Understanding 21stMP

21stMP: An Overview of the 21st Century Math Project

This project will engage millions of students on one website in a customized student-centered high school math curriculum (Algebra 1 through Multivariable Calculus). Classrooms will become student-driven work environments. While students will have traditional classmates and teachers, they will also have virtual classmates from across the globe. These virtual classmates will be “circled” dynamically in groups by similar progress and position in the course. This allows students to always be connected with like-skilled peers. This connectivity will enrich and deepen the scope of learning projects.

The project will be delivered online, free of cost. Similar to Khan Academy, but built by teachers, this program will provide numerous videos with differentiated teaching approaches for each lesson to meet students’ varied learning styles. The program will choose the “teacher” for each individual student that works best for them. The program will utilize Web 2.0 networking to provide students with a global learning community.

Please see my video, Changing the Learning Environment, for an overview of the paradigm shift in learning. This video suggests how a single classroom might shift from teacher-driven to student-driven. It also raises the importance of mastery-based learning. However, for disruptive change to occur, as Christensen writes in Disrupting Class, a product must be cheap and it must be easily accessible. Christensen corroborates the fundamental ideas behind this project: the shift in education must be technology-driven creating a student-centric environment.


Friday, April 20, 2012

Pat Basset Says It Best: Schools of the Future

Pat Basset, president of NAIS, discusses what schools of the future should and could look like. Teachers: we need to teach creative; we need to be innovative; and, we need to be relevant. Basset draws a difference between knowing and doing. In this, he says: we must be able to apply what we know.

Teachers: we need high IQ, but also high EQ. Students need to feel loved and intellectually inspired.

Parents: you cannot be resistant to teachers who want to experiment. That is exactly what education needs. Teachers that experiment are invested in what they do, and this is infectious.

Take 30 minutes out and watch this video: Schools of the Future.
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