“Why is school the only place where kids can't take out their technology to answer questions that they could do anywhere else?”

 

This question, posed by Will Richardson at the Learning and Brain conference, caught my attention. When will we, as educators, realize that we’re not the commanders of the content. We are the encouragers, the project engineers, the communicators, and the listeners. These are the skills we bring to the table. Students already know how to access information that remains a constant. They don’t know how to use it.
 
What is the new vision? Dr. Yong Zhao says that in order to encourage the middle class, we need to focus on INNOVATION, CREATIVITY, and ENTREPRENEURSHIP. 

 

"To cultivate creative and entrepreneurial talents is much more than adding an entrepreneurship course or program to the curriculum. It requires a paradigm shift—from employee-oriented education to entrepreneur-oriented education, from prescribing children’s education to supporting their learning, and from reducing human diversity to a few employable skills to enhancing individual talents.

The elements of entrepreneur-oriented education have been proposed and practiced by various education leaders and institutions for a long time but they have largely remained on the fringe. What we need to do is to move them to the mainstream for all children." - Dr. Yong Zhao