How Would You Reimagine Learning?
Filed by Sarah J. at 11:46 am on March 17, 2010 in Civic Engagement, Policy, Schools • Leave a comment
New federal online portal asks the public for educational solutions and design ideas.
Over at ed.gov they’ve rolled out a new website designed to encourage educational innovation and collaboration.
You may remember the White House earlier this month asked for input on the meaning of a 21st century education. Responses posted online include: a two-way conversation between teachers and students; communicate ideas using technology; being able to afford college; acknowledging that all students are different, learn in different ways and at different speeds; and replacing the chalkboard with an interactive white board.
But that was just the beginning.
With a new online tool called the Open Innovation Portal, the Education Department hopes to tap into the expertise of educators and researchers. The new portal provides a space to come together with entrepreneurs and funders to exchange ideas and partner in educational innovation and design.
As Education Secretary Arne Duncan wrote on the portal’s blog when announcing the launch:
“By connecting an idea from a teacher in Maine to a principal in Oklahoma, or a teacher-entrepreneur in North Dakota with a foundation in New York, the Portal will be a national marketplace of ideas of how we can ensure that every American child will graduate ready to succeed in college and the workplace.”
Policymakers acknowledge that educational innovation must reach beyond the classroom. Anyone is invited to participate in the portal, and success depends on the ability to build these partnerships.
Registered users can post “solutions” to various educational challenges, and these solutions will be shared publicly on the site. Challenges can also be sponsored by others in the community.
The government is also investing $650 million in an Innovation Fund, just announced last week. “i3,” as the fund will be known, will provide grants to school districts and partners to “support the development of path-breaking new ideas, the validation of approaches that have demonstrated promise, and the scale-up of our nation’s most successful and proven education innovations.”
Applications, due in May, are available here: http://www.ed.gov/programs/innovation/index.html
“What is clear,” writes MacArthur’s Director of Education Connie Yowell, blogging over at DMLcentral, “is that there is a growing understanding of the need to reimagine learning in this country in this century. With that deeper understanding comes a growing demand for change. If those of us who’ve worked hard in the digital media and learning field contribute to, and collaborate with, meaningful efforts in the research, practitioner, and policy spaces, I believe this is shaping up to be a unique moment of opportunity.”
What do you think? How would you reimagine learning in the 21st century? Share your ideas in comments.
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