Sunday, September 26, 2010

Milton Chen - Education Nation: Six Leading Edges of Innovation in Our Schools

Cool look at educational innovation - presented by the MIT Learning International Networks Consortium. It's pretty clear our current educational system is failing - we seriously need some new ideas that work.

Education Nation: Six Leading Edges of Innovation in Our Schools

About the Lecture

The daily news is full of stories about failing schools, as well as those undergoing miraculous rescues. But there are also schools that have devised innovative and constructive practices that are worth studying and emulating, according to Milton Chen of The George Lucas Educational Foundation. The Foundation has been documenting new educational approaches across the U.S that might serve as constructive reforms for other schools.

The Foundation website Edutopia is home to scores of videos demonstrating “schools that work” -- case studies intended to disseminate successful practices to systems nationwide. Chen plays a video segment showcasing the Walter Payton College Prep High School in Chicago, which exemplifies several approaches the Foundation deems most crucial for 21st century education. Payton, with a racially and economically diverse student body, defines itself as a math, science and world language academy. This means that kids coming from predominantly Spanish-speaking homes may be learning Mandarin Chinese as well as English at school, and digging into the history of China, Latin America and other related cultures. Students also engage in project-based, interdisciplinary coursework, so core subjects like physics and biology can be investigated meaningfully over extended periods of time. Chen notes as well Payton’s emphasis on technology: classes conduct video conferences with experts (such as surgeons performing open heart surgery); and with fellow students in sister schools in Casablanca and Durban.

Chen acknowledges that Payton is remarkable, but that school districts can emulate at least some of its successes by “looking to the edges” of their own educational systems for new angles on teaching and learning. Chen enumerates some “leading edges of innovation” that schools may want to consider: First, technology should play an important role. Chen notes that iPods are very useful for language learning and reading, and so supports the use of personal digital devices – “weapons of mass instruction” -- for each student. In addition, he suggests educators rethink what is appropriate for students to learn at different grade levels, and be more flexible about who, or what, teaches students; the entire curriculum must become globalized, from math and science to literature and history, and learning should center around projects, not textbooks; with digital technology, students no longer need be “prisoners of time,” and may now learn 24/7, and in places other than schools; parents should be recognized as “co-educators,” with home education linked more fluidly to schools; and, finally, Chen thinks students should assume a major role in redefining their own education.

About the Speaker

Milton Chen

Senior Fellow, The George Lucas Educational Foundation

Prior to 2010, Milton Chen was executive director of the George Lucas Educational Foundation. He previously served as the director of research at Sesame Workshop; assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education; and education director of KQED-San Francisco. He is working on a book, Education Nation: Seven Leading Edges of Innovation in our Schools.

Chen received an A.B. in social studies from Harvard College and an M.A. and Ph.D. in communication research from Stanford University.




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