For those interested in innovation in higher ed, NCIIA is hosting their annual conference in March in DC. Generally the theme is how to teach technology entrepreneurship, but some of the topics this year are a bit more general. Examples:
-- Team-based Learning Pedagogy: Transforming classroom dialogue and learning
--Learning space design for creativity and innovation
--Simplifying / packaging creative engineering education
Comment: As we're talking about the Common Core Standards, this is a concept which aligns itself to the CCSS. I volunteered through a non-profit organization this summer to teach AVID classes concepts about the world of work, entrepreneurship and personal finances. (AVID is advancement via Individualistic Determination)
"The world is ripe for another revolution - this time in education. Technology has advanced so much over the last two decades that we can virtually change the way we educate." - Vivek Wadwa, senior research associate at Harvard Law School and director of research at Duke University's Center for Entrepreneurship.
"We can do to schools what PayPal did to banks and do to college networks what Facebook did to friendships. We can now make education affordable and pervasive. All this requires is investment in the right technologies and the type of mentoring and support being provided to students, such as the Thiel fellows. You
could impact the lives of billions" - Vivek Wadhwa, Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School and Director of Research at Duke University's Center for Entrepreneurship.
Schools throughout the country are experiencing the same teacher-driven adoption of technology tools. Internet-savvy teachers are increasingly finding tools to use in the classroom on their own, and lower business-startup costs mean the tools are more readily available.
In response, many education companies are changing how they market and sell their products. Nationwide sales teams and central-office visits are giving way to word-of-mouth and sophisticated business-intelligence software as preferred methods for pushing adoption. Companies offer free products to teachers with the goal of influencing districtwide purchases of more-robust versions-known as the "freemium" pricing model.
But in most sectors of the existing K-12 system-with its various stakeholders, budgetary restrictions, and procurement regulations- the so-called "consumerization" of education faces many barriers, experts say, making it difficult to find the right balance between selling directly to teachers and addressing the needs of central-office administrators.
BizKids -- same producers as Bill Nye, using media to develop kids into young businessmen and women. Media fosters entrepreneurship and financial responsibility. Interesting conceptual approach to using theories of motivation and engagement.
I just found a current MOOC, highly relevant to the conversation in class today. --free and accepting new participants now.
"Weekly Topics:
Change pressures: What is influencing higher education? (Oct 8-14)
Net pedagogies: New models of teaching and learning (Oct 15-21)
Entrepreneurship and commercial activity in education (Oct 22-28)
Big data and Analytics (Oct 29-Nov 4)
Leadership in Education (Nov 4-11)
Distributed Research: new models of inquiry (Nov 12- 18)"
This is a really cool online community where students (or participants) get weekly real-world challenges and then use entrepreneurial thinking/skills to solve the problem in their community and then post "evidence" of solving the problem on the website. Students rack up points for solving different real world problems, which can---if they get enough points---get them access to internships with high-level social entrepreneurs and possibly even seed money for a project.
Maung, Thanks for sharing this article. I liked the basic premise but also agreed with the comment by Babson College President "the vast majority of ventures take more than that amount of time [ 4 months] to become operational businesses people can be proud of". I think this 4 month program can be nicely incorporated as a course in a formal entrepreneurship program.
High-lites the "Digital Promise" federal initiative. It is based on the idea of harboring new educational technologies based around a business model that rewards entrepreneurship