“There is nothing more resistant to change than the public school system.” - Joel Klein
Joel Klein is the CEO of Amplify, an innovative education technology
company. He was the Chancellor of
New York City Public Schools. He
was on the Foreign Relations Committee that described our public school systems
as national security risks. In
other words, he is a mover and shaker in education.
Much of what he says about education is spot on
correct. The same can be said
about U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and former Governor Jeb
Bush. They can all agree that
accountability with standardized testing is narrowing the curriculum and
forcing teachers to teach to the test, and still push policies that make it the
law of the land.
In a recent article with Ed Tech Magazine, however, he stuck to areas that we can mostly agree on. 21st century learning is not
simply about adopting technology for education. The right innovative technologies for education are tools
that empower students to learn. From
there, Joel Klein offered 5 key reasons why our national school system is
poised to take the next step toward full-scale technology integration.
1. The
Common Core
2. Economics
3. More
Blended Instruction
4. Younger
Instructors
5. Investor
Interest
Official Coach Lerning Academies is a 21st
century concept of education and has been influenced by all of these reasons.
1. Common Core
Common Core is a set of education standards adopted by
states. I remember being excited
about Core Knowledge and the adoption of state standards.
For the first time, educators were able to agree on at least a state
level what students should know and be able to do at the end of each grade
level. Common Core brings this uniformity to the national level.
Official Coach Lerning Academies does not lock students at
grade levels by age. We do,
however, assess mastery by comparing actual performance with the Common Core
and state standards. This makes
our program universally acceptable across states.
2. Economics
Our current education system is based on a late 19th
century industrial age based model of schooling meant to prepare students for
simple factory work. It is based
on an economic system of mass production, monopoly, and profit maximization
through cost cutting and reduction of staff. That system of schooling is not working well in the 21st
century.
Innovation in technology has brought us Amazon, Google,
Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft.
Students now have direct access to information anywhere (except most
public schools) through tablets and smart phones. Technology has also provided analytics that measure
individual student progress as it happens. No longer need to wait for the return of state tests to know
how a student performed the previous school year. 21st century is not about mass production of
students.
Official Coach Lerning Academies provide options for
students to chose from to personalize their learning. Students also have a say in their challenged-based
projects. Mobile learning
technologies also provide flexibility that includes universal membership in all
of the academies as opposed to a single brick and mortar schoolhouse.
3. More Blended
Learning.
Official Coach Lerning Academies is a firm supporter of
blended learning. Official
Coach Lerning Academies is a 21st century concept of education. We blend online gamified story lines
with project-based mastery at our centers. In one form or another, we provide education 24 hours a day
for seven days a week all year.
And students have universal membership at all of the academies!
4. Younger
Instructors
As an educator, I know better than to discount the value of
veteran master teachers. Younger
does not mean better. The next
generation of educators, however, must be trained differently. The focus must be on students learning
and not teachers covering content.
Future educators must be facilitators and coaches. They must have, among others skills,
the ability to code and create interactive digital desktop authorship products.
Official Coach Lerning Academies are regionally accredited
independent study schools with facilitators and tutors to guide students
through their education experience.
5. Investor
Interest
There has been significant interest and investment in
developing educational technologies.
I will honestly state that Official Coach Lerning Academies has not yet
develop a single innovative software for education. We rely on what has already been created by others and out
on the market. We do not intend to
recreate the wheel. Instead, we
rely on 21st century mashup of technologies to make what is uniquely
our own. Anyone can do it. At the very least, we aim to show that
we can do it.
We will continue to explore the uniqueness of Official Coach
Lerning Academies in future posts. Thank you for visiting. To learn more, please
continue to visit our blog and follow Official Coach Lerning Academies on Twitter and Facebook. Thank you.
