Dr. Tony Wagner, co-director of Harvard’s Change Leadership Group has identified what he calls a “global achievement gap,” which is the leap between what even our best schools are teaching, and the must-have skills of the future:

1. Critical thinking and problem-solving
2. Collaboration across networks and leading by influence
3. Agility and adaptability
4. Initiative and entrepreneurialism
5. Effective oral and written communication
6. Accessing and analyzing information
7. Curiosity and imagination

I would also venture to add digital literacy

“The mediocre teacher tells.
The good teacher explains.
The superior teacher demonstrates.
The great teacher inspires.”

William Arthur Ward

I just signed up for the alpha testing for Qwiki.

It looks interesting but is it real??

Qwiki at TechCrunch Disrupt from Qwiki on Vimeo.

I then found this article on Qwiki: The Startup That Won TechCrunch Disrupt–Qwiki–Was Just Cloned With Only 321 Lines Of Code
Read more…

See fqwiki in action

This RSA animation of Dan Pink’s talk, illustrates the hidden truths behind what really motivates us at home and in the workplace.
www.theRSA.org

Can we take this motivation of Self Direction, Mastery and Making a Contribution and use it in the classroom?

I am not a fan of the old class lecture. There are people writing blogs and producing YouTube videos that will do a better job than I.
Step by step instruction has it’s place (a place to start) but again there are massive amounts on demos on YouTube.

Can we unleash the educational system to move from grades as motivation to:

• Autonomy – self direction for engagement,
• Mastery – get better at stuff and
• Purpose?