A Quantum Leap into a Global Future

Beyond the daily struggles of kids, teachers, parents, and schools, a Big Picture is waiting to emerge.  The world is changing so fast that we are moving away from the status quo at an unprecedented rate, and, like the internet, embracing global ideas of cooperation, collaboration, and synergy as the new mechanisms of progress.  The 21st century skills we have been talking about for decades are leading us forward as the world picture shifts drastically and we are forced to consider, individually and collectively, our role in global change.   Right this moment, around the world, new designs, new ideas, and new schools are being created to meet the challenges of the new century.  The photo at the right is from a new school in Indonesia, where our dreams for the future are alive and well...

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks to Bollywood actor Aamir Khan during a television programme on education in Mumbai July 18, 2009.

REUTERS/Arko Datta (INDIA ENTERTAINMENT POLITICS EDUCATION)

The photo above is an image from the future... A time when the American Secretary of State sits down to discuss the ongoing advancement of global education as one major purpose of her job.  We’re not there yet, but isn’t it nice to think that soon we may well be?

Moving us toward that time is the business of the Green Revolution, a worldwide wave of social change hot on the heels of the Information Age. “Green Generation” is the theme for the fortieth anniversary of Earth Day in 2010, and one of the principles of the international movement is this: Creation of a new green economy that lifts people out of poverty by creating millions of quality green jobs and transforms the global education system into a green one. That’s the next stage, where the way we educate our children becomes the KEY to world change.

The photo above shows peer-to-peer learning at the Sinarmas World Academy in Indonesia, from the website of Fielding-Nair International, an American architectural firm which specializes in reinventing schools for the 21st century.  Follow their link to find photos and ideas from projects not only in Asia, but also in Australia, New Zealand, Qatar, Kazakhstan, India, Canada, and the United States.  The notable aspect about these new schools is not the buildings themselves but the concept of redesigning space to support new ways of interacting and learning among teachers, students, and even parents and community--true Schools of the Future.

'We are living
in exponential times'

“Do You Know” is a video that swept the web last year with its eye-opening statistics, proof of the speed-of-light movement that is rapidly making ALL old ways of doing business, especially school, utterly obsolete.  The video was cocreated by Dr. Scott McLeod, an education professor at Iowa State University and a leading national voice for integrating technology with learning.  Check out his blog, Dangerously Irrelevant, for clear thinking on the impact of technology on teaching.  “What does it all mean?”  We need to make drastic changes in school practice right now even to approach global potentials...