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Education NationSix Leading Edges of

Innovation in our Schools

Celebration of Teaching & Learning

New York City • March 19, 2011

Milton Chen, PhDSenior Fellow

George Lucas Educational Foundationmilton.chen@edutopia.org

Imagine an Education Nation: A learning society where education of children is the highest priority, on par with a strong economy, high employment, and national security. A nation is only as good as its schools.

A “ladder of learning” from pre-K through“gray” blending formal and informal learning through schools, technology, museums, libraries, churches, youth groups, and parks.

The U.S. an Education Nation?

• Of 50 1st-grade students behind in reading, 44 still behind in 4th-grade

• A HS student drops out every 26 seconds,6,000 each day (Tough Choices or Tough Times, 2006)

• CA students 1 year behind U. S. average, 2-3 years behind best states (NAEP 2007, 8th-gr. math)

• Closing the gap could contribute $2 trillion per year in GDP (McKinsey & Co., 2010)

• Innovation: The Key to Creating an Education Nation

• A “Must Do” Rather than “Nice to Know”

• Internet Time: Google 12 Years, YouTube 5 Years

• Every Minute, 24 Hours of New Video on YouTube

What is the Key to Educational Innovation?It’s Simple: School Life = Real Life

“From the standpoint of the child, the great waste in the school comes from his inability to utilize the experiences he gets outside the school…within the school itself while, on the other hand, he is unable to apply in daily life what he is learning at school.”

John Dewey, The School and Society lecture, University of Chicago, 1899

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6 Leading Edges of K-12 Innovation

1. Thinking

2. Curriculum & Assessment

3. Technology

4. Time/Place

5. Co-Teaching

6. Youth

1. The Edge of Our Thinking: Ending the Education Wars

From Either/Or to Both/And Hybrids

• Phonics + Whole Language

• Arts + Core Curriculum Opening Minds Through Arts (OMA), Tucson

edutopia.org/arts-opening-minds-integration

• Learning in Nature + Technology

3. The Technology Edge

• Weapons of Mass Instruction, 1:1 edutopia.org/maine-project-learning- schools-that-work

• iPod, iListen, iRead sites.google.com/a/eusd.org/eusd-iread/

• Online Learning edutopia.org/stw-online-learning- new-breakthroughs

• Wiki-Based 8th-Gr. US History

• Intelligent Text

• Assistive Tech/Universal Design

4. The Time/Place Edge

• Schools as “Prisoners of Time”

www2.ed.gov/pubs/PrisonersOfTime/Prisoners.html

• A New Day for Learning, Beyond the Bell

www.newdayforlearning.org

• Place-Based Learning: Museums, Parks, Gardens

5. The Teaching Edge: Co-Teaching

• Parents as Co-Educators

• Linking Home & School

• Experts as Co-Educators: Rangers, Scientists, Historians, Architects, Writers, Artists

6. The Greatest Edge: Today’s Youth

• 95% of Stakeholders

• Digital Natives Carrying Change in their Pockets

• Generation YES: Students as Teaching Assistants

genyes.org

• Edutopia’s Digital Generation edutopia.org/digital-generation

edutopia.org/digital-generation

edutopia.org/digital-generation

edutopia.org/digital-generation

What’s your definition of a great school?

Make it short and measurable!

Do the kids run in at the same rate they run out?