Blogs on Education Trends

Editor's Note: Today's guest blogger is Jim Brazell, a technology forecaster, author, public speaker, and consultant. It is the second in a five-part series on the convergence of STEM education and the Arts (TEAMS).

ISTE, the world's largest educational technology conference, drew record crowds to Denver this year to talk about the latest trends in everything from cloud computing to social media to interactive white boards. On the last morning of this mega-event, as I stood in front of my poster station clutching a bag of marshmallows, I couldn't help but wonder what I'd gotten myself into.

Brown v. Board of Education outlawed racial discrimination in America's public schools, but it was the Little Rock crisis that tested the government's willingness to enforce the historic ruling.

As we head into summer vacation and schools are shuttering their doors for three months, we should be rethinking how summer can become the "third semester" for 21st Century learning. At a conference in Washington last week, a colleague was surprised to hear that the long summer break dates back to our agrarian society and the need for young folk to help their families bring in the crops. Today, the vast majority of students don't bring in crops but need to be harvesting knowledge year-round.