One ironical consequence of the drive for so-called higher standards is that students are too busy to think.
John Holt , Education critic (1959)

inequity

The Ingenuity Gap: Facing the Economic, Environmental, and Other Challenges of an Increasingly Complex and Unpredictable Future

Mon, 03/03/2008 - 17:02 -- admin

Despite all of society’s advances, our problems proliferate. Wars abound, environmental degradation accelerates, economies topple overnight, and pandemics such as AIDS and tuberculosis continue to spread. The Internet and other media help to disseminate knowledge, but they’ve also created an “info-glut” and left us too little time to process it. What’s more, advances in technology have made the world so bewilderingly fast-paced and complex that fewer people are able even to grasp the problems, let alone generate solutions.

Children, Families, Social Capital and Education in Go-Go Capitalism: A Dispatch from America's Richest Country

The rise of the consumer society is a powerful force and, in partnership with technological change, it is reshaping the nature of community, family, childhood and education. Educational researcher Terry Ryan discusses societal problems created by the modern economy and then reminds us that the these social trends are not beyond human control. Ryan argues that change brings opportunities and despite the serious challenges facing communities, there is much reason to be hopeful and excited about the future.

For young people to thrive in highly flexible, changing environments, they need to have grown up in -Terence Ryan

Mon, 02/18/2008 - 17:33 -- admin
For young people to thrive in highly flexible, changing environments, they need to have grown up in open and challenging environments that stimulate their ability to be creative and thoughtful. It is rare for such challenging learning environments to coexist within institutions driven by a time-clock or a mass of standard operating procedures.

As children spend more time in structured learning environments ...they feel comfortable in settings-Terence Ryan

Mon, 02/18/2008 - 17:32 -- admin
As children spend more time in structured learning environments ...they feel comfortable in settings where things are structured and controlled. In contrast, a more open and risky environment intimidates them... [in this way] we are creating a potentially dangerous disconnect between the learning environments we are providing for children and the economy we are creating for them to enter into as adults.

The shift from a factory-based to a computer-based-Arthur Schlesinger

Mon, 02/18/2008 - 17:23 -- admin
The shift from a factory-based to a computer-based economy is more traumatic even than our great-grandparents' shift from a farm-based economy. The Industrial Revolution extended over generations and allowed time for human and institutional adjustment. The Computer Revolution is far swifter, more concentrated, and more dramatic in its impact.

Companies are being forced to think differently.... …The high-rise pyramids of hierarchical corpor-Daniel Yergin

Mon, 02/18/2008 - 17:18 -- admin
Companies are being forced to think differently.... …The high-rise pyramids of hierarchical corporate structures are being transformed into the low-rise of the flatter organization -- less bureaucracy, more teamwork, and a greater dispersion of responsibility, information and decision-making.

Catching the Knowledge Wave: The Knowledge Society and the Future of Education

Thu, 02/07/2008 - 14:08 -- admin

Jane Gilbert says that knowledge is now a verb, not a noun – something we do rather than something we have – and explores the ways our schools need to change to prepare people to participate in the knowledge-based societies of the future.
Read our staff review of Catching the Knowledge Wave?, below.

About the author
Jane Gilbert is a chief researcher with the New Zealand Council for Educational Research. She has a background in teaching at both secondary and tertiary levels.

Related items

The New Economy's Impact on Learning

The last decades of the 20th century saw countries around the world make the dramatic transition from closed, state-dominated, economies towards open, free-market, economies. This article explores the impact that the shift towards a more knowledge-based economy has had on Americans and, in particular, the implication for children’s learning.
(A paper by Terry Ryan)

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