US Competitive Edge

TIME Magazine's Cover Story for its 13 Feb 2006 issue is entitled, "Are We Losing Our Edge?”

The article reminds me of (and cites) Thomas Friedman's 2005 bestseller, "The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century." The article points to the critical importance of innovation for the continued success of the U.S. economy:

"Imagine," says Stanford University president John Hennessy, "that the next round of innovations in networking is done in India or China. How many years is it before either Cisco relocates to India or China and grows most of its new jobs there or the next Cisco is actually created there?" That's not so farfetched, says Du Pont CEO Chad Holliday: "If the U.S. doesn't get its act together, Du Pont is going to go to the countries that do, and so are IBM and Intel. We'd much rather be here, but we have an obligation to our employees and shareholders to bring value where we can."

The article references the recent report, "Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future" from the National Academies Press. Wonderfully, a free 543 page PDF version of the document is available for download after registering on the website, or you can download individual chapters. In the section titled, "What Actions Should America Take In K-12 Science And Mathematics Education To Remain Prosperous In The 21st Century?: 10,000 Teachers-10 Million Minds," authors write:

The US system of public education must lay the foundation for developing a workforce ?that is literate in mathematics and science, among other subjects. It is the creative intellectual ?energy of our workforce that will drive successful innovation and create jobs for all citizens.

An educational system based on faith in the following ideas is NOT getting this job done:

1- A belief that human cognition and learning proceeds along a defined, regular, linear path for all learners.
2- Faith that more standards necessarily leads to greater quality in educational outcomes.
3- Faith that an environment of high stakes testing leads to more quality outcomes.
4- An irrational belief that a culture of fear in our classrooms improves educational quality.
5- A belief that scripted curriculum leads to high quality teaching and learning experiences.
6- A belief that a time-pressured environment leads to high quality educational environments.

These topics and others will be the subject of my presentation (which I am finishing up now) for tomorrow at ESC10 in Dallas titled, "The Vocabulary of 21st Century Learning." The workshop's overall theme is, "Curriculum and Instruction in the 21st Century." For the first time, I am going to experiment with the "Lessig presentation method." I'll be podcasting the presentation afterward.

On this day..

• Brush Up on Modern Physics - Free - 2010
• Can you imagine this much global sharing? - 2010
• Geysers in Rotorua at Te Puia - 2009
• Podcast303: Transforming Pedagogy in NZ Schools, Duck Hunting in Hobbiton, the Easy Talk Microphone, and Kid Witness News - 2009
• Metered, commercial WiFi common in New Zealand - 2009
• Mobile Phone Media Collection and VoiceThread - 2008
• Podcast134: Eric Langhorst on Teaching History with 21st Century Technology - 2007
• The WOW2 skype/chat is now! - 2007
• Technology in the Schools: Policy, Privacy and Practical Issues for Teachers, IT and Others - 2007
• Teaching History with 21st Century Technology by Eric Langhorst - 2007

About Wesley Fryer

Educator, author, digital storyteller, husband, dad. I'm here for the learning revolution.