Blogs on Curriculum

In 2013, sandbox video games have changed gaming more than a little. Players can now define their own terms for success, and the evolution of certain gamification elements makes this more than a fantasy in the minds of the players. There really are multiple measures of success.

Ahhhh, February. The shortest, bleakest, and often chilliest month (well, at least for those in the northern hemisphere). The holidays are well behind us, but spring seems a long way off. So what teaching and learning inspiration can we pull from the flurries, the gray skies, the cold?

What should students learn in the 21st century? At first glance, this question divides into two: what should students know, and what should they be able to do? But there's more at issue than knowledge and skills. For the innovation economy, dispositions come into play: readiness to collaborate, attention to multiple perspectives, initiative, persistence, and curiosity. While the content of any learning experience is important, the particular content is irrelevant. What really matters is how students react to it, shape it, or apply it. The purpose of learning in this century is not simply to recite inert knowledge, but, rather, to transform it.¹ It is time to change the subject.

When teachers embark on project-based learning with their students, there's no predicting exactly where projects will go. Good projects are open-ended by design, leading to sometimes unexpected results. For 500 of the world's most accomplished PBL teachers, the project path recently took them all the way to Prague in the Czech Republic for a global celebration of what's working in education.