an individualized/customized learning approach, where students can pursue their passions and God-given gifts. With dropout rates approaching 30%, is movement towards a common curriculum a step in the right direction? Will such a strategy decrease or increase the drop out rates? Will such a strategy end up creating a vanilla/cookie-cutter approach to K-12 education where you had better like STEM-related topics or else…oh well…better luck next time?

Your thoughts on this? Am I off-base on this?

Addendum on 3/8/11:
Summary of Research Statistics

40 million American adults did not complete high school.
The high school graduate, on average, earns $500,000 more in a lifetime as compared to an individual who did not complete high school.
Most high school dropouts (70%) have the intellectual ability to complete the courses needed for high school graduation.
Most high school dropouts do not feel a connection between high school courses and future employment.
75% of high school dropouts stated that if they could relive the experience, they would have stayed in high school.
81% of dropouts expressed a need for schooling that connected academics and employment.

Addendum on 3/23/11:

‘Curriculum’ Definition Raises Red Flags –– from edweek.org by Catherine Gewertz

Tagged with: curriculum • education reform • K-12 • leadership • strategy • United States • vision

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Learning Ecosystems

Excerpt of “Rethinking colleges from the ground up” [Frey]

My reflections on 2 items re: online learning

Well done video re: teaching in the 21st century, asking, “What does it mean to teach?”

21st century education requires lifewide learning [Dede]

The Education Game-Changer [Neal Bascomb]

Customized schooling

What is the place of learning theory in policy discussions? In educational reform?

Items from today’s Cisco Virtual Forum for Education Leaders

Categories

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