Student Entrepreneurship

17th April 2006

posted in digitalstorytelling, economics, literacy |

Entrepreneurship is an essential ingredient of the US and global economy, and something we tend to not teach well in traditional, U.S. public schools. I was a Hugh O’Brien Youth Foundation delegate back in high school, and remember learning more in those few days than I probably learned in all of high school about the free market economic system. If you haven’t heard of HOBY you should really check them out, start by looking at their vision, mission, and core values page.

The Junior Achievement Video Room has a variety of short digital stories showcasing students that are putting ideas about entrepreneurship into practice today. These videos are EXCELLENT to use and share in many contexts, but certainly school economics classes are one place. The power of digital storytelling– it’s a skill set we need more of our students to acquire and refine. We can’t let our students go through school thinking their primary role is that of the CONTENT CONSUMER! We must encourage and equip them to be CONTENT CREATORS as well!

We also need students to understand their primary economic role in society is not that of a CONSUMER. They will be consumers all their lives, but this is not a role to which they should uncritically accept being relegated. They should be encouraged and empowered to be CRITICAL consumers, and also thoughtful and strategic entrepreneurs. This is part of what media literacy should be all about.

On this day..

This entry was posted on Monday, April 17th, 2006 at 9:04 am and is filed under digitalstorytelling, economics, literacy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.