Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Preparing Students for the Future? - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher

Preparing Students for the Future? - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher:

Teacher in a Strange Land



Preparing Students for the Future?

I just finished The Connected Educator: Learning and Leading in a Digital Age, certainly the most useful book I've read lately on how to cope with might be ahead in education. Whenever prognosticators discuss our collective ed-future--21st century learning, the disrupted class, the shift-- there are snazzy phrases and new, improved strategies to make learning more efficient. Higher scores in less time at lower cost, competitive learning through better tools.
Authors Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and Lani Ritter Hall write instead about human relationships, using new tools and ideas to build networks and communities that are well-designed but evolving, collaborative and sustainable. These groups focus on the work educators themselves believe is most important. The text is filled with probing questions and illustrative stories, but nary a value-added chart. Favorite section heading? Put People Before