Out of the 2 million minutes available to teenagers in USA, India and China, how much time are spent studying?
The national prosperity of a country depends on the productivity of her citizens. For high value jobs, the ability to understand hard science and mathematics are critical. Is USA on track to produce the citizens she will need for global competition?
Here is a documentary: 2 million minutes
We know that electricity distribution lost a lot of energy. Generation of electricity also produce a lot of heat which we need to warm our homes. But because of job opportunities, we are living in large cities. Here are two thinkings which can keep our environment without lowering our living standards.
Decentralized electricity production using conventional generator
Add printable Solar Cells to ensure that these conventional generator needs not be too large.
To handle (CO2) and other human-generated waste, add a vertical farm which also produces the vegetable for local consumption.
From Wikipedia
Sicko is a documentary film by director Michael Moore, released in the United States and Canada on June 29th, 2007.[1] It investigates the United States health care system with a focus on the behavior of large health insurance companies, and contrasts the U.S. system with those of countries with universal health care coverage.
I wrote about the state of broadband in Australia. It was my speculation, no scientific method applied.
On the same track, if Australia were to be a US state, the broadband speed for our average home would be ranked 56 according to this report (via 2Cents Worth). (Assuming the average household will select the middle of the range of the plan and take into account the "shaping" every month when your monthly quota is reached.) See a sample price from one the many similar companies, TPG.com.au. The big name company is not any better, see Bigpond and Optus.
In yesterday's post, I listed the curriculum for preparing our children for future.
For the skills that to be considered important, (useful starting today and likely be essential in the future) see Tony Karrer's post on Needed Skills for New Media. [Copy below without permission]
* Work Integration — the ability to leverage social media and personal learning as part of problem solving
* Meta-Learning — the ability to look at your own work and learning processes to continuously identify improvement opportunities
* Simulation — the ability to interpret and construct dynamic models of real-world processes
* Appropriation — the ability to meaningfully sample and remix content as part of work and learning
* Scanning — the ability to quickly scan from a wide variety of sources, to focus on salient details in order to maintain a broad picture and also to focus as needed to salient details.
* Distributed Cognition — the ability to interact meaningfully with tools that expand mental capacities
* Collective Intelligence — the ability to pool knowledge and compare notes with others toward a common goal
* Judgment — the ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility of different information sources
* Transmedia Navigation — the ability to follow the flow of information and conversation across multiple modalities
* Networking Building — the ability to build a network of people who can help with a wide variety of needs
* Network Access - the ability to quickly access your network for a variety of different kinds of needs in different ways using different tools
* Negotiation — the ability to travel across diverse communities, discerning and respecting multiple perspectives, and grasping and following alternative norms.
* Knowledge Work - the ability to search for, synthesize, and disseminate information as part of work processes that captures personal value, builds network, and collects appropriate feedback
Before revealing what students must do, here is the list of what students must NOT do:
No holidays
Learning is human nature. We breathe continuously, so is learning. There should not be any term-break, weekends or holidays. Learning should occur 24/7 everyday every year continuous both online and offline. Day time is continuous. Stock market in HongKong closes and then open in London and then in New York. Things are happening continuously.
School is not THE school
Learning occurs anywhere, anytime. School is a meeting place. One of many other meeting places. School helps organise learning and support learning. Some learning may occur at school, most learning at places (including virtual spaces) other than school. School may be a virtual space too.
Learning, playing and working have NO distinction
Take preparing lunch as an example. Preparing the daily lunch is work, but is also learning because we should continuously look for improvement, collect data about the food, the preparation process. As noted before, school is NOT a specific place. Lunch can be prepared in kitchen, in park or in a commerical kitchen. Obviously, it should be and is fun too!
Here is the list of what I believe should be the curriculum in no particular order:
Languages
Minimum four languages: English, Chinese, one other human language (including sign language) and a scripting or programming language.
Reason:
English is now the default for online communication, business transactions, major publications...
Chinese is the language of one quarter of the world's population. (Still need more convincing?) China will be the economic power house in this century.
One other language is for appreciation of world diversity.
These three languages should achieve fluent speaking level BEFORE age 5. Children learn languages easily when young. These languages must continue throughout the formal education years for further development and consolidation. May be they can drop them at University level.
The scripting/programming language is for discipline training and procedural thinking development. Should start at beginning of secondary school if not earlier.
Communication skill
Knowing a language is not the same as having the ability to communicate effectively. Students should be able to communicate effectively in different genres of expression for appropriate audience under different situation using different technologies including face to face, telephone, teleconference (audio only and audio+video), web-based technologies including discussion forum, blogs, wiki, chat, ....
Reason:
Examples speak louder.
Self Entertaining Development
One musical instrument (including human vocal), one non-digital art (painting, pottery, photograph, sculpture, ..), one sport and one mental game (such as chess, bridge, or other form of quiz/puzzle).
Reason:
All work no play make Albert a dull man!
Evidence-based data-based learning
Scientific method (or the subject matter themselves although different subject matter are used as examples of practising Scientific method). Data collection, analysis and presentation (numeracy and mathematics are learnt under data processing). Note: "Religious Studies" is ABSOLUTELY not allowed to be "taught" in any school at any time.
Reason:
Today's world is filled by miracles created by the relentless application of scientific methods. All technological achievements human has made, with no exception, are based on principled understanding of the world. This will not change in the future. A sound basis to tackle problem with evidence, data and disciplined methodology is critical for future citizen to solve unforeseen problems and challenges.
Authentic learning
Learning does not occur in vacuum. When we want to achieve a goal, a game goal or a life goal, we need skill and knowledge. That's the best time to learn. Learning is organised as tasks which lead to an overall goal aligned with learner's interest. Like many times in life, we sometime practice and rehearse. These can be done with simulators or role playing games.
Final Remarks
You may notice that I do not include any traditional subjects in the above list. Not that I don't believe they are important. I just don't believe compartmentisation of subject areas are effective strategies. By organising learning goals which require understanding of culture issues will cover traditional subjects such as history or literature. By organising investigative activities will cover subjects such as chemistry, physics, mathematics and so on. A collection of mathematical games (covered in the self entertaining section) will cover interesting subject areas such as cosmology in Physics, Fractals etc in Mathematics and other interests.
Please let me know what you think? Am I too radical? or too conservative?
Our education system is too old to meet today's requirement.
This is likely to be a post not you would have expected. But just stay with me for a while.
The article (an article on an article originally published by Business Week) is about innovation processes. First the classic Six Sigma is considered not working by way of the lack of innovation of 3M:
The magazine illustrates the ramifications of ill-directed Six Sigma rigor by juxtaposing the leadership philosophies of James McNerney and George Buckley at 3M and showing how an over-emphasis on process-quality led to “sameness” and the gradual waning of the company’s innovative power. Process-obsession may in fact be opposed to “the new age of creativity” that propels hyper-customization and attempts to save brands from the “death spiral of commoditization.” If you measure everything you manage, risky ideas will not spark.
1. Network innovation – “very welcome” vs. “not invented here”
2. User first! – design around the needs of the user not the demands of the technology.
3. Discover untapped markets – listen to what your customers do not say rather than relying solely on the requirements they articulate
4. Fail wisely – allow failure but don’t make the same mistake twice
a future whererepetitive tasks will be replaced by computer and machinery, creativity and innovation are critical, communication skill, team work and problem solving skill are important, productivity must be so high that an average people will support the needs of parents who had inadequately funded their retirement and children of their own
A previous post here.
Among all the interesting questions James Kariuki posted, here is another one: What should students know in order to ask questions about the future?
I would rephrase the question as "What should students know in order to be effective in the future?"
Our world is changing, fast, very fast! Information is doubling every couple of years. This is exponential growth! While it is not true that whatever we know today, it will become irrelevant in couple of years time. But it is true that whatever we know today will be only a smaller part of we know in a couple of years.
The job market in the future will consist of jobs that have not been invented yet. How could we prepare today's students for tomorrow's world when we do not know what will happen tomorrow?
See some of my thinking in Learning for 2020
