Friday, June 29, 2012

Weekend Reader on Bold New Ideas for Schools

Why Every School Needs an 'Innovation Day' [GOOD] - Liz Dwyer advocates for schools to follow Google's lead and give students time to work on whatever project they want and have them present it to everyone. I'd take it a step further and say we need Y Combinator or hackathon-style programs in our schools to foster the kind of creativity, problem solving and higher-order thinking our kids deserve and need.

4 Things That Ninth-Graders Can Teach You About Risk-Taking Design [Fast Company Co.Design] - A more structured experiment in project-based learning.

Coolest class ever: Valve brings Portal 2 to schools [VentureBeat] - Video game studio Valve has a new education program that attempts to bridge the gap between games and education. We need more companies to step up like this!

Kickstarting Education [Wired:GeekDad] - A thought experiment (that should become a real one) on using fundraising website Kickstarter for something at your local school.

In the Bronx, a New School Combines Tech Skills and Cultural Literacy [GOOD]