After enjoying the better part of a week being off the grid, I was working my way through my feedreader this evening, catching up on my network.

One item that caught my eye, mainly because it is something that I have been pondering about for the past week or so, is a post by Jeff Utecht about a conversation he had with his wife.  She postulated that that change in education – real change – will only happen with another Sputnik.  Her analogy was that until the US (and by extension us here in Canada as well) are shocked, scared or otherwise threatened by a perceived threat from outside, there won’t be any real change in the way we teach.

For the past week I have been thinking a lot about Scott Klososky’s keynote at the Laptop Institute conference in Memphis last week.  Scott drew a parallel between Apple’s moving into the void created by the disinterest in change by the traditional music industry to become the major music distributor in the world.  It took a computer company, not a music company, to see the possibilities.

Scott mused that maybe it’ll take the same kind of model to shift the education system.  Maybe as the tradional schools with their industrial model of teaching continue to miss the boat on the shifting nature of the world and, more importantly, our kids, some other entity will move to create a new learning model that will serve these 21st century learners.  It might be someone like Apple or maybe a model like Curriki where the community takes ownership of the learning enterprise.

I am not sure where the change will come from…or when it will come.  One thing is for certain, the tradional model of school, particularly in North America, will become less and less relevant to our youth and their lives as connected global citizens.  While I tend to think the change will come from an entity from within and not a Sputnik from abroad, it will happen.

Are we ready?

tags: technology, education, whipple, learning, scott klososky

One of the great things about summer is that teachers have the time and the opportunity to become active learners by catching up on reading.  Unfortunately, all too often, teachers don’t see themselves as learners…but that is not what this post is about.

Every teacher who cares about understanding the world we are preparing our kids for should try and understand the little we do know about the future.  After all, how do we begin to prepare students to be active and productive 21st century global citizens if we don’t care to know about the new global community ourselves?

There are two books (neither of them specifically about education) that I encourage teachers to read. The first is A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink, the second is Thomas Friedman’s landmark The World is Flat.

In his work, Friedman documents the shifting nature of the global economic, cultural and political communities, pointing to ten “flatteners” that have helped create a flat world where geography is becoming less and less a factor in participation in a global, connected community.

Now comes word that consumers can have access to TWIF for free…in audio form.  According to his website, readers (listeners?) can begin to receive audio downloads from the book beginning July 25th.  In addition, we can also receive excerpts from hiss new book Hot, Flat and Crowded.

With such a reluctance by teachers to read for learning – sound familiar? – maybe they would be more open to listening instead?  Let’s hope.  I’ve signed up!

tags: technology, education, whipple, learning, theworldisflat, thomas friedman