"AUTHOR: ISSIE LAPOWSKY. ISSIE LAPOWSKY DATE OF PUBLICATION: 05.04.15.
05.04.15
TIME OF PUBLICATION: 7:00 AM.
7:00 AM
INSIDE THE SCHOOL SILICON VALLEY THINKS WILL SAVE EDUCATION
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Students in the youngest class at the Fort Mason AltSchool help their teacher, Jennifer Aguilar, compile a list of what they know and what they want to know about butterflies. CHRISTIE HEMM KLOK/WIRED
SO YOU'RE A parent, thinking about sending your 7-year-old to this rogue startup of a school you heard about from your friend's neighbor's sister. It's prospective parent information day, and you make the trek to San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood. You walk up to the second floor of the school, file into a glass-walled conference room overlooking a classroom, and take a seat alongside dozens of other parents who, like you, feel that public schools-with their endless bubble-filled tests, 38-kid classrooms, and antiquated approach to learning-just aren't cutting it.
At the same time, you're thinking: this school is kind of weird.
On one side of the glass is a cheery little scene, with two teachers leading two different middle school lessons on opposite ends of the room. But on the other side is something altogether unusual: an airy and open office with vaulted ceilings, sunlight streaming onto low-slung couches, and rows of hoodie-wearing employees typing away on their computers while munching on free snacks from the kitchen. And while you can't quite be sure, you think that might be a robot on wheels roaming about.
Then there's the guy who's standing at the front of the conference room, the school's founder. Dressed in the San Francisco standard issue t-shirt and jeans, he's unlike any school administrator you've ever met. But the more he talks about how this school uses technology to enhance and individualize education, the more you start to like what he has to say.
And so, if you are truly fed up with the school stat
Web application(networked studentcomponent)
Tool usedin test case
Student activitylevel of structure
Social bookmarking (RSS)
Delicioushttp://delicious.com/
Set up the account
Subscribe to each others accounts
Bookmark and read 10 reliable websites that reflect the content of chosen
topic
Add and read at least 3 additional sites each week.
News and blog alert (RSS)
Google Alerthttp://www.google.com/alerts
Create a Google Alert of keywords associated with selected topic
Read news and blogs on that topic that are delivered via email daily
Subscribe to appropriate blogs in reader
News and blog reader (RSS)
Google Readerhttp://reader.google.com
Search for blogs devoted to chosen topic
Subscribe to blogs to keep track of updates
Personal blog (RSS)
Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com
Create a personal blog
Post a personal reflection each day of the content found and experiences
related to the use of personal learning environment
Students subscribe to each others blogs in reader
Internet search (information management, contacts, and synchronous
communication)
Google Scholarhttp://scholar.google.com/
Conduct searches in Google Scholar and library databases for
scholarly works.
Bookmark appropriate sites
Consider making contact with expert for video conference
Podcasts (RSS)
iTunesUhttp://www.apple.com/itunes/whatson/itunesu.html
Search iTunesU for podcasts related to topic
Subscribe to at least 2 podcasts if possible
Video conferencing (contacts and synchronous communication)
Skypehttp://www.skype.com
Identify at least one subject matter expert to invite to Skype with
the class.
Content gathering/ digital notebook
Evernotehttp://evernote.com/
Set up account
Use Evernote to take notes on all content collected via other
tools
Content synthesis
Wikispaceshttp://www.wikispaces.com
Post final project on personal page of class
wiki
The process and tools are overwhelming to students if presented all at once.
As with any instructional design, the teacher determines the pace at which the
students best assimilate each new learning tool. For this particular project, a
new tool was introduced each day over two weeks. Once the construction process
was complete, there were a number of personal web page aggregators that could
have been selected to bring everything together in one place. Options at the
time included iGoogle, PageFlakes, NetVibes, and Symbaloo. These
sites offer a means to compile or pull together content from a variety of web
applications. A web widget or gadget is a bit of code that is executed within
the personal web page to pull up external content from other sites. The students
in this case designed the personal web page using the gadgets needed in the
format that best met their learning goals. Figure 3 is an instructor example of
a personal webpage that includes the reader, email, personal blog, note taking
program, and social bookmarks on one page.
The personal learning environment can take the place of a traditional
textbook, though does not preclude the student from using a textbook or
accessing one or more numerous open source texts that may be available for the
research topic. The goal is to access content from many sources to effectively
meet the learning objectives. The next challenge is to determine whether those
objectives have been met.
Figure 3: Personal web page compiles learning tools
Table 2: Personal learning environment toolset
Web application
(networked student
component)
Tool used
in test
case
Student activity
level of
structure
Social bookmarking (RSS)
Delicious
http://delicious.com/
Set up the account
Subscribe to each others accounts
Bookmark and read 10 reliable websites that
reflect the content of chosen
topic
Add and read at least 3 additional sites each
week.
News and blog alert (RSS)
Google Alert
http://www.google.com/alerts
Create a Google Alert of keywords associated with selected topic
Read news and blogs on that topic that are
delivered via email daily
Subscribe to appropriate blogs in
reader
News and blog reader (RSS)
Google Reader
http://reader.google.com
Search for blogs devoted to chosen topic
Subscribe to blogs to keep track of
updates
Personal blog (RSS)
Blogger
http://www.blogger.com
Create a personal blog
Post a personal reflection each day of the
content found and experiences
related
to the use of personal learning environment
Students subscribe to each others blogs in
reader
Internet search (information management,
contacts, and synchronous
communication)
Google Scholar
http://scholar.google.com/
Conduct searches in Google Scholar and library databases for
scholarly
works.
Bookmark appropriate sites
Consider making contact with expert for video
conference
Podcasts (RSS)
iTunesU
http://www.apple.com/itunes/
whatson/itunesu.html
Search iTunesU for podcasts related to topic
Subscribe to at least 2 podcasts if
possible
Video conferencing (contacts and synchronous
communication)
Skype
http://www.skype.com
Identify at least one subject matter expert to invite to Skype with
the class.
Content gathering/ digital notebook
Evernote
http://evernote.com/
Set up account
Use Evernote to take notes on all content collected via other
tools
Content synthesis
Wikispaces
http://www.wikispaces.com
Post final project on personal page of
class
wiki
The process and tools are overwhelming to
students if presented all at once.
As with
any instructional design, the teacher determines the pace at which the
students best assimilate each new learning tool.
For this particular project, a
new tool
was introduced each day over two weeks. Once the construction process
was complete, there were a number of personal
web page aggregators that could
have been
selected to bring everything together in one place. Options at the
time
included iGoogle, PageFlakes, NetVibes, and Symbaloo. These
sites
offer a means to compile or pull together content from a variety of web
applications. A web widget or gadget is a bit of
code that is executed within
the
personal web page to pull up external content from other sites. The
students
in this case designed the personal web page
using the gadgets needed in the
format
that best met their learning goals. Figure 3 is an instructor example of
a
personal webpage that includes the reader, email, personal blog, note
taking
program, and social bookmarks on one
page.
The personal learning environment can take the
place of a traditional
textbook, though does not preclude the student
from using a textbook or
accessing one or more numerous open source texts
that may be available for the
research
topic. The goal is to access content from many sources to effectively
meet the learning objectives. The next challenge
is to determine whether those
objectives have been met.
AssessmentThere were four components of the assessment process for this
test case of the Networked Student Model: (1) Ongoing performance
assessment in the form of weekly assignments to facilitate the construction and
maintenance of the personal learning environment, (2) rubric-based assessment of
the personal learning environment at the end of the project, (3) written essay,
and (4) multimedia synthesis of topic content.
Points were earned for meeting the following requirements:
Identify ten reliable resources and post to social bookmarking account. At
least three new resources should be added each week.
Subscribe and respond to at least 3 new blogs each week. Follow these blogs
and news alerts using the reader.
Subscribe to and listen to at least two podcasts (if available).
Respectfully contact and request a video conference from a subject matter
expert recognised in the field.
Maintain daily notes and highlight resources as needed in digital notebook.
Post at least a one-paragraph reflection in personal blog each day.
At the end of the project, the personal learning environment was
assessed with a rubric that encompassed each of the items listed above.
The student's ability to synthesise the research was further evaluated with a
reflective essay. Writing shapes thinking (Langer & Applebee, 1987), and the
essay requirement was one more avenue through which the students demonstrated
higher order learning. The personal blog provided an opportunity for regular
reflection during the course of the project. The essay was the culmination of
the reflections along with a thoughtful synthesis of the learning experience.
Students were instructed to articulate what was learned about the selected topic
and why others should care or be concerned. The essay provided an overview of
everything learned about the contemporary issue. It was well organised,
detailed, and long enough to serve as a resource for others who wished to learn
from the work. As part of a final exam, the students were required to access the
final projects of their classmates and reflect on what they learned from this
exposure. The purpose of this activity was to give the students an additional
opportunity to share and learn from each other.
Creativity is considered a key 21st century skill (Partnership for 21st
Century Skills, 2009). A number of emerging web applications support the
academic creative process. Students in this project used web tools to combine
text, video, audio, and photographs to teach the research topics to others. The
final multimedia project was posted or embedded on the student's personal wiki
page.
Analysis and assessment of student work was facilitated by the very
technologies in use by the students. In order to follow their progress, the
teacher simply subscribed to student social bookmarking accounts, readers, and
blogs. Clicking through daily contributions was relatively quick and efficient.
Scholarly and important but also practical. Scroll down for an incredible chart of ideas that challenges older students to take charge of their own learning.
Teaching Wikipedia in 5 Easy Steps:
*Use it as background information
*Use it for technology terms
*Use it for current pop cultural literacy
*Use it for the Keywords
*Use it for the REFERENCES at the bottom of the page!
4 ways to use Wikipedia (hint: never cite it)
Teachers: Please stop prohibiting the use of Wikipedia
20 Little Known Ways to Use Wikipedia
Study: Wikipedia as accurate as Encyclopedia Britannica
Schiff, Stacy. “Know it all: Can Wikipedia conquer expertise?” The New Yorker, February 26, 2006
And:
Yes students, there’s a world beyond Wikipedia
**Several years ago, Nature magazine did a comparison of material available on Wikipedia and Brittanica and concluded that Brittanica was somewhat, but not overwhelmingly, more accurate than Wikipedia. Brittanica lodged a complaint, and here, you can see what it complained about as well as Nature’s response.
Nature compared articles from both organizations on various topics and sent them to experts to review. Per article, the averages were: 2.92 mistakes per article for Britannica and 3.86 for Wikipedia.
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By Valerie Strauss
|
05:00 AM ET, 09/07/2011
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Excellent perspective on "The 'W' Word" - use it wisely for what it is - high school and college kids shouldn't be citing any general knowledge encyclopedias for serious research - but that doesn't mean there aren't some excellent uses for it.
Why I Like Prezi
In my life, I have given a *lot* of presentations. In high school, they were presentations on group projects. In university, they were presentations on research projects. At Google, they're presentations on how to use our APIs. When I first started giving presentations, I used Powerpoint, like everyone else. But I kept thinking there must be a better way, and I experimented with other options - flash interfaces, interactive Javascript apps. Then I discovered Prezi, and it has become my presentation tool of choice.
Prezi is an online tool for creating presentations - but it's not just a Powerpoint clone, like the Zoho or Google offering. When you first create a Prezi, you're greeted with a blank canvas and a small toolbox. You can write text, insert images, and draw arrows. You can draw frames (visible or hidden) around bits of content, and then you can define a path from one frame to the next frame. That path is your presentation. It's like being able to draw your thoughts on a whiteboard, and then instructing a camera where to go and what to zoom into. It's a simple idea, but I love it. Here's why:
It forces me to "shape" my presentation. A slide deck is always linear in form, with no obvious structure of ideas inside of it. Each of my Prezis has a structure, and each structure is different. The structure is visual, but it supports a conceptual structure. One structure might be 3 main ideas, with rows of ideas for each one. Another might be 1 main idea, with a circular branching of subideas. Having a structure helps me to have more of a point to my presentations, and to realize the core ideas of them.
It makes it easy to go from brainstorming stage to presentation stage, all in the same tool. I can write a bunch of thoughts, insert some images, and easily move them around, cluster them, re-order them, etc. I can figure out the structure of my presentation by looking at what I have laid out, and seeing how they fit together. Some people do this
a shift from its founding philosophy of “organizing the world’s information,” to one that is far more active in deciding how that information should appear.
Google keeps blacklists to remove certain sites or prevent others from surfacing in certain types of results. These moves are separate from those that block sites as required by U.S. or foreign law,
Far from being autonomous computer programs oblivious to outside pressure, Google’s algorithms are subject to regular tinkering from executives and engineers who are trying to deliver relevant search results, while also pleasing a wide variety of powerful interests and driving its parent company’s more than $30 billion in annual profit.
Alternatives - Microsoft's BING - DuckDuckGo and Yahoo. check them out when you get time
Google said 15% of queries today are for words, or combinations of words, that the company has never seen before, putting more demands on engineers to make sure the algorithms deliver useful results.
How do you connect your post/content to future searches? Tagging only gets you so far. Thus, Google "tinkers" with the algorithm to product "the best" results. Interesting & concerning!
ALGORITHMS ARE effectively recipes in code form, providing step-by-step instructions for how computers should solve certain problems. They drive not just the internet, but the apps that populate phones and tablets.
Yet, we never (almost never) eat the same thing (recipe) twice in a day. We indulge ourselves with comfort food, yes. And we seek out new taste sensations.
SUNDAY, MAY 17, 2009
Creating a Wordsearch using Google Spreadsheets
I'm a fan of alternative learning and testing techniques. Back when I was the teaching assistant for the "History of Video Games" class (yes, that's a real class), I gave the final exam as an illustrated crossword puzzle. It was surprisingly hard to find software for creating that crossword, so I hoped to make a Spreadsheets gadget to make it easier. Unfortunately, crossword-solving algorithms that run entirely in JavaScript are hard to find, and I gave up and went for second best: a wordsearch gadget. (A big thanks to Robert Klein for the wordsearch JavaScript library.)
Here are steps for using the gadget:
Create a new spreadsheet, and put a list of words in the first column. (Or, alternatively, use an existing spreadsheet that has a column of words you're interested in). My sample spreadsheet has a simple animals wordlist:
Click on the "Insert" menu and then select "Gadget..." This presents you with various categories of gadgets to choose from (similar to the iGoogle directory). My gadget isn't yet in the gallery, so you'll need to select "Custom" and then type in the URL to the gadget:
The gadget will appear embedded in the current worksheet, and it will prompt you to select a range of data to send to the gadget. Select all the cells that contain the desired words, and you should see the Range text field update with the range. If it doesn't work, you can always manually type it in.
You can now customize the number of rows and columns. The default is 10 by 10, but if you have more words, you likely want a larger wordsearch. Click "Apply", and see the generated output.
You have a few options for how you use the wordsearch. You can play with it immediately, inside that gadget, or you can use the option on the gadget menu to move the gadget to its own sheet and use it there. Note that each time you reload the spreadsheet, the wordsearch will be randomly generated with a new layout - so
VERY COOL tool to get a human-readable version of the Google Calenar in Word. Many teachers are starting to use Google Calendar embedded in their web pages but Google truncates the events after so many are added. This tool will expand the box for any day that has multiple events added.
"Help your students become better searchers "
Lesson Plans & Activities: Download lesson plans to develop your students' search literacy skills. Browse lesson plans
Power Searching: Improve your search skills and learn advanced tips with online lessons and activities.
A Google a Day Challenges: Put your students' search skills to the test with these trivia challenges.
Browse challenges
Live Trainings:Join us for live search trainings or watch past trainings from search experts here at Google.
The Google Teacher Academy is a FREE professional development experience designed to help primary and secondary educators from around the globe get the most from innovative technologies. Each Academy is an intensive, one-day event where participants get hands-on experience with Google's free products and other technologies, learn about innovative instructional strategies, receive resources to share with colleagues, and immerse themselves in an innovative corporate environment. Upon completion, Academy participants become Google Certified Teachers who share what they learn with other primary and secondary educators in their local region.
Some background
Four years ago I created Google Earth resources for the classroom and
posted them to the GE Community Forum. Two of them were
called Maths in Madrid and Maths in Las Vegas.
These were based on the fact that there is maths all around us, every day,
everywhere we look. Google Earth (and Maps) gives us a great perspective on it
all. It also provides easy access for our students to see rich visual content
that depicts everyday maths. I have always loved the idea of children seeing the
maths they are working on.
The only issue with Google Earth is that it is restrictive in two ways. It is
not browser based and it is impossible for me to create a resource for others to
collaborate on.
My reflections on the Google I/O and Education. this post has got a lot of interest especially in Australia. I make the point..."This is the real work of education - helping people take control of their lives and realising that in these still early days of the online world, we are being pushed and pushed into vistas that may be limited."
Feed readers
are probably the most important digital tool for today's learner because they
make sifting through the amazing amount of content added to the Internet
easy. Also known as aggregators, feed readers are free tools that can
automatically check nearly any website for new content dozens of times a
day---saving ridiculous amounts of time and customizing learning experiences for
anyone.
Imagine
never having to go hunting for new information from your favorite sources
again. Learning goes from a frustrating search through thousands of
marginal links written by questionable characters to quickly browsing the
thoughts of writers that you trust, respect and enjoy.
Feed readers can
quickly and easily support blogging in the classroom, allowing teachers to
provide students with ready access to age-appropriate sites of interest that are
connected to the curriculum. By collecting sites in advance and organizing
them with a feed reader, teachers can make accessing information manageable for
their students.
Here are several
examples of feed readers in action:
Used specifically as
a part of one classroom project, this feed list contains information related to
global warming that students can use as a starting point for individual
research.
While there are literally dozens of different feed reader
programs to choose from (Bloglines andGoogle Reader are two
biggies), Pageflakes is a favorite of
many educators because it has a visual layout that is easy to read and
interesting to look at. It is also free and web-based. That
means that users can check accounts from any computer with an Internet
connection. Finally, Pageflakes makes it quick and easy to add new
websites to a growing feed list—and to get rid of any websites that users are no
longer interested in.
What's even
better: Pageflakes has been developinga teacher version of their tooljust for us that includes an online grade tracker,
a task list and a built in writing tutor. As Pageflakes works to perfect
its teacher product, this might become one of the first kid-friendly feed
readers on the market. Teacher Pageflakes users can actually blog and create a
discussion forum directly in their feed reader---making an all-in-one digital
home for students.
For more
information about the teacher version of Pageflakes, check out this
review:
Three Elements of Great Communication, According to Aristotle
by Scott Edinger | 9:00 AM January 17,
2013
Comments (78)
In my nearly 20 years of work in organization development, I've never heard
anyone say that a leader communicated too much or too well. On the contrary, the
most common improvement suggestion I've seen offered up on the thousands of 360
evaluations I've reviewed over the years is that it would be better if the
subject in question learned to communicate more effectively.
What makes someone a good communicator? There's no mystery here, not since Aristotle identified the three critical elements —
ethos, pathos, and logos. — thousands of years ago.
Ethos is essentially your credibility — that is, the reason people should
believe what you're saying. In writing this blog I made an effort to demonstrate
my ethos in the introduction, and here I'll just add that I have a degree in
communication studies (emphasis in rhetoric for those who want the details) for
good measure. In some cases, ethos comes merely from your rank within an
organization. More commonly, though, today's leaders build ethos most
Blended learning, with its mix of technology and traditional face-to-face instruction, is a great approach.
Blended learning combines classroom learning with online learning, in which students can, in part, control the time, pace, and place of their learning. I advocate a teacher-designed blended learning model, in which teachers determine the combination that's right for them and their students.
Tip 1: Think big, but start small.
Tip 2: Patience is a virtue when trying something new.
Tip 4: Weaving media together makes them stronger.
Tip 5: Students need to know where they can get online.
Student-centered classrooms are the goal of my teacher-designed blended learning model. Giving students control over the learning process requires that they know how to communicate, collaborate, and solve problems in groups, pairs, and individually. This work can be messy, loud, and disorganized, but in the end, the learning is much more meaningful.
Then I found Collaborize Classroom, a free, dynamic discussion platform. I used it to replace many of my pen-and-paper homework assignments with vibrant online debates, discussions, writing assignments, and collaborative group work.
Remember that mistakes lead to learning. The best resources I've designed and the most effective strategies I've developed were all born from and refined through mistakes.
I anticipated that students might hit some bumps as they navigated their first TED-Ed lesson, so I set up a TodaysMeet back channel so students could ask questions, make comments, and access a support network while going through the online lesson. A back-channel tool makes it possible for people to have a real-time conversation online while a live presentation or real-time discussion is taking place.
I asked students to reference specific details to support their assertions, as did one student who commented on the town's poverty by noting that the local doctor often took potatoes as payment for his work. She also showed how the characters nevertheless reflected the country's "cautious optimism" about its future: That same doctor was still able to support himself, she pointed out, and he enjoyed his work. Students posted their responses, complimenting strong points made, asking questions, and offering alternative perspectives.
I asked students to analyze examples of strong discussion posts and revise weaker posts. I also realized that I needed to embed directions into our discussion topics to remind students to respond to the questions and engage with their peers. I started requiring them to thoughtfully reply to at least two classmates' posts, in addition to posting their own response to the topic.
It's crucial for students to see that the work they do in the online space drives the work they do in the classroom so they recognize the value of the online conversations.
For example, during the To Kill a Mockingbird unit, we researched and discussed the death penalty in preparation for writing an argument essay. The students debated online such issues as cost, morality, and racial inequality and then delved into these topics more deeply face-to-face in class.
In the classroom, the teacher might give small groups various topics to research. Then he or she could ask students to go online to research and discuss their topic on a shared Google Doc and create a presentation using Glogster, Prezi, or Google Presentation Maker.
When we read Romeo and Juliet, I use this strategy to encourage students to research such topics as the monarchy, entertainment, and gender roles in Elizabethan England so they have a better understanding of the historical context in which Shakespeare wrote. Back in the classroom, each group then presents its findings through an oral presentation.
Compared with traditional in-class group work, which typically yields a disappointing finished product, online work provides the time necessary for students to complete quality work together.
Some teachers think that incorporating online work means they have to be available 24 hours a day. This is not the case. When students are connected online, they have a network of peers they can reach out to for support, and they begin to see one another as valuable resources in their class community.
I've embedded a Google map in my website that has pins dropped in all the locations on our campus and in our community where there are computers with public access to the Internet.
I even wrote the local computer recycling center to request a computer for my class.
Dr. Mason, who teaches economics at the University of North Florida, believes his students are just as intelligent as they’ve always been. But many of them don’t read their textbooks, or do much of anything else that their parents would have called studying. “We used to complain that K-12 schools didn’t hold students to high standards,” he says with a sigh. “And here we are doing the same thing ourselves.”
all evidence suggests that student disengagement is at its worst in Dr. Mason’s domain: undergraduate business education.
“Business education has come to be defined in the minds of students as a place for developing elite social networks and getting access to corporate recruiters,”
It’s an attitude that Dr. Khurana first saw in M.B.A. programs but has migrated, he says, to the undergraduate level.
Second, in management and marketing, no strong consensus has emerged about what students ought to learn or how they ought to learn it.
Gains on the C.L.A. closely parallel the amount of time students reported spending on homework. Another explanation is the heavy prevalence of group assignments in business courses: the more time students spent studying in groups, the weaker their gains in the kinds of skills the C.L.A. measures.
The pedagogical theory is that managers need to function in groups, so a management education without such experiences would be like medical training without a residency. While some group projects are genuinely challenging, the consensus among students and professors is that they are one of the elements of business that make it easy to skate through college.
“We’ve got students who don’t read, and grow up not reading,” he says. “There are too many other things competing for their time. The frequency and quantity of drinking keeps getting higher. We have issues with depression. Getting students alert and motivated — even getting them to class, to be honest with you — it’s a challenge.”
“A lot of classes I’ve been exposed to, you just go to class and they do the PowerPoint from the book,” he says. “It just seems kind of pointless to go when (a) you’re probably not going to be paying much attention anyway and (b) it would probably be worth more of your time just to sit with your book and read it.”
“It seems like now, every take-home test you get, you can just go and Google. If the question is from a test bank, you can just type the text in, and somebody out there will have it and you can just use that.”
This is not senioritis, he says: this is the way all four years have been. In a typical day, “I just play sports, maybe go to the gym. Eat. Probably drink a little bit. Just kind of goof around all day.” He says his grade-point average is 3.3.
concrete business skills tend to expire in five years or so as technology and organizations change.
History and philosophy, on the other hand, provide the kind of contextual knowledge and reasoning skills that are indispensable for business students.
when they hand in papers, they’re marked up twice: once for content by a professor with specialized expertise, and once for writing quality by a business-communication professor.
a national survey of 259 business professors who had been teaching for at least 10 years. On average, respondents said they had reduced the math and analytic-thinking requirements in their courses. In exchange, they had increased the number of requirements related to computer skills and group presentations.
what about employers? What do they want?
According to national surveys, they want to hire 22-year-olds who can write coherently, think creatively and analyze quantitative data, and they’re perfectly happy to hire English or biology majors. Most Ivy League universities and elite liberal arts colleges, in fact, don’t even offer undergraduate business majors.
Lisa C. Hurst on 05 May 15"AUTHOR: ISSIE LAPOWSKY. ISSIE LAPOWSKY DATE OF PUBLICATION: 05.04.15. 05.04.15 TIME OF PUBLICATION: 7:00 AM. 7:00 AM INSIDE THE SCHOOL SILICON VALLEY THINKS WILL SAVE EDUCATION Click to Open Overlay Gallery Students in the youngest class at the Fort Mason AltSchool help their teacher, Jennifer Aguilar, compile a list of what they know and what they want to know about butterflies. CHRISTIE HEMM KLOK/WIRED SO YOU'RE A parent, thinking about sending your 7-year-old to this rogue startup of a school you heard about from your friend's neighbor's sister. It's prospective parent information day, and you make the trek to San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood. You walk up to the second floor of the school, file into a glass-walled conference room overlooking a classroom, and take a seat alongside dozens of other parents who, like you, feel that public schools-with their endless bubble-filled tests, 38-kid classrooms, and antiquated approach to learning-just aren't cutting it. At the same time, you're thinking: this school is kind of weird. On one side of the glass is a cheery little scene, with two teachers leading two different middle school lessons on opposite ends of the room. But on the other side is something altogether unusual: an airy and open office with vaulted ceilings, sunlight streaming onto low-slung couches, and rows of hoodie-wearing employees typing away on their computers while munching on free snacks from the kitchen. And while you can't quite be sure, you think that might be a robot on wheels roaming about. Then there's the guy who's standing at the front of the conference room, the school's founder. Dressed in the San Francisco standard issue t-shirt and jeans, he's unlike any school administrator you've ever met. But the more he talks about how this school uses technology to enhance and individualize education, the more you start to like what he has to say. And so, if you are truly fed up with the school stat
