Technology+and+the+Death+of+High+Schools?

Presenter: Ed Coughlin, Senior VP of Metiri Group
Coughlin believes that the American High School, as we know it, will be DEAD in the next 10 years. In this presentation, he is going to discussion the reasons why (all of these factors make up the 21st Century Learner). He will be publishing an article in //Ed Leadership// in April about these ideas.

Factors: 1. Globalization
 * Our society is in competition with people all over the world

2. Cognitive Science
 * There have been huge advances in the way in which we understand the brain and learning.

3. Information Emancipation
 * Due to the impact of the Internet, knowledge and information is becoming increasingly accessible.

In the past, traditional.... __Gatekeepers of information__: __Media__: __Mediators:__
 * Libraries
 * Universities
 * Financial Status
 * Textbooks
 * Print/Media Publishers
 * Teachers
 * Professors

Coughlin discussed and presented iTunes University, as one of these tremendous shifts in education via a demonstration from a Physics class from MIT by Walter Lewin. MIT has 199 courses available through iTunes. In most cases, you can actually watch the lecture. Other files are audio, and then you can download the supplemental resources.

Bypassing the Gatekeepers....
Some teachers are putting entire AP classes online. Content and videos of teachers teaching are available online--- Chris Halleran--Science Eric Burnett--AP World History Keith Hughes--History Class

So the question becomes, if I am a smart kid and I have all this information available to me online, why do I have to take the course in school? Teachers are thinking the same thing, I teach this lecture in every course.....how about I record it and make it available for future use?

NROC--National Repository of Online Courses
 * One of the foundations
 * Building a library of really good online courses
 * Available online for free
 * They have AP level courses, among others

The New Gatekeepers of Information

 * Access/Information Literacy
 * Engagement
 * Self-direction

What if the focus of the high school were these ideas (information literacy, engagement, and self-direction)? What if we become not just "content people" but teachers who engage students in these type of self-directed learning communities and environments?

One Future
Community Learning Centers Remedial High Schools

In the US 30-35% of students have been found incapable of participating in this type of self-direction learning environment.

Types of Engagement: Authentic Engagement--students are actively engaged in the activity of their own merit, and out of their own curiosity Ritual Engagement--students are completing the task because of some outside goal (ex. wanting to get into a college)

An Alternative Future
Key 21st Century Skills
 * Self-direction
 * Global Awareness
 * Critical thinking
 * Creative thinking
 * Visual/media literacy
 * Information literacy