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Students in the future will be as likely to be evaluated on their portfolio of work, as they are on their grades.

If I eat an apple, you cannot also eat that same apple; but if I learn something, there is no reason you cannot also learn that thing. Information goods lend themselves to being created, distributed and consumed on the web. It is not so different from music, or classified advertising, or news

But the most important thing about that was, I learned how to be obsessed with things... I got obsessed with these things and I had a series of stages in my life where I got obsesses with something else. And I just immersed myself to learn as much as I could. And it's that mechanism I used again and again and again in my professional life. So how do you teach kids to be obsessed with things?

The act of writing is an important way for students to learn by processing their ideas into coherent and organized form;Writing should be done across various curriculum areas and not be taught in isolation;Students should write for various audiences; At times, they may write just for themselves, for the classroom or, sometimes, for the world;Technology can be a useful tool for composing various forms of writing and media, including audio podcasts and video;Writing should be authentic and allow students to make connections between school and the world outside of school;Artistic elements and the concept of design play a role in the way that young people compose writing and other media;Reading quality books and stories of various genres provide an insight into the writing process and allow students to reflect, connect and utilize critical thinking skills;All students can succeed and improve as writers and readers and composers of multimedia.

“The first thing needed for innovation is a fascination with wonder,” says Dawna Markova, author of “The Open Mind” and an executive change consultant for Professional Thinking Partners. “But we are taught instead to ‘decide,’ just as our president calls himself ‘the Decider.’ ” She adds, however, that “to decide is to kill off all possibilities but one. A good innovational thinker is always exploring the many other possibilities.”

The current emphasis on standardized testing highlights analysis and procedure, meaning that few of us inherently use our innovative and collaborative modes of thought.

The auditory nerve transmits sound to the brain and is composed of about 30,000 fibers. Contrast that with the optic nerve which sends visual signals to the brain through 1 million fibers (Burmark 2002). Basically, you’ve got a dial-up connection from the ear to the brain and broadband from the eye to the brain.

Visuals, when combined with other multimedia, provide individuals with a competitive voice. One that can be heard. One that can be measured. One that says “here I am, and here’s what I think, here is what I have to contribute. Now what do you think?” Kids have meaningful things to say, so challenge them to produce visual content with purpose and with pride.