Tag Archives: education

Student group work is TRICKY.

Well, you can’t go from zero to 100 with people, can you? I really wanted to get the coding club working on real projects, have them create a portfolio deliverable/accomplishment they could be proud of. Something beyond achieving level 72 in Code Combat, which was getting a bit repetitive…maybe building a computer game together? Yeah!  AllContinue reading “Student group work is TRICKY.”

What are so-called Future Skills?

What are the critical future skills that will give students the best chance of being successful and carving out the future they want, in light of the changing world of work and the new ways technology is replacing human labor? There are many studies about the skills needed, and while they use different terms, you’ll see the sameContinue reading “What are so-called Future Skills?”

Device time for my kids…and for me

As a parent of elementary and middle schoolers, the device conundrum is hitting home! I think we’re too lax, and writing this out as a way to figure it out. I think the best place to start is on myself.  Monkey See, Monkey, Do, after all. Thoughts on screen time for grownups. I was goingContinue reading “Device time for my kids…and for me”

Cognitive Computing Age – think beyond school PART 1

Thanks to Bruce Dixon of Pecha Kucha Santa Barbara for choosing me to be a presenter at the February event, which happend last night! It was a difficult-but-very-useful-and-rewarding exercise to pare down my ‘big idea’ to 20 slides, 6 minutes 40 seconds (Pecha Kucha is 20×20= 20 slides, 20 secs per slide). I got someContinue reading “Cognitive Computing Age – think beyond school PART 1”

Takeaways from Sal Kahn’s talk – Education Reimagined

Teri Moore, author of The Secular Homeschooler– a Nonreligious Guide for Helping Kids Build Competence, Independence and Ethics Outside of a School Environment (and a personal source of insights for me on how to engender real, outside-the-box learning), asked me to tell her about the recent talk I went to – Sal Kahn from the Kahn Academy:Continue reading “Takeaways from Sal Kahn’s talk – Education Reimagined”

Human Skills for the Machine Age

One aspect of the way one learns and researches in ‘Modern Times’ is that it’s disjointed and non-linear…and sometimes old school?  Today, for example, sitting on the shelf in the GEM office, was the 2014 book “The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress and Prosperity in a time of Brilliant Technologies,” by Erik Brynjolfsson and AndrewContinue reading “Human Skills for the Machine Age”

Do you know your child’s ability gaps, and what are you doing to help?

I’ve been diving into the current and future skills gap, and what I need to do as a parent outside of formal schooling to supplement my kids’ learning. There’s no way I’m counting on public education to provide the skills, learning and character traits they’ll need to thrive as the Cognitive Era advances. What about you?

What Should We Teach Our Kids, Now that Knowledge is Obsolete? Part 2

To follow on this initial post, as well as this one and this one, I’m getting somewhere when it comes to understanding the skills that are mission-critical for the Cognitive Era. It is rather like drinking from a firehose, going out and searching online, following a million breadcrumbs in various directions! A lot of whatContinue reading “What Should We Teach Our Kids, Now that Knowledge is Obsolete? Part 2”

What Matters is What You Can Do with What You Know. (modern skills)

Quoting Will Richardson: The source of true differentiation between people now lies in figuring things out as opposed to finding things out – As author Tony Wagner says, “It no longer matters what you know. What matters is what you can do with what you know.”