Social Media, a Brilliant Teacher, the Power of Embracing the Future
EXTRACT: Mashable has a insightful post about how some teachers are incorporating social media into their classrooms and are seeing dramatic increases in student interest and achievement as a result. …. reading things like this excites me because shows me that we are winning some battles in the war against “overinvesting in yesterday” and its now defunct institutions.
The Case For Social Media in Schools
EXTRACT: A year after seventh grade teacher Elizabeth Delmatoff started a pilot social media program in her Portland, Oregon classroom, 20% of students school-wide were completing extra assignments for no credit, grades had gone up more than 50%, and chronic absenteeism was reduced by more than a third. For the first time in its history, the school met its adequate yearly progress goal for absenteeism.
Tip of the Hat to Steve Denning at LinkedIn.
Phi Beta Iota: The current school system is like the Pentagon without the money–mostly dead weight. The future is about blended or hybrid education–of everyone, all the time. This is one reason why we feel rather strongly that education, intelligence, and research should be overseen and funded by the same executive team.
See Also:
Child-Driven Education (Sugata Mitra at TED)
Review: The World Is Open–How Web Technology Is Revolutionizing Education
