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TOGETHER. SHAPING THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION
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Why do our schools struggle to improve?
One of the critical reasons is that today's schools were not designed to achieve what we are currently asking them to do. Today's schools were designed over a century ago to emulate the efficient factories of that era. By standardizing the way they taught and tested students, school systems could educate children like standardized plants produced widgets. The model - in which we batch students up in classrooms and teach the same thing to all of them in exactly the same way - worked well enough when most students went directly to industrial jobs.
But back in 1900 only 17% of all jobs required knowledge workers, whereas more than 60% do today.
Today nothing in industry functions as it did back then. We now need students to master more challenging subject matter and develop more specialized skills. In the knowledge economy, people need to be more flexible on the one hand, while on the other they also benefit from cultivating their individual talents and interests.
Therefore factory-style education falls short today as it is an ineffective way for most children to learn and maximize their potential. So, while the world has changed, our schools have not. As every parent knows, each child has different learning needs at different times. If we hope to have all children succeed in school and in life, then we need a system that can customize for different student needs - the exact opposite of standardization.
Education Whitepaper, April 2013
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" The rise of Open Educational Resources as a digital learning tool is transforming the modern-day classroom. To cope with this 21st Century "sea change in education," educators have been expected to master constantly evolving technology, new sources of content and revolutionary delivery systems.
But now there is help. Marianas Electronics in partnership with 3W Education Consulting Group brings together a collection of some of the nation's most respected experts with backgrounds in teaching, OER, administration, IT, EdTech, and digital learning infrastructure support. We speak your language. And we are committed to making your school's transformation to digital learning a success. Join with us in this effort and become a Sponsor or just forward this message to family, friends and associates."BECOME A SPONSOR OF ReTHINK EDUCATION
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 The goal of ReTHINK Education is to help make teaching and learning as engaging, efficient and cost-effective as possible for educators. We work with schools, both public and private, to help find solutions, while understanding that there are limited resources and budget available. This can be accomplished through the implementation of 21st Century education methods. Simply, replacing Old Tools with New Tools. ReTHINK Education Report will strive to raise awareness of the new technology available to support schools in personalized, flexible and cost-effective modern learning strategies. Moving schools from the 20th Century into the 21st Century. |
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Modern Information Technology Explained
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 The ReTHINK Education Roadmap is designed to help you understand what is necessary to bring schools, both public and private, into a 21st Century learning environment. How K-12 school educators can plan for the transition to a rich, interactive, and personalized digital learning environment which will save hundreds of thousands of dollars over many years. The ReTHINK Education Roadmap offers advice and considerations to help schools ensure robust and persistent connectivity to the digital content, understand the perspectives of the variety of device users in a school environment, and plan for the transition to digital learning. This ReTHINK Education Roadmap contains six major guideposts that will be explored in detail over the course of several eMail ReTHINK Education Reports to follow in the coming weeks. Engage - Extend - Enhance Learning beyond the classroom
* Making the transition
* Content
Digital Text Books
Open Educational Resources (OER)
Online Learning
Blended Classroom
Flipped Classroom
* Connectivity at school
* Connectivity beyond school
* Device perspectives
* Start with an Assessment
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ReTHINK EDUCATION REPORTS INTRODUCTION
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Schools are Stuck in the 20th Century
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 Modern information technology has dramatically improved our ability to work, get health care, stay in touch with family and friends, and inform and entertain ourselves. In only a decade, the Internet has fundamentally transformed the way we live as consumers, as citizens, as patients, and as family members. However, information technology has been slower to produce meaningful systemic improvements in K-12 education. The dynamic in many classrooms around the country remains decidedly 20th Century: teach the paper textbook, test the students at a fixed point in time, and move on. There also remains a profound disconnect between the learning that happens in school and that which takes place out of school. Educators are challenged to satisfy the learning needs of today's diversity of students while meeting the increasingly complex definition of what it means to be educated in the 21st Century. Two recent indepth government analyses, the National Education Technology Plan and the National Broadband Plan, called for leveraging the best of modern technology to transform how teachers teach and how students learn and for improving access and equality of opportunity for learners of all ages. At 3W we call this ReTHINK Education. |
COMING IN THE NEXT ISSUE:
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What Are Digital Textbooks
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Including a look at the substantial cost-savings of digital textbooks and multimedia OER material over traditional content.
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