Eclectic Technology

How do you train an innovator? Which schools are doing it better than others? Are teachers equipped with the new skills required to educate students in this decade?

This post explores these questions and offers five "essential education and parenting practices that develop young people's capacities to innovate." The first one is "Learning to work collaboratively (innovation is a team sport!)."

The concepts of information and knowledge are also explored, beginning with the statement "Information may be free but knowledge also includes understanding, problem solving, communication, and collaboration, none of which is free." Are we addressing these 21st century skills as our students move from elementary school through high school, or our teachers "...compelled to teach to the tests for accountability purposes..."?

Additional topics are also explored, including AP testing (and the move to have students "demonstrate that they can apply knowledge learned and not merely regurgitate it" to the fact that many when you look at CEO's of most major companies "the majority did not go to an Ivy League school for undergraduate..."

An article that will make you think... 

The 21st Century Fluencies are not about technical prowess, they are critical thinking skills, and they are essential to living in this multimedia world. We call them fluencies for a reason. To be literate means to have knowledge or competence. To be fluent is something a little more, it is to demonstrate mastery and to do so unconsciously and smoothly.