coming soon to a school district near you

in the Times:

I have always thought that the people who advocate putting computers in classrooms as a way to transform education were well intentioned but wide of the mark. It’s not the problem, and it’s not the answer.

Yet as a new school year begins, the time may have come to reconsider how large a role technology can play in changing education. There are promising examples, both in the United States and abroad.... Computing is an integral tool in all disciplines, always at the ready.

[snip]

In the classroom, the emphasis can shift to project-based learning, a real break with the textbook-and-lecture model of education. In a high school class, a project might begin with a hypothetical letter from the White House that says oil prices are spiking, the economy is faltering and the president’s poll numbers are falling. The assignment would be to devise a new energy policy in two weeks. The shared Web space for the project, for example, would include the White House letter, the sources the students must consult, their work plan and timetable, assignments for each student, the assessment criteria for their grades and, eventually, the paper the team delivers. Oral presentations would be required.

Project-based learning.

You don't say.

Now there's a concept for which the huddled masses have been clamoring for lo these past one hundred years.


round up the usual suspects

“Unless you change how you teach and how kids work, new technology is not really going to make a difference,” said Bob Pearlman, a former teacher who is the director of strategic planning for the New Technology Foundation, a nonprofit organization.

The foundation, based in Napa, Calif., has developed a model for project-based teaching and is at the forefront of the drive for technology-enabled reform of education. Forty-two schools in nine states are trying the foundation’s model, and their numbers are growing rapidly.

Behind the efforts, of course, are concerns that K-12 public schools are falling short in preparing students for the twin challenges of globalization and technological change. Worries about the nation’s future competitiveness led to the creation in 2002 of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, a coalition whose members include the Department of Education and technology companies like Apple, Cisco Systems, Dell and Microsoft.

skills and more skills

The government-industry partnership identifies a set of skills that mirror those that the New Technology Foundation model is meant to nurture. Those skills include collaboration, systems thinking, self-direction and communication, both online and in person.

This calls to mind Ed's line about the schools teaching the 21st century skills and leaving us to teach the 19th century ones.


interdisciplinary, too!

State officials in Indiana took a look at the foundation’s model and offered travel grants for local teachers and administrators to visit its schools in California. Sally Nichols, an English teacher, came away impressed and signed up for the new project-based teaching program at her school, Decatur Central High School in Indianapolis.

Last year, Ms. Nichols and another teacher taught a biology and literature class for freshmen. (Cross-disciplinary courses are common in the New Technology model.) Typically, half of freshmen fail biology, but under the project-based model the failure rate was cut in half.

At School, Technology Starts to Turn a Corner
By STEVE LOHR (Steve Lohr reports on technology, business and economics.)
Published: August 16, 2008

So I guess here in the 21st century survey courses are out [scroll down].

Not to belabor the obvious, but.... what?

The White House sends out a letter?

A letter saying oil prices are spiking, the economy is faltering, and the president's poll numbers ratings are falling?

And you, a 21st century high school student, have two weeks to come up with a new energy policy to improve the president's poll numbers?

I'd like to see the rubric for this thing.^*


famous last words

Sir Mark says he is convinced that advances in computing, combined with improved understanding of how to tailor the technology to different students, can help transform education.

“This is the best Trojan horse for causing change in schools that I have ever seen,” he said.

21st century skills
get a head start on your child's Spanish menu


^{* Which may have something to do with the good news on the failure rate, come to think of it.}