Opportunities for learning are now available 24/7/365, as students utilize technology to interact with, learn about and communicate with the world. Mindful of this, educational entrepreneurs have found ways to integrate technology to add breadth and depth to a student's experience. In this panel discussion, Gary Knells speaks on how the multi-platform approach of Sesame Street Workshop has become a gamechanger for early childhood education. Katie Salen discusses how teachers connect to their students in the digital age at Quest to Learn. Joel Rose transforms the old classroom with new models that offer personalized instruction for students. Milton Chen closes by sharing examples of 21st century innovations in education, which can be further explored at Edutopia.org and in his recently published book, Education Nation. They spoke at the NewSchools Summit, an event convened by the NewSchools Venture Fund.
Milton Chen is senior fellow and executive director emeritus at The George Lucas Educational Foundation (GLEF), a nonprofit operating foundation in the San Francisco Bay Area that utilizes its multimedia website Edutopia.org and documentary films to communicate a new vision for 21st century schools. He served as executive director of GLEF for 12 years. He was the founding director of the KQED Center for Education (PBS) in San Francisco; a director of research at Sesame Workshop in New York, working on "Sesame Street", "The Electric Company", and "3-2-1 Contact"; and an assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Katie Salen is an Associate Professor in the Design and Technology, Parsons The New School for Design and co-author of Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals, a textbook on game design, as well as the Game Design Reader, both from MIT Press. As the lead institutional partner for Quest to Learn, she has led development of strategic partnerships, including those with Pearson, The NewSchool, and the MacArthur Foundation DML research network. Interested in games as both aesthetic and cultural forms, she has developed a critical practice that includes designing games of many different types, from big games, to downloadable games, to conference games and game-hybrids that take gaming as a point of departure. She writes extensively on game design, design education, and game culture, including authoring some of the first dispatches from the previously hidden world of machinima.
Joel Rose founded School of One, an initiative within the NYC Department of Education that leverages a combination of live, online, and collaborative learning to provide students with instruction that is personalized to their particular academic needs and learning preferences. Previously, Rose served as the chief executive for human capital for the New York City Department of Education, which has over 1 million students in more than 1,400 schools. Rose has been involved in education for more than 14 years, first as a Teach For America corps member in Houston and later as a senior executive at Edison where he also served as the company's associate general counsel, chief of staff and vice president for school operations. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Tufts University and a law degree from the University of Miami School of Law. Rose is a graduate of the 2006 class of The Broad Superintendents Academy.
Gary Knell leads the nonprofit educational organization Sesame Workshop in its mission to create innovative, engaging content that maximizes the educational power of all media to help children reach their highest potential. In his role, Knell has been instrumental in focusing the organization on Sesame "Street’s" global mission, including groundbreaking co-productions in South Africa, Russia, China and Egypt. He leads over 300 producers, researchers and other talented professionals in a variety of media applications, including television, print, online and radio.
Resources:
NewSchools CoP 2010: Introduction: Using Technology to Achieve Ambitious Goals Part 1 from NewSchools on Vimeo.
NewSchools CoP 2010: Introduction: Using Technology to Achieve Ambitious Goals Part 2 from NewSchools on Vimeo.
NewSchools CoP 2010: Introduction: Using Technology to Achieve Ambitious Goals Part 3 from NewSchools on Vimeo.
NewSchools CoP 2010: Introduction: Using Technology to Achieve Ambitious Goals Part 4 from NewSchools on Vimeo.
NewSchools CoP 2010: Introduction: Using Technology to Achieve Ambitious Goals Part 5 from NewSchools on Vimeo.
NewSchools CoP 2010: Introduction: Using Technology to Achieve Ambitious Goals Part 6 from NewSchools on Vimeo.
NewSchools CoP 2010: Introduction: Using Technology to Achieve Ambitious Goals Part 7 from NewSchools on Vimeo.
NewSchools CoP 2010: Introduction: Using Technology to Achieve Ambitious Goals Part 8 from NewSchools on Vimeo.
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