CNN offers a summary of this week’s Time magazine cover story, How to Build a Student for the 21st Century.
This is a story about the big public conversation the nation is not having about education, the one that will ultimately determine … whether an entire generation of kids will fail to make the grade in the global economy because they can’t think their way through abstract problems, work in teams, distinguish good information from bad or speak a language other than English
Watch for the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, due for release soon, to kick off a robust public discussion with and without educators leading it. Follow the links to register for prompt notice of the report release.
I wonder what the commissioners will say about uses of electronic instruction and learning (as with mobile PCs) in schooling and other education?
“Rainbows End” by Vernor Vinge comes pretty close for me.
I’ve only read Patrick Shepherd’s (http://hyperpat.wordpress.com/) and other reviews of Rainbows End of May 30, 2006 at http://www.amazon.com/Rainbows-End-Vernor-Vinge/dp/0312856849. I recognize and appreciate descriptions of fabric computers, all time wireless connections, etc. and look forward to seeing them beyond engineering design models. I’ll see if I can find and read a copy of the book to understand more fully the author’s vision of education. It must be expansive!