What kinds of teachers will be able to prepare students, not just for good grades and college, but for the work and civic environments that students will enter in the 21st century? What kinds of leaders will develop and support these educators? Today’s students will enter a global workforce where they will need 21st century skills such as collaboration, communication, independence, creativity and lifelong learning as much as subject matter…
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January 29, 2013According to the just-released Gallup-HOPE index for 2012 (http://www.gallup.com/strategicconsulting/159902/2012-gallup-hope-index.aspx), developing a world-changing invention is an aspiration shared by 42 percent of youth in grades 5-12. That’s good news. Given the scale of challenges facing us—in our own backyards and around the globe—it’s easy to see that we’re going to need every good idea the next generation has to offer. What are schools doing to prepare today’s students to be tomorrow’s…
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January 24, 2013“What can digitization do for learning?” That is the fundamental question that has driven much of the efforts to innovate at CK-12. It stimulates a much more intriguing thought process than the more mundane “How do we digitize a textbook?” or “How do we get curriculum into the virtual world?” We don’t just ask ourselves what it would take to make great content accessible to all students in the…
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January 23, 2013When we first began to explore the idea of launching Knowmia, we talked extensively to teachers, administrators, parents, and students to immerse ourselves in the key issues and opportunities. One of the consistent themes that emerged centered around the “magic” that happens when a student (of any achievement level) encounters a teacher whose style and teaching approach inspire that student in a profound and unique way. Most of us can…
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January 22, 2013Personalized learning is in the spotlight around the globe, as vendors race to be known as THE personalized learning solution. But teaching to the needs of each student won’t happen through a magic product — it will require a synergy of tools and open resources that fit together for mass personalization, combined with teaching professionals who readily accept these tools because they work quickly, intuitively, and as an extension to the teacher’s daily routine. Most…
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January 17, 2013When Mackenzie Sweitzer, a high school senior, introduced herself to her pen pal, she described where she lives in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Hudson, North Carolina (U.S.), as a very conservative place. “We’re in the Bible belt,” Mackenzie wrote, “what more do you expect?” Ashlie Humphries, Mackenzie’s pen pal, lives in Sammamish, Washington (U.S.), the wealthy Seattle suburb. When Ashlie wrote back, she told MacKenzie that…
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January 17, 2013In 2010-11, I took a group of international students to live and study in three different cities around the world. We spent three months in each of Stockholm, Sydney, and Beijing with plenty of travel around these hubs: Gotland and Are, the Blue Mountains and the Great Barrier Reef, Shangri La and a remote section of the Great Wall… We were not bound by place or time–we had no building…
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January 16, 2013A modern learning environment should reflect everything we know about building a community, developing young people, and providing a healthy environment for human beings. We know that people, no matter their age, feel better and are more productive in spaces that are comfortable, clean, and suited to their individual needs. When leaders make these choices — in fact, insist on them — it shows respect for the people who inhabit…
