This document summarizes the drive for 21st century learning reforms in education and questions whether these reforms are actually aimed at improving education or privatizing it. It argues that the push for 21st century learning is not new, but rather aims to cut costs, privatize schools, and restructure education around technology. While proponents promise benefits like better outcomes and engagement, the reality is the reforms aim to lower expenditures on traditional education to free up money for new technology spending and open public education to private business interests. A web of think tanks, corporations and organizations promote this agenda despite opposition from teachers and parents.
Redefining Education in America Cultivating Ethical & Moral LeadershipAnne Hamilton
This document discusses the need to redefine American public education by integrating moral and ethical teachings from Eastern philosophies like Buddhism and Confucianism. It argues that the current education system focuses too much on training students for jobs and the economy, rather than cultivating qualities like compassion and wisdom. Incorporating mindfulness practices and principles from great historical teachers could help address issues facing today's students and society. The document provides numerous examples and studies supporting the benefits of teaching mindfulness and moral philosophy in schools. It asserts that reorienting education in this way would better prepare students for the complex problems of the modern world.
This document provides an overview of the rise of community education in the United States. It discusses how large cities and loss of community led to interest in community education. Community education aims to break large cities into smaller units to foster interaction and involvement in problem solving. It also aims to promote personal identity and community spirit. The document outlines the growth of community education programs and degrees since 1964. It discusses how community education can help schools better meet community needs and involve community members in decision making. The document provides examples of community education programs and defines community education as an educational philosophy that enhances the role of schools in coordinating activities to meet community needs.
This document discusses how school leadership may be constrained by neo-liberalism and focused on measurable outcomes like test scores, rather than issues like environmental sustainability. It argues that the neo-liberal emphasis on privatization, free markets, and minimal government intervention has dominated education policy and leadership. As a result, important issues like climate change and environmental protection are largely absent from school curricula and leadership priorities. The author believes school leaders should challenge this neo-liberal paradigm and create an education system focused more on long-term environmental sustainability.
The Imperative To Reenergize The University In Service To Societynoblex1
Today, it is no secret that our colleges and universities are beset by an array of problems, new to most of us: chronic shortages of funds, coupled with soaring fees and public resistance to higher taxes; new skepticism from members of the "attentive public" about our productivity, accompanied by hard questions about research and tenure; an academic culture that appears to measure excellence by scholarly citations and the number of doctoral candidates, not minds opened or the needs of undergraduates; vigorous new competitors in the academic market, ready and eager to provide services we have ignored; and sharp conflict among faculty, administrators, and other leaders about which of these problems need immediate attention and how to address them.
To add to our difficulties, one of the nation's great strengths, its cultural, racial, and ethnic diversity, has been unscrupulously used to open old wounds in our national life, encourage hostility to immigrants, and create new divisions on our campuses - in the process placing many new burdens on our institutions and the people in them.
All of those challenges will be difficult to address and solve. Some may prove intractable, no matter how good our intentions. Nonetheless, university presidents and their allies - trustees, faculty leaders, the business community, and others - must point people in the right direction and make a start down the road.
We have no crystal ball and we do not know what the future holds. But among the many issues deserving attention it seems to us that five lie at the heart of the task before us.
1. The Student Experience.
With the value system favoring research and graduate studies firmly entrenched in American universities, undergraduates too often become at best a responsibility, at worse an afterthought. We find that observation too close to the truth for comfort. Just as we can help reinvigorate undergraduate preparation at research universities, both public and private, we can make a useful contribution by again placing the centrality of the student experience - graduate and undergraduate, fulltime and parttime, traditional and nontraditional - at the top of our institutions' agendas. Polls indicate the American people place a high value on our research. They appreciate our outreach and service. But they support us because we have historically provided unprecedented access to high quality, affordable education. We cannot disappoint them in this expectation and depend on their continued goodwill.
2. Access.
This public expectation points us to the second major issue we must address, access. Access has been the hallmark of our institutions in the past; despite the financial pressures all of us face, maintaining access must be our major priority in the future.
Source: https://ebookschoice.com/the-imperative-to-re-energize-the-university-in-service-to-society/
This study examined the impact of student participation in an arts integration program and student gender on language arts scores on the NJASK for grades 6&7. A two-way ANOVA was conducted. The main effect of student participation in the arts integration program was found to be statistically significant, with students in the arts integration program scoring higher on average than students not in the program. However, the main effect of gender and the interaction effect were not statistically significant. Thus, participation in the arts integration program positively impacted language arts test scores, but gender alone did not.
For a political economy of open educationRichard Hall
My presentation at Open Education: Condition Critical, 20 November 2014. See: http://www.richard-hall.org/2014/11/19/for-a-political-economy-of-open-education/
Access Under Siege: Are the Gains of Open Education Keeping Pace with the Gro...Don Olcott
Are the proliferating costs of HE out-distancing the benefits of growth of open and distance learning? The author concludes that access, indeed, is under siege by the gradual exclusion of qualified students from mainstream HE. Can ODL keep pace?
The document discusses key topics related to education and social equality from a sociological perspective. It covers theories on how education impacts social mobility and the reproduction of social inequalities. Specifically, it examines functionalist views that see education as promoting social mobility versus conflict theories that see education as reinforcing existing social hierarchies. It also explores how education relates to gender and ethnic inequalities. The document provides background on these topics and discusses relevant debates, research findings, and theoretical frameworks for understanding the relationship between education and social stratification.
Redefining Education in America Cultivating Ethical & Moral LeadershipAnne Hamilton
This document discusses the need to redefine American public education by integrating moral and ethical teachings from Eastern philosophies like Buddhism and Confucianism. It argues that the current education system focuses too much on training students for jobs and the economy, rather than cultivating qualities like compassion and wisdom. Incorporating mindfulness practices and principles from great historical teachers could help address issues facing today's students and society. The document provides numerous examples and studies supporting the benefits of teaching mindfulness and moral philosophy in schools. It asserts that reorienting education in this way would better prepare students for the complex problems of the modern world.
This document provides an overview of the rise of community education in the United States. It discusses how large cities and loss of community led to interest in community education. Community education aims to break large cities into smaller units to foster interaction and involvement in problem solving. It also aims to promote personal identity and community spirit. The document outlines the growth of community education programs and degrees since 1964. It discusses how community education can help schools better meet community needs and involve community members in decision making. The document provides examples of community education programs and defines community education as an educational philosophy that enhances the role of schools in coordinating activities to meet community needs.
This document discusses how school leadership may be constrained by neo-liberalism and focused on measurable outcomes like test scores, rather than issues like environmental sustainability. It argues that the neo-liberal emphasis on privatization, free markets, and minimal government intervention has dominated education policy and leadership. As a result, important issues like climate change and environmental protection are largely absent from school curricula and leadership priorities. The author believes school leaders should challenge this neo-liberal paradigm and create an education system focused more on long-term environmental sustainability.
The Imperative To Reenergize The University In Service To Societynoblex1
Today, it is no secret that our colleges and universities are beset by an array of problems, new to most of us: chronic shortages of funds, coupled with soaring fees and public resistance to higher taxes; new skepticism from members of the "attentive public" about our productivity, accompanied by hard questions about research and tenure; an academic culture that appears to measure excellence by scholarly citations and the number of doctoral candidates, not minds opened or the needs of undergraduates; vigorous new competitors in the academic market, ready and eager to provide services we have ignored; and sharp conflict among faculty, administrators, and other leaders about which of these problems need immediate attention and how to address them.
To add to our difficulties, one of the nation's great strengths, its cultural, racial, and ethnic diversity, has been unscrupulously used to open old wounds in our national life, encourage hostility to immigrants, and create new divisions on our campuses - in the process placing many new burdens on our institutions and the people in them.
All of those challenges will be difficult to address and solve. Some may prove intractable, no matter how good our intentions. Nonetheless, university presidents and their allies - trustees, faculty leaders, the business community, and others - must point people in the right direction and make a start down the road.
We have no crystal ball and we do not know what the future holds. But among the many issues deserving attention it seems to us that five lie at the heart of the task before us.
1. The Student Experience.
With the value system favoring research and graduate studies firmly entrenched in American universities, undergraduates too often become at best a responsibility, at worse an afterthought. We find that observation too close to the truth for comfort. Just as we can help reinvigorate undergraduate preparation at research universities, both public and private, we can make a useful contribution by again placing the centrality of the student experience - graduate and undergraduate, fulltime and parttime, traditional and nontraditional - at the top of our institutions' agendas. Polls indicate the American people place a high value on our research. They appreciate our outreach and service. But they support us because we have historically provided unprecedented access to high quality, affordable education. We cannot disappoint them in this expectation and depend on their continued goodwill.
2. Access.
This public expectation points us to the second major issue we must address, access. Access has been the hallmark of our institutions in the past; despite the financial pressures all of us face, maintaining access must be our major priority in the future.
Source: https://ebookschoice.com/the-imperative-to-re-energize-the-university-in-service-to-society/
This study examined the impact of student participation in an arts integration program and student gender on language arts scores on the NJASK for grades 6&7. A two-way ANOVA was conducted. The main effect of student participation in the arts integration program was found to be statistically significant, with students in the arts integration program scoring higher on average than students not in the program. However, the main effect of gender and the interaction effect were not statistically significant. Thus, participation in the arts integration program positively impacted language arts test scores, but gender alone did not.
For a political economy of open educationRichard Hall
My presentation at Open Education: Condition Critical, 20 November 2014. See: http://www.richard-hall.org/2014/11/19/for-a-political-economy-of-open-education/
Access Under Siege: Are the Gains of Open Education Keeping Pace with the Gro...Don Olcott
Are the proliferating costs of HE out-distancing the benefits of growth of open and distance learning? The author concludes that access, indeed, is under siege by the gradual exclusion of qualified students from mainstream HE. Can ODL keep pace?
The document discusses key topics related to education and social equality from a sociological perspective. It covers theories on how education impacts social mobility and the reproduction of social inequalities. Specifically, it examines functionalist views that see education as promoting social mobility versus conflict theories that see education as reinforcing existing social hierarchies. It also explores how education relates to gender and ethnic inequalities. The document provides background on these topics and discusses relevant debates, research findings, and theoretical frameworks for understanding the relationship between education and social stratification.
The-New-Opportunity-Agenda_AMovementAtRisk_AManifestoJeanne Allen
This document is a manifesto calling for renewed focus on education reform efforts, which the author sees as being at a crossroads and at risk of losing ground. Some key points:
- It references A Nation at Risk report from 1983 that sparked education reform but says the momentum from that has faded.
- It highlights successes of education reforms in places like New Orleans post-Hurricane Katrina but says these achievements are now facing political backlash and challenges.
- It argues the education reform movement accomplished more in its early years in the 1990s than recently and is struggling to pass new reforms or hold onto existing ones in many places.
- The author calls this a clarion call for the movement to
1) The document discusses objectives and strategies for effective use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in education. It examines ICTs in the context of global opportunities and challenges in designing, delivering, and administering education.
2) It considers important policy questions like how essential ICTs are to national goals and which educational objectives they can help achieve, like expanding access, improving quality, enabling lifelong learning, and facilitating non-formal education.
3) The document outlines challenges like increasing demand for education, the information explosion, preparing citizens for modern society, addressing illiteracy, and developing talent, which ICTs may help countries address as they pursue national educational goals.
This document summarizes a keynote speech given at the 11th General Conference of the International Association of Universities in 2000. The speech discusses three main challenges facing higher education: 1) Providing more education to more people over their lifetimes, as expectations and demands have increased; 2) Finding the right balance between accountability to society and academic freedom; 3) Clarifying the fundamental purpose of developing higher-order thinking skills rather than just imparting content. The forces of globalization, technology, and the new "conceptual age" are reshaping higher education and its relationship to communities. Collaboration between universities will be important to ensure all nations can benefit from and contribute to higher education.
Co-Constructing Democratic Knowledge for Social Justice: Lessons from an Inte...iBoP Asia
This document summarizes a paper about the Development Research Centre on Citizenship, Participation and Accountability (DRC), an international research collaboration between universities and think tanks from over 20 countries. The DRC aimed to study conceptions of citizenship, democracy, and social justice around the world. Key lessons from the DRC's decade of work include the value of collaborative knowledge production, iterative learning linking different forms of knowledge, linking research to action, connecting research on democracy to democratic pedagogies, and the role of university researchers in empowering collaborators. The document argues that universities can and should play a role in social justice through knowledge production, though current economic and political pressures challenge this role.
Co-Constructing Democratic Knowledge for Social Justice: Lessons from an Inte...iBoP Asia
This document summarizes a paper about the Development Research Centre on Citizenship, Participation and Accountability (DRC), an international research collaboration between universities and think tanks from over 20 countries. The DRC aimed to better understand challenges to democracy and social justice globally and produce new knowledge on citizenship and democracy practices. Key lessons from the DRC's decade of collaborative work include the value of: (1) co-constructing knowledge with collaborators, (2) linking different forms of knowledge over time, (3) linking research to action, (4) connecting research on democracy to democratic pedagogies, and (5) researchers' role in empowering collaborators. These lessons provide an approach for universities to address complex problems
Grit the skills for success and how they are growni4ppis
The document discusses the importance of developing social, emotional, and motivational skills in education. It argues that the current education system focuses too heavily on academic skills and standardized testing, neglecting skills like creativity, collaboration, resilience, and grit that are valuable for students' well-being and future success. Research shows these "non-cognitive" skills can be developed through education and are highly valued by employers. The document examines frameworks for understanding these skills and innovative projects aimed at cultivating them in students.
Educational technology and the war on public educationRichard Hall
I'm presenting at the University of Lincoln's Centre for Educational Research and Development conference on Thursday June 7. I'll be speaking about Educational technology and the war on public education.
The document discusses trends in social studies education. It begins by outlining the objectives of understanding social trends, their roles, and current trends. It then defines social trends and lists elements that characterize a trend. Examples of trends in various fields like economics, politics, sports, food, medicine, and more are provided. The rest of the document discusses 6 trends in more depth: 1) Closing the achievement gap 2) Assessment, accountability, and the global achievement gap 3) Globalization and 21st century skills 4) Democracy 5) Making the literacy-social studies connection 6) History, history, and more history.
The document discusses the history and goals of media education. It argues that media education is now more important than ever given technological changes and the increasing role of media in society. The goals of media education have shifted from protecting children from media's influence, to preparing them to be critical thinkers and active participants in media culture. It is seen as a fundamental right and necessity for informed citizenship in today's complex, globalized world dominated by media.
Unit x emerging trends in education English NotesThanavathi C
This document discusses emerging trends in education such as globalization, liberalization, privatization, lifelong learning, and online education. Globalization is increasing integration worldwide through the flow of information, ideas, technologies, and people, impacting education systems. Liberalization refers to relaxing government restrictions, especially in economic policy. Privatization involves increasing the role of the private sector in education through deregulation and reduced government control. Lifelong learning emphasizes ongoing, voluntary pursuit of knowledge for personal or professional reasons. Online education uses electronic media and ICTs to deliver educational content and enable two-way communication between students and teachers over computer networks. The document examines the positive and negative impacts of these trends on education systems and societies.
Against educational technology in the neoliberal UniversityRichard Hall
Slides for my presentation at the CAMRI Research Seminar on 25 March 2015 [see: http://www.westminster.ac.uk/camri/research-seminars/richard-hall-against-educational-technology-in-the-neoliberal-university]
This document summarizes a presentation on the challenges faced by diversity in higher education given at the 12th General Conference of the International Astronomical Union in Sao Paulo, Brazil in July 2004. The presentation discusses how higher education is being impacted by increased commercialization, privatization, and emphasis on workforce development over research. While this opens up access and new education providers, it also threatens the autonomy and cultural relevance of education in developing countries. The role of governments in ensuring quality, relevance, and a rational system that balances workforce needs, research, and academic freedom is discussed.
The document discusses how the world and education are changing due to technological advances. It notes that skills like collaboration, problem solving, and adaptability will be most important for students in the 21st century. It argues that schools need to shift from a teaching focus to a learning focus and embrace new technologies and project-based learning to best prepare students.
Surviving Economic Crises through EducationDavid R Cole
This document contains a collection of essays that discuss how education can help societies survive economic crises. The essays address topics such as open science and knowledge sharing to restore public education during budget cuts. They also discuss how education can build resilience against hostile policies, help communities engage with democratic socialism, and develop new narratives in times of crisis. Overall, the document argues that education can play an important role in helping societies withstand economic hardship and envision new possibilities through struggle and hope.
The Red Balloon Project Re-Imagining Undergraduate Educationleadchangeagent
“ The Red Balloon contest serves as a metaphor for the newly-networked world. This new way of generating, aggregating and disseminating information has profound implications for higher education. It challenges long-held practices of teaching and learning, institutional organization and structure, and the very notion of expertise. The Red Balloon contest also serves as an analogy for how a community of higher education institutions and their national association can work together to promote and support change in higher education.” http://www.aascu.org/programs/redballoon/
The Chilean educational system is decentralized, with municipalities and private entities administering primary and secondary schools and autonomous universities managing higher education. It is characterized by high levels of social segregation between the public and private systems. Studies comparing learning outcomes between public and private schools have shown inconsistent results, which can be explained by selection bias - private schools are not randomly distributed and can select students, giving them an advantage over public schools. While private schools on average perform no better, if there are differences they are small and do not significantly improve the overall quality of Chilean education. The expansion of private schools has increased segmentation and inequality in the educational system.
The document discusses political economy perspectives on education. It summarizes that reproduction theorists view schools as serving to reproduce social relationships that benefit capitalism. Schools socialize students into accepting inequality and social hierarchy. They educate students for specific roles in the labor force through correspondence to future workplace hierarchies. While providing some economic benefits, this narrow economic view limits understanding of education and has led to treating students as economic commodities.
The document provides instructions for requesting and completing an assignment writing request on the HelpWriting.net platform. It outlines a 5-step process: 1) Create an account with a password and email. 2) Complete an order form with instructions, sources, and deadline. 3) Review bids from writers and select one. 4) Review the completed paper and authorize payment. 5) Request revisions to ensure satisfaction, with refund available for plagiarized work.
How To Write About The Theme Of A Book CovBryce Nelson
There are several ways for college students to be more environmentally friendly while living on their own for the first time. Key ways include recycling paper, plastic, aluminum, and electronics. Students can also save water by taking shorter showers and turning off appliances when not in use. Going green in small ways like these helps take care of the earth and can become good habits for life.
The-New-Opportunity-Agenda_AMovementAtRisk_AManifestoJeanne Allen
This document is a manifesto calling for renewed focus on education reform efforts, which the author sees as being at a crossroads and at risk of losing ground. Some key points:
- It references A Nation at Risk report from 1983 that sparked education reform but says the momentum from that has faded.
- It highlights successes of education reforms in places like New Orleans post-Hurricane Katrina but says these achievements are now facing political backlash and challenges.
- It argues the education reform movement accomplished more in its early years in the 1990s than recently and is struggling to pass new reforms or hold onto existing ones in many places.
- The author calls this a clarion call for the movement to
1) The document discusses objectives and strategies for effective use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in education. It examines ICTs in the context of global opportunities and challenges in designing, delivering, and administering education.
2) It considers important policy questions like how essential ICTs are to national goals and which educational objectives they can help achieve, like expanding access, improving quality, enabling lifelong learning, and facilitating non-formal education.
3) The document outlines challenges like increasing demand for education, the information explosion, preparing citizens for modern society, addressing illiteracy, and developing talent, which ICTs may help countries address as they pursue national educational goals.
This document summarizes a keynote speech given at the 11th General Conference of the International Association of Universities in 2000. The speech discusses three main challenges facing higher education: 1) Providing more education to more people over their lifetimes, as expectations and demands have increased; 2) Finding the right balance between accountability to society and academic freedom; 3) Clarifying the fundamental purpose of developing higher-order thinking skills rather than just imparting content. The forces of globalization, technology, and the new "conceptual age" are reshaping higher education and its relationship to communities. Collaboration between universities will be important to ensure all nations can benefit from and contribute to higher education.
Co-Constructing Democratic Knowledge for Social Justice: Lessons from an Inte...iBoP Asia
This document summarizes a paper about the Development Research Centre on Citizenship, Participation and Accountability (DRC), an international research collaboration between universities and think tanks from over 20 countries. The DRC aimed to study conceptions of citizenship, democracy, and social justice around the world. Key lessons from the DRC's decade of work include the value of collaborative knowledge production, iterative learning linking different forms of knowledge, linking research to action, connecting research on democracy to democratic pedagogies, and the role of university researchers in empowering collaborators. The document argues that universities can and should play a role in social justice through knowledge production, though current economic and political pressures challenge this role.
Co-Constructing Democratic Knowledge for Social Justice: Lessons from an Inte...iBoP Asia
This document summarizes a paper about the Development Research Centre on Citizenship, Participation and Accountability (DRC), an international research collaboration between universities and think tanks from over 20 countries. The DRC aimed to better understand challenges to democracy and social justice globally and produce new knowledge on citizenship and democracy practices. Key lessons from the DRC's decade of collaborative work include the value of: (1) co-constructing knowledge with collaborators, (2) linking different forms of knowledge over time, (3) linking research to action, (4) connecting research on democracy to democratic pedagogies, and (5) researchers' role in empowering collaborators. These lessons provide an approach for universities to address complex problems
Grit the skills for success and how they are growni4ppis
The document discusses the importance of developing social, emotional, and motivational skills in education. It argues that the current education system focuses too heavily on academic skills and standardized testing, neglecting skills like creativity, collaboration, resilience, and grit that are valuable for students' well-being and future success. Research shows these "non-cognitive" skills can be developed through education and are highly valued by employers. The document examines frameworks for understanding these skills and innovative projects aimed at cultivating them in students.
Educational technology and the war on public educationRichard Hall
I'm presenting at the University of Lincoln's Centre for Educational Research and Development conference on Thursday June 7. I'll be speaking about Educational technology and the war on public education.
The document discusses trends in social studies education. It begins by outlining the objectives of understanding social trends, their roles, and current trends. It then defines social trends and lists elements that characterize a trend. Examples of trends in various fields like economics, politics, sports, food, medicine, and more are provided. The rest of the document discusses 6 trends in more depth: 1) Closing the achievement gap 2) Assessment, accountability, and the global achievement gap 3) Globalization and 21st century skills 4) Democracy 5) Making the literacy-social studies connection 6) History, history, and more history.
The document discusses the history and goals of media education. It argues that media education is now more important than ever given technological changes and the increasing role of media in society. The goals of media education have shifted from protecting children from media's influence, to preparing them to be critical thinkers and active participants in media culture. It is seen as a fundamental right and necessity for informed citizenship in today's complex, globalized world dominated by media.
Unit x emerging trends in education English NotesThanavathi C
This document discusses emerging trends in education such as globalization, liberalization, privatization, lifelong learning, and online education. Globalization is increasing integration worldwide through the flow of information, ideas, technologies, and people, impacting education systems. Liberalization refers to relaxing government restrictions, especially in economic policy. Privatization involves increasing the role of the private sector in education through deregulation and reduced government control. Lifelong learning emphasizes ongoing, voluntary pursuit of knowledge for personal or professional reasons. Online education uses electronic media and ICTs to deliver educational content and enable two-way communication between students and teachers over computer networks. The document examines the positive and negative impacts of these trends on education systems and societies.
Against educational technology in the neoliberal UniversityRichard Hall
Slides for my presentation at the CAMRI Research Seminar on 25 March 2015 [see: http://www.westminster.ac.uk/camri/research-seminars/richard-hall-against-educational-technology-in-the-neoliberal-university]
This document summarizes a presentation on the challenges faced by diversity in higher education given at the 12th General Conference of the International Astronomical Union in Sao Paulo, Brazil in July 2004. The presentation discusses how higher education is being impacted by increased commercialization, privatization, and emphasis on workforce development over research. While this opens up access and new education providers, it also threatens the autonomy and cultural relevance of education in developing countries. The role of governments in ensuring quality, relevance, and a rational system that balances workforce needs, research, and academic freedom is discussed.
The document discusses how the world and education are changing due to technological advances. It notes that skills like collaboration, problem solving, and adaptability will be most important for students in the 21st century. It argues that schools need to shift from a teaching focus to a learning focus and embrace new technologies and project-based learning to best prepare students.
Surviving Economic Crises through EducationDavid R Cole
This document contains a collection of essays that discuss how education can help societies survive economic crises. The essays address topics such as open science and knowledge sharing to restore public education during budget cuts. They also discuss how education can build resilience against hostile policies, help communities engage with democratic socialism, and develop new narratives in times of crisis. Overall, the document argues that education can play an important role in helping societies withstand economic hardship and envision new possibilities through struggle and hope.
The Red Balloon Project Re-Imagining Undergraduate Educationleadchangeagent
“ The Red Balloon contest serves as a metaphor for the newly-networked world. This new way of generating, aggregating and disseminating information has profound implications for higher education. It challenges long-held practices of teaching and learning, institutional organization and structure, and the very notion of expertise. The Red Balloon contest also serves as an analogy for how a community of higher education institutions and their national association can work together to promote and support change in higher education.” http://www.aascu.org/programs/redballoon/
The Chilean educational system is decentralized, with municipalities and private entities administering primary and secondary schools and autonomous universities managing higher education. It is characterized by high levels of social segregation between the public and private systems. Studies comparing learning outcomes between public and private schools have shown inconsistent results, which can be explained by selection bias - private schools are not randomly distributed and can select students, giving them an advantage over public schools. While private schools on average perform no better, if there are differences they are small and do not significantly improve the overall quality of Chilean education. The expansion of private schools has increased segmentation and inequality in the educational system.
The document discusses political economy perspectives on education. It summarizes that reproduction theorists view schools as serving to reproduce social relationships that benefit capitalism. Schools socialize students into accepting inequality and social hierarchy. They educate students for specific roles in the labor force through correspondence to future workplace hierarchies. While providing some economic benefits, this narrow economic view limits understanding of education and has led to treating students as economic commodities.
The document provides instructions for requesting and completing an assignment writing request on the HelpWriting.net platform. It outlines a 5-step process: 1) Create an account with a password and email. 2) Complete an order form with instructions, sources, and deadline. 3) Review bids from writers and select one. 4) Review the completed paper and authorize payment. 5) Request revisions to ensure satisfaction, with refund available for plagiarized work.
How To Write About The Theme Of A Book CovBryce Nelson
There are several ways for college students to be more environmentally friendly while living on their own for the first time. Key ways include recycling paper, plastic, aluminum, and electronics. Students can also save water by taking shorter showers and turning off appliances when not in use. Going green in small ways like these helps take care of the earth and can become good habits for life.
Personal Experience Essay Sample. Personal ExperienBryce Nelson
1. The document provides instructions for how to properly swaddle an infant.
2. It describes laying the baby in the center of a blanket folded in a triangle shape and wrapping the corners securely but gently around the baby.
3. Ensuring the baby is comfortable and that the blanket does not touch its face are emphasized.
Christmas Letter Border Template Collection - LetteBryce Nelson
The document provides instructions for creating an account and submitting assignment requests on the HelpWriting.net website. Users can complete an order form with their instructions, sources, and deadline. Writers will then bid on the request, and the user can select a writer based on qualifications and reviews. The user receives the completed paper and can request revisions until satisfied. HelpWriting guarantees original, high-quality work and refunds are offered if plagiarism is found.
Help With Writing Dissertation Numbers - Wnshistory.Web.Bryce Nelson
The San Diego Trolley Dances event featured various dance performances throughout San Diego, including in downtown and Balboa Park. Three pieces from the event embodied the African aesthetic of "cool" through contrasting bodily movements and facial expressions with potential dangers, physical strain, or unexpected collisions. One piece by Stephan Koplowitz titled "Play(as)" took place in a black fountain area and featured 10 dancers in black and purple crossing the reflecting pool without music in controlled movements.
Jungle Rainforest Border Writing Paper Primary ReBryce Nelson
The document provides instructions for requesting writing assistance from HelpWriting.net. It outlines a 5-step process: 1) Create an account with a password and email. 2) Complete an order form with instructions, sources, and deadline. 3) Review bids from writers and select one. 4) Review the completed paper and authorize payment. 5) Request revisions until satisfied, with a refund option for plagiarism. The process aims to match clients with qualified writers to meet their needs.
How To Write A Good Scholarship Essay MymithrBryce Nelson
The document provides instructions for requesting writing assistance from HelpWriting.net. It outlines a 5-step process: 1) Create an account with a password and email. 2) Complete a 10-minute order form providing instructions, sources, and deadline. 3) Review bids from writers and choose one based on qualifications. 4) Receive the paper and authorize payment if pleased. 5) Request revisions until fully satisfied, with a refund option for plagiarized work.
Reflective Essay Example Which Will Help You Write YoBryce Nelson
The document provides instructions for requesting an assignment writing service from HelpWriting.net in 5 steps:
1. Create an account with a password and email.
2. Complete a 10-minute order form providing instructions, sources, deadline, and attaching a sample work.
3. Review bids from writers and choose one based on qualifications, history, and feedback, then pay a deposit.
4. Review the completed paper and authorize full payment if pleased, or request revisions using the free revision policy.
5. Know that original, high-quality content will be provided, with a full refund option for plagiarized work.
Sample Us College Essays - New Sample OBryce Nelson
The document discusses how home design styles changed significantly during the 19th century, shifting away from early century styles in the middle of the century before referring back to earlier styles by the end of the century, with these changes in popular taste influenced not just by the passage of time but other contextual factors as well. It introduces the topic of how 19th century home design evolved in both form and influences over the course of the century.
024 Rubrics In Essay Writing Example Analytical Rubric Analysis ...Bryce Nelson
The document discusses gender roles in the 18th century as depicted in the short story "Fantomina" by Eliza Haywood. Gender norms were very strict during this time period. The story follows a woman, Fantomina, who disguises herself as different women to gain the attention of a man she is interested in. Through her disguises and deceptions, Fantomina challenges the typical gender expectations of the time. The document suggests Fantomina's actions provide insight into gender roles and norms in 18th century society.
Key Ways Of Writing A Psychology Paper.Bryce Nelson
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21St Century Learning Inc
1. Afalse narrative about our schools is spreading through the educa-
tion community and the public at large. Apparently, with the turn
of the clock and the dawn of a new century, our schools are suddenly
inadequate. As Canadians for 21st
Century Learning and Innovation ar-
ticulates the issue, “public education in Canada must be transformed
to position Canadians for success in the knowledge and digital age”1
.
The Partnership for 21st
Century Skills puts it this way: “Every child in
the U.S. needs 21st
century knowledge and skills to succeed as efec-
tive citizens, workers and leaders.”A common turn of phrase is that we
must leave behind the “factory model” of schooling and embrace the
technological change of the new century.
A peek beneath the surface reveals that the drive for change and
the changes sought are not new, necessary or unique, but in fact fa-
miliar — cost cutting, privatization, and restructuring public educa-
tion around technology.
Despite the promises, 21st
Century Learning will not bring“success”.
The crisis of “factory schooling” is manufactured. And the proposed
solution — radical technological transformation — has the potential
to damage our schools while diverting public money to corporate
proit.
TARA EhRCkE
21st
Century Learning Inc.
2. 62
OUR SCHOOLS/OUR SELVES
The drive for change
The 20th
century was marked by two world wars and many crises,
but among its relative success stories was the fantastic spread of ed-
ucational opportunities to broad classes of people through the es-
tablishment and expansion of public education systems. Replacing
patchworks of private and parochial schools, governments invested
in a project of mass schooling and expansion of higher educational
institutions, often both publicly funded and publicly administered.
The project was in fact so successful that many of those ruling elite
in the business world who supported universal public education came
to regret its success. Along with mass literacy came another conse-
quence: serious political challenges to the status quo, and in particular
to the interests of free marketeers. Increased access to university and
the intellectual fervour surrounding socially progressive movements
nurtured more critical thinking and questioning authority than those
in power anticipated.
The post-war period was in many ways the high water mark for
public education. There was stable and growing funding. Class sizes
were reduced. Progressive policies such as the inclusion of students
with special needs were implemented. The teaching profession grew
in stature as teacher salaries increased, teacher preparation programs
lengthened and minimum qualiication standards were set, improving
the quality of teaching. There was room for experiments in teaching
styles and methods in alternative schools.
Twentieth century schooling was far from monolithic. The “facto-
ry model” of the 1920’s, designed to mimic the workplace and teach
students to respond to bells, over time developed into liberal compre-
hensive schools. Some areas of the public education system truly radi-
calized and became campuses of dissent. In the wake of the civil rights
movement, the Vietnam protests, the ight for women’s equality and
the gay rights movement came a questioning of commercialism and
capitalism. Schools and universities were hotbeds for these discus-
sions. By the 1970’s the political right and big business were lamenting
the crisis of too much free thinking.
Nowhere was this crisis for the ruling class better articulated than in
the Powell Memo2
. In 1971, Lewis F. Powell, a member of the board of
11 corporations, made a clarion call to his corporate brethren to create
3. 63
WINTER 2013
new institutions which would shift the public discourse away from lib-
eral and socialist ideas and back toward a free market ideology. Lewis
lamented the widespread criticism of“the American economic system”:
The most disquieting voices joining the chorus of criticism come from
perfectly respectable elements of society: from the college campus,
the pulpit, the media, the intellectual and literary journals, the arts and
sciences, and from politicians. In most of these groups the movement
against the system is participated in only by minorities. yet, these often
are the most articulate, the most vocal, the most proliic in their writing
and speaking.
Something must be done, Powell said, and big business needed to
do it. Powell’s memo provides a broad strategic plan: reorient public
thinking through the development of scholars, speakers, speaker’s bu-
reaus, new textbooks, new curriculum, media inluence, scholarly jour-
nals, books and advertisements. Leave no intellectual stone unturned
in the drive to reorient mainstream views towards market based ide-
ology.
In concert with Powell’s memo was the development of the Chica-
go School — a group of academics at the University of Chicago already
enraptured with free market everything — the fathers of neoliberal-
ism. Milton Friedman, one of the neoliberal gurus, took on education
speciically. His attack on public schools concludes thus:
Government has appropriately been concerned with widening the op-
portunity of young men and women to get professional and technical
training, but it has sought to further this objective by the inappropriate
means of subsidizing such education, largely in the form of making it
available free or at a low price at governmentally operated schools.
Acknowledging the requirement for state subsidized workplace
training, but rejecting publicly funded and publicly administered
schools, Friedman developed the concept of the school voucher–a
mechanism for limited public subsidy of a private system:
Government, preferably local governmental units, would give each
child, through his parents, a speciied sum to be used solely in paying
4. 64
OUR SCHOOLS/OUR SELVES
for his general education; the parents would be free to spend this sum
at a school of their own choice, provided it met certain minimum stan-
dards laid down by the appropriate governmental unit. Such schools
would be conducted under a variety of auspices: by private enterprises
operated for proit, non proit institutions established by private en-
dowment, religious bodies, and some even by governmental units.
While Powell’s call to arms required massive corporate investment,
the neoliberal project of the marketization of education carried with it
the added beneit, from the corporate perspective, of opening a mas-
sive new opportunity to private enterprise. With education second
only to healthcare in market size, the drive to make this market open
for business was already on the radar of those corporations with the
potential to proit, such as publishers and technology companies.
Initial attempts to reframe the public discourse on public educa-
tion were not particularly successful. Pushing vouchers failed. Out-
right privatization failed. But the twenty irst century has brought with
it the irst wave of success of the free marketeers to radically shift the
dialogue on public education.
The 21st
Century Learning web of inluence
In keeping with the Powell method, a collection of think tanks, aca-
demics, senior bureaucrats, and corporations have developed a web
of inluence centred on a concept: 21st
Century Learning.
The set of “non proit” and “charitable” foundations that use this
moniker is sizeable.The degree to which the term has spread is breath-
taking. A Google search yields over 10 million hits.
At the centre of this web are corporations. And the corporations
most interested in funding such an initiative are those who will po-
tentially proit — “knowledge sector” companies. Each of these com-
panies devotes time, resources and “white papers”to the 21st
Century
Learning initiative: Apple, CISCO, Microsoft, Dell, Smart Technologies,
AOL Time Warner, Pearson, Adobe, Blackboard, McGraw-Hill Ryerson,
Nelson Education, Scholastic Education, and IBM, to name a few.
But to maintain credibility, a secondary layer of institutions and
individuals play the primary role in disseminating the 21st
Century
Learning ideology to government and the public at large. This layer
5. 65
WINTER 2013
consists of non-proit organizations funded by the corporations, con-
sulting irms, university researchers backed with corporate grants and
good old fashioned lobby groups. Neoliberal governments adopt the
plans, and act as the interface to the public. Each has its focus — be
it private delivery, radical transformation, skills curriculum or de-pro-
fessionalizing — but each also complements the others. This second
layer also includes“internal validators”— members of the educational
community such as Superintendents, teachers and academics, who
reinforce the ideas and lend credibility to what is otherwise a proit
driven corporate agenda.
There are also mediating forces (such as teachers and parents) act-
ing against many aspects of the corporate reform agenda. This results
in both confused and contradictory messages.
The promise
There is no shortage of promises made to support 21st
Century Learn-
ing. Key among them are:
• better student outcomes
• more student engagement
• student-centred or personalized learning
• improved instructional quality
• lower costs
A more detailed look at the proposed reforms reveals quite another
picture.
The reality
In order to free money for new technology spending, 21st
Century
Learning schools must lower their public expenditures on existing,
traditional forms of schooling. It is this aspect of 21st
Century Learning
that is so attractive to politicians and bureaucrats, who face ever di-
minishing budgets. 21st
Century advocates argue that the new forms
of schooling will be less expensive, even though they require initial
spending on new infrastructure and technology products. Some
strategies to lower existing costs through new models of 21st
Century
6. 66
OUR SCHOOLS/OUR SELVES
schooling include: increasing the student-teacher ratio using technol-
ogy (as mentioned above); replacing teachers with lower wage, less
qualiied workers; reducing physical space requirements by expand-
ing the school day so that building are used for more hours and by
increasing the schooling that takes place at home and in workplaces;
and increased reliance on parents to provide instructional planning,
support and teaching.
21st
Century Learning aims to re-orient curricula towards labour
market skills training. Existing curricula will be modiied by adding
“skills” and/or “competencies” to traditional “knowledge” curricula.
Curricular components will include business oriented or workplace
skills such as: entrepreneurship / innovation, inancial / economic
literacy, IT skills, and career skills. Curricula will be redeined and/or
expanded to change the degree to which the purpose of education is
work readiness as opposed to democratic citizenship.
Corporate interests see transformation as an opportunity to in-
crease private delivery, control, and ownership of schools. This will
happen through the increased use of information technology in a
variety of areas, including: curriculum resources, lesson delivery, data
driven school management, data driven testing and assessment, com-
puterized feedback to students and parents, and computerized “per-
sonalization”. Private control will take place with the increasing use of
online and blended learning, because the technology platforms will
built by the technology corporations, not school districts or teachers.
Private parental control will increase with more home schooling and
blended in school / home school models. Contracting out of actual
teaching will take place with the use of online tutoring from private
providers, who contract out the tutoring work, and the re-use of pack-
aged video lessons such as the Khan Academy, which is efectively the
contracting out of lecturing. 21st
Century advocates will push for the
elimination of school boards in favour of charter schools, which allow
private control and ownership. This will be done under the guise of
“choice”, “creativity” and the need to “personalize”. This may take the
form of increased public funding to private schools, or with charities,
foundations and corporations able to fund and/or own schools.
7. 67
WINTER 2013
The details
Curriculum
Chief among those promoting the curricular re-orientation is the Part-
nership for 21st
Century Skills (P21), with no fewer than a dozen corpo-
rate“partners”andagenerousgrantofmatchingfundsfromtheU.S.De-
partment of Education that provided the seed money to articulate 21st
Century Skills. As P21 describes on their web site, these are: “Learning
and Innovation Skills, which include creativity, critical thinking, commu-
nication, and collaboration; Information, Media, and Technology Skills,
which involve efectively using, managing, and evaluating information
from digital technology and communication tools; and Life and Career
Skills, which include lexibility and adaptability, self-direction, team-
work, appreciation of diversity, accountability, and leadership.”
The Partnership is clear that schooling is not simply for one’s self,
but rather to succeed in “work and life”. Students with a 21st
century
education will “graduate better prepared to thrive in today’s global
economy.”These work skills include“inancial, economic, business and
entrepreneurial literacy” as well as “learning and innovation skills” for
“complex life and work environments”. The factory model is no longer
appropriate because we no longer work in factories. Instead, we need
“systems thinking”, “technology skills”, “productivity and accountabili-
ty”to function in these“complex life and work environments”.3
Some of the changes to curriculum appear to be progressive, but
actually are reactionary in nature. Consider, for example, critical think-
ing. There is no question that critical thinking should be a part of any
school curriculum. But the 21st
Century Learning agenda is redeining
what critical thinking means. In the 21st
Century Learning world, critical
thinking is predominantly problem solving. When combined with in-
novation, creativity and entrepreneurship, one sees a picture of schools
producing the ultimate capitalist citizens — the next Mark Zuckerman,
Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. P21 articulates what the 21st
century student
should be able to do: “successfully face rigorous higher education
coursework, career challenges and a globally competitive workforce”.
What is missing is the other meaning of critical thinking — the abil-
ity to question a particular viewpoint and develop opinions, to see
through propaganda, to understand bias.
8. 68
OUR SCHOOLS/OUR SELVES
The same re-framing is made with respect to citizenship. In a 21st
Century Learning world, citizenship has been re-branded as “ethical
citizenship” or even as “social responsibility”. What is conspicuously
missing from the 21st
Century curriculum is democratic citizenship. In
fact, one is hard pressed to ind the word“democracy”in almost any of
the publications, white papers, and speeches.
technology
Notsurprisingly,technologyisalmostalwaysidentiiedasacomponent
of 21st
Century Learning. But this isn’t simply adding new technology to
aid in the delivery of curriculum or to allow new teaching methods. It
is not a matter of adding a few computer labs or replacing textbooks
with eBooks. In the 21st
Century Learning model technology deines
the learning methods. It is absolutely backwards — rather than peda-
gogy deining if and what technologies are used, instead, it is technolo-
gy driving the choices for learning. As such, it is fundamentally diferent
than the type of technology integration we’ve seen in the past. It is also,
ironically, antithetical to a student-centred or personalized approach
because the technology is driving decisions, not student needs.
Whole books have been written on the degree to which technol-
ogy should or shouldn’t be in our schools, but we can consider just a
few statistics to get a sense of where 21st
Century Learning advocates
would like to take us. A paper by CISCO provides a helpful chart doc-
umenting what media consumption Dutch teenagers do during an
average day4
:
The question CISCO asks is, “How can traditional modes of class-
room instruction engage and inspire students when life outside the
classroom has changed so dramatically? In 2007, teens in the United
States spent 40% of their media time on cell phones, the Internet, and
games, up from 16% in 1998. For many learners, class is the only time
in their day when they completely ‘disconnect.’” Rather than question
how much is too much technology, this technology company won-
ders how we can increase the screen time of teenagers by illing in the
one relatively screen free time — school. Meanwhile the Canadian Pe-
diatric Society recommends a two hour screen time limit for children5
.
Signiicant social issues related to screen time include obesity, mental
health and even changing brain chemistry for younger children.
9. 69
WINTER 2013
media Consumption by Percent
To sell more IT products, the 21st
Century Learning advocates create
a need for those products. No longer should schools spend their re-
source and IT budgets only on textbooks and computer labs. Anytime,
anywhere, collaborative, integrated, blended learning requires a mas-
sive infusion of new IT products.
Considering just one corporate player, Pearson, we see the objec-
tives identiied in this report written by Donald Gutstein for the British
Columbia Teachers’Federation:
According to investment research irm Sanford Bernstein & Co., Pearson
is pursuing three growth strategies. First, the company is investing in
content and technology to increase its market share of the education
industry. Second, the company is restructuring away from the FT Group
and reinvesting the proceeds into the high-growth areas of emerging
markets (Brazil, India, China, South Africa) and consumer —rather than
publicly — inanced education. The third strategy is new, and Bernstein
predicts it will ‘revolutionize how education is delivered to students
around the world, starting with the United States.’It is an ambitious at-
10. 70
OUR SCHOOLS/OUR SELVES
tempt to further commercialize education by claiming its products and
services will raise student and teacher performance while at the same
time cutting spending. If successful, Bernstein argues, ‘it would make
every teacher and school student in the United States a potential cus-
tomer’ by ‘personalizing education in U.S. schools through technology
and best practices.’6
Pearson appears to have the U.S. government irmly in its corner
with the launch of the‘Digital Promise’announced by theWhite House
in 2011. Digital Promise,“will work with leading researchers, entrepre-
neurs, and schools to identify and spur breakthrough learning technol-
ogies that deliver the best results for students, parents, and teachers.”7
Without doubt there is a place for technology in schools and class-
rooms. It is also likely that new technological developments can pro-
vide useful tools to enhance learning. Online and blended models cer-
tainly have a place to address issues such as geographic distance and
schooling in small communities with few children.
What is troubling is that rather than a broad discussion about the
potential new uses of technology along with the potential risks and
pitfalls, the dialogue is one-sided and misleading.
privatization
Knowledge and IT companies have two ways to proit from public
education systems. The irst is simply by selling more products to
schools.The second is a structure where public school boards contract
out educational and infrastructure services to private companies. Both
are part of the 21st
Century Learning corporate mandate.
The World Bank describes some of the ways public-private partner-
ships can be used within the education sector:“Private-Public-Partner-
ships can complement and enhance the role of the government in the
provision of education. The task that each player can provide includes
inancial provision, pedagogical development, human resources de-
velopment, service delivery, infrastructure, facilities management,
among others. Furthermore, each partnership works in speciic loca-
tions and markets. For these reasons, it is critical to investigate which
are the appropriate roles of each stakeholder in the provision of edu-
cation in the context of speciic markets and locations.”8
11. 71
WINTER 2013
Technology companies are clearly interested in these models. CIS-
CO states on their website, on the page entitled “Transforming edu-
cation: Public private partnerships for education”: “We believe that
public-private partnerships will play an important role in the transfor-
mation of global education systems. CISCO leverages these types of
partnerships to improve learning outcomes and promote socioeco-
nomic development in communities around the world.”9
The various non-proit lobby groups, with their corporate part-
nerships, also identify this theme. For example, C21 — the Canadi-
an non-proit 21st
Century Learning lobby group — identiies pub-
lic-private partnerships in their list of goals for policy makers: “Foster
private-public partnerships with the knowledge sector and other
non-government organizations to meet the needs of students.”10
replacing teachers and increasing teacher productivity
Teachers are by and large the most expensive part of any school sys-
tem. It is therefore logical that attempts to cost cut will involve reduc-
ing teacher time.
The most obvious is to increase the ratio of students to teachers.
In a 21st
Century Learning paradigm, technology is used to facilitate
this process: online schools and classes replace face-to-face learning;
blended online/classroom models allow a larger student load per
teachers; online tutoring replaces teacher time with lower paid (and
often contracted out) instructors. Another tack is to replace teach-
er work with other adults: involvement of parents through blended
home / school models; replacement of teachers with paraprofession-
als; even the use of volunteers in classrooms.
Sometimes, this is described as increased productivity. Just as
technology has been used to speed up manufacturing process-
es, 21st
Century Learning through technology has the potential to
“speed up” learning or to increase learning productivity by increas-
ing the number of learners to each teacher. As Daphne Koller, a
Professor at Stanford University puts it: “As a society, we can and
should invest more money in education. But that is only part of the
solution. The high costs of high-quality education put it of limits to
large parts of the population, both in the United States and abroad,
and threaten the school’s place in society as a whole. We need to
12. 72
OUR SCHOOLS/OUR SELVES
signiicantly reduce those costs while at the same time improving
quality.
If these goals seem contradictory, let’s consider an example from
history. In the 19th
century, 60% of the American work force was in ag-
riculture, and there were frequent food shortages. Today, agriculture
accounts for less than 2% of the work force, and there are food sur-
pluses.”11
Daphne Koller is one of the founders of Coursera12
, a massive
online course delivery system in which tens of thousands of students
can take a university course at one time. She openly acknowledges
that massive course delivery may not be equivalent in quality to face-
to-face models, but without hesitation assumes there is simply no
money to teach the masses: “Needless to say, few countries can of-
fer university-level education for free. But as Internet access improves
globally, online education is becoming a very real solution for stu-
dents who might not have the prior experience needed to enroll in
local colleges, who can’t aford tuition, whose lifestyle does not permit
them the leisure to attend classes in person, or who can’t commute to
schools far away from home.”13
It is here that the contradictory nature of 21st
Century Learning be-
gins to show. On the one hand, cheaper and scaleable teaching with
technology might be possible. But surely, the standardization and rote
learning methods this requires will fail to produce “creative” and “in-
novative” students. Moreover, while cheaper teaching methods with
technology might be available, it does not mean they are desirable or
efective. Learning is not fertilizing and students are not corn.
the myth of personalization
Much of the hype of the 21st
Century Learning centres around“person-
alization”. Academics such as the UK’s Ken Robinson lament that exist-
ing forms of schooling are restrictive and standardized — deadening
children’s innate sense of curiosity. At the opening keynote of a recent
education conference, he said:
Humanity is essentially based on the principle of diversity.We are huge-
ly diferent in our talents, our passions, our interests, our motivations,
and our aspirations. The irony is, our education systems are predicated
on compliance and conformity, not on creativity and diversity. I believe
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there are opportunities now, with new technologies as well — not only,
but including new technologies — to personalize education for every
student in the system. Sometimes I hear people say,‘Well you can’t per-
sonalize for everybody. We can’t aford that.’ But I say we can’t aford
not to.’14
Personalization has a long history in the education ield and en-
compasses a wide range of ideas including mastery learning, self-
paced learning, and learning through multiple intelligences. It may
involve student choice, student pacing, and even student selected
learning objectives. However the term has been appropriated, partic-
ularly in the UK, to be more closely ailiated with computer mediated
personalized learning. This causes considerable confusion in the 21st
Century Learning world, as educators would likely provide a very dif-
ferent deinition than technology companies.
The term was identiied by David Miliband, then Minister of State
for School Standards, in a well known speech in 2004 about UK edu-
cation reform. The idea was further deined by British academic David
Hargreaves who coined the nine gateways to personalized learning. But
as the Alberta Teachers’Association points out:“The close association of
personalized learning and new technologies has been a central strand
since the inception of the idea, and is part of the all-embracing creed of
technocrats looking to enter system level educational reform. Of note is
that David Hargreaves was a former chair of the British Educational Com-
munications and Technology Agency, which was the UK government’s
main partner in the strategic development and delivery of its informa-
tion and communications technology (ICT) and e-learning strategy.”
What does technology facilitated personalization look like? It is
perhaps better described using the term ‘adaptive learning’, as it typ-
ically consists of a computer program which ofers adapted learning
pathways based on the student’s test outcomes. Students begin with
a test or assessment and the computer then develops a pathway of
lessons and future tests according to the student’s current abilities.
More sophisticated models will also include diferent potential out-
comes that the student may want to pursue. Nevertheless, to describe
this as“personalized”is a misnomer. In any computer learning system,
there are a ixed set of outcomes the program can teach, and there are
a ixed set of potential pathways a student can traverse.
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OUR SCHOOLS/OUR SELVES
There are more sophisticated versions that incorporate questions
and answers with peers, online discussion groups and other features
designed to mimic an in-school experience. Nevertheless, true per-
sonalization begins with the person, not with the tool.
The myth of personalization is used to make the 21st
Century Learn-
ing model attractive to parents and children. What could be better
than a school system designed to accommodate every child’s unique
needs? yet that level of personalization would take many resources
and would not necessarily involve any technology. It would require
smaller classes, more teachers and a greater range of educational
programs in all schools. Adaptive technologies are not personalized
learning. Adaptive and online education systems are used to scale in-
struction to large numbers of children, and although they may pro-
vide multiple pathways, they are by their preprogrammed nature re-
stricted in scope.
Case study: New york City
What would 21st
Century Learning look like in a school?
New york City’s iZone schools are an excellent example, as they
have already integrated many of the 21st
Century Learning ideas into
practice. These schools focus heavily personalization and technology
use.Their website states:“The Innovation Zone (iZone) is a community
of innovative Newyork City schools committed to personalizing learn-
ing. By meeting the needs, motivations and strengths of each child,
students will be better prepared for success in K-12, college and ca-
reer. Across the iZone, schools achieve personalization in a variety of
ways based on which ideas, technology and tools work best for their
school community.”
At the iSchool, we see the disconnect between the promises and
the reality of 21st
Century Learning. The NyC Department of Education
promises “personalizing learning to meet the needs, motivations and
strengths of individual students”. The reality is more computers and
fewer teachers.
In this iSchool classroom, students are learning on laptops and with
a teacher from another part of the city who teaches two groups simul-
taneously. This is because one school has no budget to ofer a small
class of Advanced Placement English. This is not a remote rural school
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with no access to transportation, but New york City, one of the most
densely populated cities in the world. There is, apparently, no money
for a teacher when there is clearly money for laptops, networking, and
video conferencing. No doubt the companies supplying the technol-
ogy are pleased: the budget for technology in New york City has in-
creased from $300,000 to $7.2 million in a single year.16
Newyork’s School of One ofers another interesting example. At the
outset, Mayor Bloomberg proudly stated,“The School of One [is] creat-
ing a 21st
century classroom to meet the individual needs and learning
styles of every student.”17
Pearson, which provides much of the technology used, also proudly
describes the program as a“case study”in their Leadership Summit Re-
port: ActivatingWhole System Reform to Achieve Higher Order Results:
After a 30 minute lesson, students move to an assessment task, the
small groups and stations approach means that other types of staf can
be used such as volunteers, student teachers, teaching assistants but
the key teacher roles are reserved for teachers. If the student scores well
enough they go onto another lesson, if not they go to guided practice
which is delivered via computers. During the online practice students
could be accessing an online practice program, a self-guided digital tu-
toring program or the services of Tutor Vista which provides access to
online tutors.
City Students take part in Virtual lessons. ny1.15
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OUR SCHOOLS/OUR SELVES
But here is what one parent witnessed when she visited a School of
One tour with Administrator Joel Rose:
...when I toured a School of One classroom about a year and a half ago,
at a school in Chinatown, I found the opposite to be true. First, Joel Rose
explained to the assorted visitors that because of the large class sizes in
NyC schools, individualized learning was impossible to achieve without
the use of technology:“No human being can meet all the needs of stu-
dents in a class of 25, so something else has to be done to personalize
instruction.”…
We then entered a large room, converted from the school’s library,
with about one hundred 7th
and 8th
graders seated at tables, most of
them staring at computers and doing multiple choice math problems. I
watched as one girl, seemingly in a trance, looked at the screen, and hit
A, B, C, D keys in turn, until she got the right answer to a multiple choice
question and moved onto the next one. Sadly, no adult but me seemed
to be paying any attention to this student to make sure she was trying
to think the problem through.
There were also two or three small groups of students, sitting at smaller
tables, with rather harassed looking teachers who were trying to teach
math, but allowed to spend only about ten to 15 minutes together be-
fore time ran out and a signal was made for the students to move back
to computers, or to another group led by a diferent teacher.
Rose explained that in the room, there were four certiied teachers, two
college students, and three high school students staing the room,
though it was hard to discern this. He said that each teacher specialized
in teaching 25% of math skills, and every student was assigned to par-
ticular groups or math problems by means of an algorithm, calculated
the night before, based on his or her performance from the day before.
But what I saw was not personalized instruction and engagement, but
many confused and somewhat dazed students, and much disruption,
with kids bumping into each other during abrupt scheduling changes,
as they moved around the crowded room at the same time.
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WINTER 2013
Rose also explained how the students also had access to“virtual”tutors
through their computers; but I didn’t see any sign of this. When I asked
him where these virtual tutors were located and what their credentials
were, he said he didn’t know, but they lived somewhere in the United
States and had been provided by contractors.18
The Canadian connection
The network promoting 21st
Century Learning is global. Canada has
its own domestic lobby groups. We also have several provincial gov-
ernments and educational organizations promoting this version of
education reform.
C21 Canada is one centralized hub of 21st
Century Learning advoca-
cy. They describe themselves:
C21 Canada is a national, not for proit organization that advocates for
21st
Century models of learning in education. The goal of C21 Canada is
to witness an accelerated pace of 21st
competencies, instructional prac-
tices, and digital resources and services being integrated into Canada’s
learning systems. C21 Canada is a unique blend of national education
associations and knowledge sector businesses united in their belief
that 21st
Century models of learning must be adopted in public educa-
tion on an urgent basis to position Canadians for economic, social and
personal success in the high skills, knowledge and innovation based
economy.19
Like the U.S. counterparts, they are funded primarily by business:
Dell, EF Educational Tours, IBM, McGraw-Hill Ryerson, Microsoft, Nel-
son Education, Oxford University Press, Pearson, Scholastic Education,
Smart Technologies; as well as two non-proit groups: the Canadian
School Board Association and the Canadian Education Association.
Their discussion document, Shifting Minds: A 21st
CenturyVision for
Public Education in Canada provides insight into the Canadian version
of the 21st
Century Learning web.
Despite its claim that “Canadians would prefer to see a national
learning vision founded on Canadian values and principles”21
the con-
tent is remarkably similar to what has been articulated in both the U.S.
and the UK.
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OUR SCHOOLS/OUR SELVES
There is the promotion of 21st
Century “competencies” which in-
clude: creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship; critical thinking;
collaboration; communication; character; cultural and ethical citizen-
ship; and computer and digital technologies.
“Radical transformation” is envisioned as “core elements of pub-
lic education that must undergo elements of transformation. This
systemic change must be strategic and focused to be successful.” It
includes curriculum overhaul, changes in pedagogy, modifying the
learning environment, changing school governance structures and
citizen engagement.22
Within each of these systemic changes, we ind:
“anytime, anywhere learning”, “personalized learning opportunities”
for “all students”, a commitment that “on-line learning, blended learn-
ing and virtual schools must be pursued as viable and relevant options
to meeting the needs of many learners”, and“assistive technologies to
support the diversiied needs of learners must be ubiquitous.”
And despite the previously claimed need to support“Canadian val-
ues”, the paper suggests,“School Leaders must model 21 Century skills
in daily decision making, develop school improvement plans relect-
ing 21st
Century learning goals and support procedures and practices
which promote the shift in mindset required to achieve 21 Century
learning in school.”
It is early days, but a few provincial governments are already em-
bracing the 21st
Century Learning mantra. British Columbia, for exam-
ple, is proposing the adoption of a new BC education plan23
, whose
principles clearly “align” with those of 21st
Century Learning. The plan
apparently originated in back room discussions after Valerie Hannon,
of Global Education Leaders Program, presented at the BC School Su-
perintendent’s conference in 200924
. From there, a paper developed
by the Premier’sTechnology Council reinforced the idea of“a vision for
21st
century education” in BC25
. The preamble describes the purpose
of the report: “This special report highlights a vision of education in
the 21st
century. As a result of our research, we believe that our system
must transform to properly serve the citizens of a knowledge-based
society.” Unsurprisingly, we see the same themes: personalized learn-
ing, online and blended learning, more technology.
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WINTER 2013
The true face of 21st
Century Learning
The radical transformation that 21st
Century Learning advocates want
is not value neutral. The base of the 21st
Century Learning network is
composed of the “knowledge” companies that fund and promote its
ideals. It is ultimately their interests that will be served.
When 21st
Century Learning
Inc. reaches our schools, the con-
sequences will be not the cre-
ativity and critical thinking that
are promised, but rather corpo-
rate proits and corporate ideas.
The 21st
Century Learning
project is extensive in its goals
and has the potential to signii-
cantly privatize many aspects
of public education. In essence,
the “secret agenda” is to replace
a public service with a public-
ly subsidized private education
marketplace, or what I term a
P4 — public purse, private proit.
This is exactly what Milton Fried-
man argued for.
Children, parents, teachers
and the public have everything to lose with this model. In the worst
case scenarios, excellent, comprehensive neighborhood schools with
a wide variety of face-to-face programming will be replaced with over-
crowded, technology based schools with signiicant public money go-
ing towards corporate proits.
Corporations like to make citizens believe that our interests are the
same: that people beneit when corporations are successful. But in
most instances, corporate interests and the interests of citizens want-
ing a strong, equitable, publicly funded and publicly controlled edu-
cation system, are in conlict.
Excessive technology is not better for learning. Fewer teachers is
not better for students. Overnight radical transformation is not a sen-
sible way to address the issues that do exist with our current school
The 21st
Century Learning
project is extensive in its goals
and has the potential to signii-
cantly privatize many aspects
of public education. In essence,
the“secret agenda”is to replace
a public service with a publicly
subsidized private education
marketplace, or what I term a
P4 — public purse, private prof-
it. This is exactly what milton
Friedman argued for.
20. 80
OUR SCHOOLS/OUR SELVES
systems. Turning schooling into primarily job preparation centres will
not produce a highly educated, active and democratic citizenry. Com-
puters will not personalize education.
21st
Century Learning should be seen for what it is: a highly efec-
tive corporate lobby campaign. Citizens, teachers, students and par-
ents should reject it. We have nothing to gain, and everything to lose.
TARA EhRCkE has been teaching at the university and secondary school
levels for over 10 years, and is currently serving as the President of the Great-
er Victoria Teachers’ Association. She writes regularly on education issues for
teacher newsmagazine and hosts a blog: www.stafroomconidential.com.
ENdNOTES
1 Canadians for 21st
Century Learning and Innovation (2012).“Shifting Minds: A Vision
and Framework for 21st
Century Learning in Canada”[Press release]. Retrieved from
http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/shifting-minds-a-vision-and-framework-
for-21st-century-learning-in-canada-1708614.htm
2 Powell, Lewis F. Jr (1971). Conidential Memorandum: Attack on American Free enter-
prise System. Retrieved from http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/?a=download&d=5971.
3 partnership for 21st
Century Skills (2012). Retrieved from http://www.p21.org/.
4 CISCO (2008). equiping every learner for the 21st
Century. Retrieved from http://www.
cisco.com/web/about/citizenship/socio-economic/docs/GlobalEdWP.pdf.
5 CBC News (2010).“Many teens’screen time exceeds guidance: study.”Retrieved from
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2010/07/13/screen-time-ontario-teen-health.
html.
6 Gutstein, Donald (2012).“Pearson’s plan to control education: Report to the B.C.
Teachers’Federation.”Retrieved from http://www.bctf.ca/uploadedFiles/Public/Issues/
Privatization/PearsonGutsteinReport.pdf
7 The White House, Oice of Science and Technology Policy (2011). 21st
Century Learn-
ing: A Digital Promise [Press release]. Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/
blog/2011/09/16/21st-century-learning-digital-promise.
8 The World Bank (2011). public-private partnerships in education – key issues. Retrieved
from http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTEDUCATION/0,,con-
tentMDK:20756253~menuPK:2448342~pagePK:210058~piPK:210062~theSiteP-
K:282386~isCURL:y,00.html.
9 CISCO (2012). tranforming education: public-private partnerships for education.
Retrieved from http://www.cisco.com/web/about/citizenship/socio-economic/GEI.
html.
10 Canadians for 21st
Century Learning & Innovation (2012).“Shifting Minds: A 21st
Cen-
tury Vision of Public Education for Canada.”Retrieved from http://www.c21canada.org/
21. 81
WINTER 2013
wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Summit-design-English-version-Sept.-26.pdf. Page 12.
11 Koller, Daphne (2011).“Death Knell for the Lecture: Technology as Passport
to Personalized Education.”new york times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.
com/2011/12/06/science/daphne-koller-technology-as-a-passport-to-personal-
ized-education.html?pagewanted=all.
12 See https://www.coursera.org/about/founders.
13 Koller, Daphne and Ng, Andrew (2012).“Log On and Learn: The Promise of Access
in Online Education.”Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/cour-
sera/2012/09/19/log-on-and-learn-the-promise-of-access-in-online-education/.
14 Robinson, Ken (2012). Opening Keynote, ISTE 2012. Quoted at http://digitalis.nwp.
org/site-blog/sir-ken-robinson-iste-2012-personalizing/3941.
15 Christ, Lindsay (2011).“City Students Take Part in Virtual Lessons.”Ny1. Retrieved
from http://manhattan.ny1.com/content/top_stories/135531/city-students-take-part-
in-virtual-lessons?ap=1&MP4.
16 Martinez, Barbara (2010).“Blending Computers Into Classrooms.”the Wall Street
journal. Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405270230477280457
5558383085638118.html.
17 New york City Government, Oice of the Mayor (2009). Statement of Mayor Michael
R. Bloombert on time Magazine’s recognition of New york City’s school of one among
its 50 best inventions of 2009 [Press release]. Retrieved from http://www.nyc.gov/por-
tal/site/nycgov/menuitem.c0935b9a57bb4ef3daf2f1c701c789a0/index.jsp?pageID=-
mayor_press_release&catID=1194&doc_name=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nyc.gov%2Fht-
ml%2Fom%2Fhtml%2F2009b%2Fpr492-09.html&cc=unused1978&rc=1194&ndi=1.
18 Haimson, Leonie (2012).“Joel Rose of the School of One returns…with a ruling
that ignores the city’s conlict of interest rules”[Blog post]. nyC public School parents:
independent voices of new york City public school parents. Retrieved from http://nycpub-
licschoolparents.blogspot.ca/2012/02/joel-rose-of-school-of-one-returnswith.html.
19 http://www.c21canada.org/about-us/.
20 Canadians for 21st
Century Learning and Innovation (2012).“Shifting Minds: A
Vision and Framework for 21st
Century Learning in Canada.”
21 Ibid., page 3.
22 Ibid., pages 15, 16.
23 See http://www.bcedplan.ca.
24 See http://gelponline.org/resources/transforming-education-case-study-british-co-
lumbia.
25 Premier’s Technology Council (2010).“A Vision for 21st
Century Education.”Retrieved
from http://www.gov.bc.ca/premier/attachments/PTC_vision%20for_education.pdf.