Group items tagged

It is commonly recognized that our nation's progress depends on improving learning, thereby creating healthier communities and a stronger workforce. In today's world, that requires us to take advantage of new learning tools to ensure that our children's learning is practical and prepares them for the challenges of the 21st century. The advantages of digital media now greatly outweigh the disadvantages and require that schools update their thinking and policies to provide guidance on the use of these tools to improve student learning and achievement.

In some ways, the flipped model is an improvement. Research shows that tailored tutoring is more effective than lectures for understanding, mastery, and retention. But the flipped classroom doesn't come close to preparing students for the challenges of today's world and workforce. As progressive educational activist Alfie Kohn notes, great teaching isn't just about content but motivation and empowerment: Real learning gives you the mental habits, practice, and confidence to know that, in a crisis, you can count on yourself to learn something new. That's crucial in a world where, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics, adults change careers (not just jobs) four to six times or where, as an Australian study predicts, 65% of today's teens will end up in careers that haven't even been invented yet. We don't need to flip the classroom. We need to make it do cartwheels.

Our society has been irreversibly affected by a new phenomenon in InfoWhelm - an unparalleled access to a wealth of online information, never before seen or heard of. Learning has truly become a lifelong pursuit, and it can happen anytime and anywhere in our Information age. But how do we determine good from the bad, interpret right from wrong, and distinguish complete, accurate, and usable data from a sea of irrelevance and digital inundation? The skills to help us best understand and make use of the wealth of knowledge at our fingertips is essential to life and success both in the classrooms and workforces of the 21st century.

"Gender diversity still poses a major challenge in the IT and telecoms industry, with women making up less than 20 per cent of the IT workforce. This ebook seeks to encourage more girls and women to consider a career in IT by showcasing the lives and careers of female IT professionals, entrepreneurs and academics." Free epub ... provided you have a Kobo.

"NCWIT works to correct the imbalance of gender diversity in technology and computing because gender diversity positively correlates with a larger workforce, better innovation, and increased business performance. Increasing the number of women in technology and computing also has the potential to improve the design of products and services to better serve a more diverse population, and increase economic and social well-being by providing more women with stable and lucrative careers."

Blog for the new book Mobile Learning Edge by Gary Woodill. See also his personal blog http://www.garywoodill.com/ This 2010 book describes the ways to use mobile for learning content delivery.

Interesting inforgraphic on mobile devices

HireEd is an innovative EduTech start-up that is backed up by a business group with an interest in the education sector. HireEd aims to fill the gap of essential education for the workforce to upgrade themselves from the current level to the next degree without having to sacrifice their current full-time engagement with the company. HireEd has currently almost half a dozen universities under its umbrella and working towards more partnerships.