Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Colorado Denver Scott McLeod, and author, speaker and 2010 ISTE Outstanding Leader of the Year Dean Shareski released a book in September that describes six gaps between what most of today’s schools teach and what students and society need from them. The gaps that need to be addressed, according to Different Schools for a Different World:
- Information Literacy: Schools must immerse students in the use of digital tools in and outside of classrooms.
- Workforce and Economy: Schools must focus on interdisciplinary thinking, interpersonal skills, and technological fluency, so that students have skills for and value to digital marketplaces.
- Learning: Schools must use mobile devices, digital environments and online communities to foster learning.
- Student Engagement: Make the learning opportunities students experience more relevant, authentic and personal.
- Innovation: Transform learning spaces into engaging environments of discovery, play and intrinsic motivation so that students are prepared to be innovators rather than “just tell me what to do” workers.
- Equity: If schools are to genuinely address equity issues, they must find ways to enable robust digital learning for all students, not just the financially blessed.
Strategies for dealing with the gaps are addressed in the book as are the four big shifts of deeper learning and the 10 building blocks for schools of the future. The future is now and this book is a call to action.
