:: The 4th Era ::

World Class
How to Build a 21st-Century School System

In a world where the kind of things that are easy to teach and test have also become easy to digitise and automate, it will be our imagination, our awareness and our sense of responsibility that will enable us to harness the opportunities of the 21st century to shape the world for the better. Tomorrow’s schools will need to help students think for themselves and join others, with empathy, in work and citizenship. They will need to help students develop a strong sense of right and wrong, and sensitivity to the claims that others make. What will it take for schools to be able to do this? Andreas Schleicher, initiator of the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and an international authority on education policy, has accompanied education leaders in over 70 countries in their efforts to design and implement forward-looking policies and practices.

While improvement in education is far easier to proclaim than achieve, in this book Schleicher examines the many successes from which we can learn. This does not mean copying and pasting solutions from other schools or countries, but rather looking seriously and dispassionately at good practice in our own countries and elsewhere to understand what works in which contexts. Trained in physics, Schleicher offers a unique perspective on education reform: he convincingly argues that it should not necessarily be less of an art, but more of a science. “No one knows more about education around the world than Andreas Schleicher.

Full stop. For the first time, he's collected 20 years worth of wisdom in one place. World Class should be required reading for policy makers, education leaders and anyone who wants to know how our schools can adapt for the modern world – and help all kids learn to think for themselves.” – Amanda Ripley, author of The Smartest Kids in the World, a New York Times bestseller “[Schleicher]…grasps all the key issues, and does so through keeping his ear to the ground and by working out solutions jointly with a variety of leaders at all levels of the system, and in diverse societies” – Michael Fullan, Global Leadership Director, New Pedagogies for Deep Learning “Every visionary leader who is serious about improving student learning should add the data-driven World Class:

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https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?&tag=OECD

Among online course participants in a 2017 Georgia Tech Computer Science course, the percentage of women and ethnic minorities enrolled was double the national average. A new study suggests that the issues of diversity, discrimination, and equity in online courses go far beyond mere enrollment.

The classroom of the future, according to the world’s best teachers

By Global Teacher Prize | March 2nd 2018

In many parts of the world, today’s classrooms are almost unrecognisable compared to those of a decade ago.

Technology is changing the way students learn and teachers teach. From interactive white boards replacing chalk boards to tablets replacing desktop computers, schools are becoming increasingly digital.

Looking ahead to 2030, greater internet connectivity and smarter technologies promise to radically reshape the classroom of the future.

We asked the Global Teacher Prize 2018 Finalists to share their views on how they feel the classroom will change in the coming decade, and what this means for the role of the teacher.

What do you think will be the biggest difference between the classroom of 2030 and the classroom of today?

Many of our Finalists predict that the trend of young people effectively teaching themselves will continue.

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https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/

Education may be the passport to the future, but for all the good teaching out there, it would seem that schools are failing to impart some of the most important life skills, according to one educational expert.

Dr. Tony Wagner, co-director of Harvard's Change Leadership Group, argues that today’s school children are facing a “global achievement gap”, which is the gap between what even the best schools are teaching and the skills young people need to learn.

This has been exacerbated by two colliding trends: firstly, the global shift from an industrial economy to a knowledge economy, and secondly, the way in which today’s school children – brought up with the internet – are motivated to learn.

In his book The Global Achievement Gap, Wagner identifies seven core competencies every child needs in order to survive in the coming world of work.

1. Critical thinking and problem-solving

Teachers are the most important school-related factor influencing student learning. Teachers can help level the playing field and provide opportunities...

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https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?&tag=OECD

From Blade Runner to I, Robot, the big screens of Hollywood have predicted the rise of the machine. Automated intelligences will wait our tables and drive our cabs. They will serve us by performing menial tasks. But fact is now surpassing fiction. Automation has moved beyond the factory assembly line as computers are diagnosing illnesses, providing legal counsel, and make financial and political decisions. And if artificial intelligence really is faster, smarter and more reliable, what are we left with?

The answer is precisely that element which makes us less efficient and slower. Our humanity. But rather than being seen as a weakness, this is actually our strongest suit. It’s one we need to empower, because studies show that as the world becomes increasingly automated, computerised and digitalised, we are losing the very skills that define us as human. Just when we need them the most.

Our empathy is something that computers will always struggle to emulate. We need to celebrate what makes us different from even the smartest of the machines. While the future belongs to those who are able to navigate this increasingly digitalised world of ours, the choicest spoils will fall to those who can combine technological fluency with emotional intelligence.

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https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?&tag=Empathy

https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?&tag=Emotional+intelligence

Blockchain is often touted as a world-changing technology and in many ways, it is. However, it isn’t necessarily the cure-all panacea for the world’s problems that many evangelists would have you believe.

Here’s a breakdown of some of the issues with blockchain that anyone thinking of using it should understand. Starting with perhaps the biggest…

Blockchain has an environmental cost

At least, the way it is being used today, it does. Blockchain relies on encryption to provide its security as well as establish consensus over a distributed network. This essentially means that, in order to “prove” that a user has permission to write to the chain, complex algorithms must be run, which in turn require large amounts of computing power. Of course, this comes at a cost. Taking the most widely known and used blockchain as an example – Bitcoin – last year it was claimed that the computing power required to keep the network running consumes as much energy as was used by 159 of the world’s nations.

Yes, Bitcoin’s blockchain is a hugely valuable network – with a current market capacity at the time of writing of over $170 billion – so sophisticated and computationally intense security is essential. Smaller scale blockchains – such as those that an organization may deploy internally to securely monitor and record business activity – would consume a fraction of that. Nevertheless, it’s an important consideration and the environmental implications as well as the energy costs can’t be ignored.

Lack of regulation creates a risky environment

Read more in the article...

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https://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?&tag=blockchain

Artificial intelligence is infiltrating conversations and not just in reference to popular culture. Rachelle Dene Poth talks about AI and how education can benefit from it.