Education Nation: Six Leading Edges of Innovation in our Schools By Milton Chen Foreword by George Lucas San Francisco;

Jossey Bass. 2010 Samantha N. Johnson Touro University California, Mare Island Written by Dr. Milton Chen whom is senior fellow and executive director emeritus at the George Lucas Educational Foundation, which is host to Edutopia.org, a website known as a destination for films, articles, and other resources on innovation in schools, Education Nation: Six Leading Edges of Innovation in our Schools, a handbook and Chen puts it was created for everyone with an interest in improving education. Every educator-teacher, principal, or school board member-parent, and student can become part of the movement by making learning a more engaging and enjoyable experience each day. And every education advocate in a business, community organization, college university, or foundation that can think bigger. This book was written for the afore mentioned change agents who share the same passion for creating the new world of learning made possible through new collaborations and redefining when, where, and how learning happens (Chen, 2010, location 264 of Kindle edition). George Lucas strongly believes education is the single most important job of the human race. Education Nation is a adding to the tools we are giving educators and many other to make change in their own communities (Lucas, 2010, location 317 of Kindle edition). Each chapter was written to showcase Edutopias media documentation of the edges o f educational change, (Chen, 2010, pg. 6), showing how leading-edge schools have changed their curriculum from textbook-based to project-based learning. There six edges total. Edge 1 sets the foundation for the others: the edge of educational thinking. The remaining edges represent the edges of curriculum, technology, time/place, teaching, and the youth edge of todays digital learners. Edge One: The Thinking Edge: Getting About Learning The first edge, the Thinking Edge, is according to Chen, the most fundamental. In order to create an Education Nation, we must change our thinking about the learning process and the possibilities of afforded by technology. In this chapter, Chen focuses on the idea of how updating our thinking can build on well-known and articulated philosophies about how children learn best as the child-centered approach of John Dewey. Deweys views are popular with progressive educators but are not popular with policymakers. Chen also uses work by Stanford professor and researcher, Carol Dweck, who describes childrens mindsets in her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success to further back his beliefs that our nation needs to apply the same views as we do on sports to education. Chen states on pg. 32-33, as a sports obsessed nation, parents would be up in arms about their children learning to play basketball from a textbook; memorizing terms and reading about what athletes do instead of actual hands-on experience such as learning to dribble and shoot a basketball. Sports require performance,

watching others perform, and observing oneself performing. Parents are settling for science, mathematics, history, and other subjects being taught through rote memorization of textbook definitions, while their children never get a chance to actively participate in real science or history. Chen believes parents should be up in arms about students not participating in active hands-on, minds-on learning in academic subjects not about learning sports through textbooks. In order to be an Education Nation, our curriculum and assessments need to improve. Edge 2: The Curriculum Edge: Real Learning and Authentic Assessment In this chapter, Chen recognizes that todays curriculum has not kept up with the rapid pace of change in every discipline. Chen states on pg. 35, that the very definition of what a course is, how it is organized, and what it covers needs to be reconceived for advances in 21st century knowledge. Subject silos prevent students from seeing the relevance of course and concepts, leading them to justifiably pose their most frequently asked question: Why do I need to know this? Chen offers successful examples of project-based learning and authentic assessment taking place via the Buck Institute for Educations PBL Handbook and PBL Starter Kit, as well as Suzie Boss and Jane Krausss Reinventing Project -Based Learning, and a literature review led by Linda Darling-Hammond. Some of the results of the Darling-Hammond review are as follows: 1. Students learn more deeply when they can apply classroom-gathered knowledge to real-world problems, and when they take part in projects that require sustained engagement and collaboration. 2. Active-learning practices have a more significant impact on student performance than any other variable, including student background and prior achievement. 3. Students are most successful when they are taught how to learn as well as what to learn. Through project-based curriculum, students are problem solving and finding solutions to issues involving their communities which essentially are authentic assessments. Edge 3: The Technology Edge: Putting Modern Tools in Young Hands Chen coins the phrase Weapons of Mass Instruction: One Student, One Computer. Edge 3 features a school on the north side of Chicago; VOISE (Virtual Opportunities Inside a School Environment), which provides two computers per student, one for the student s home use and one for school. If the family of the students cannot afford Internet access for their home, the school helps pay for it. These *computers+ are the weapons of mass instruction says Chen (pg. 88). We need to deploy in the war on illiteracy and innumeracy. Chen strongly believes if we are going to ever close the achievement gap, get all students to college, educate a modern workforce of teachers, we as a nation are going to need to get every student, teacher, and administrator a computer and access to the Internet. One-to-one access is now the digital civil right of every student to fully participate in his or her own education (Chen, 2010 pg. 88). In Edutopias coverage of innovative schools and programs, typical public school

students can perform at three grades above current standards with access to the latest technology. Chen also features a new use of a hand held device; the iPod. A technology director named Kathy Shirley from Escondido, California has found new use of the iPod for conducting fluency assessments of her students. Shirley had the idea of having her students record themselves reading on an iPod on their own time which may improve students reading skills once they listened to their personal recordings. Using the iPod for these fluency assessments enable students to record, analyze, and improve their reading. This method of assessment led to instant feedback with the use of iTunes and fluency practice. The iPod makes personal a process that has been painfully public (Chen, 2010, pg. 100).
Children enjoy being challenged and that they have greater learning outcomes when they are given the opportunity to actively construct new knowledge in an exciting way. -Seymour Papert

Edge 4: The Time/Place Edge: Learning Anytime, Anywhere The Time/Place edge represents the destruction of the old view of education happening within four walls of the classroom, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., with some homework thrown in after school. Repeat for 180 days, 31 weeks. Take three months off for the summer. Repeat (Chen, 2010, pg. 139). Chen (pg. 139) states the worlds learning resources are always on 24/7/365 and the institution of school is gradually shifting to enable learning anytime, anywhere. It is the achievement gap that has led efforts to provide more support and enrichment for lower-achieving students such as the following cutting edge of technology usage and accessibility: school buses. There was an article featured in the New York Times titled Wi-Fi Turns Rowdy School Bus into Rolling Study Hall. This story described how the Vail, Arizona, district turned its high school buses into mobile Wi-Fi hotspots, enabling students to finish homework, turn in assignments, and search for Internet resources during their 70-minute rides to school (Chen, 2010, pg. 140). With the use of the Internet buses, as the students call them, there has been an increase in learning time and a decrease in behavioral problems on the long bus rides. This chapter also focuses on our nation being tied down to the lockstep of the school day with learning being interrupted every 45-50 minutes with school bells. Other countries such as Germany and Japan have longer school days and years, with more time spent on core academic subjects (Chen, 2010, pg. 144). Our chopping bell schedules are interrupting learning. The hourly bell ritual prevents students from working in depth on projects in groups and travelling into the community to gather data or talk to local experts (Chen, 2010, pg. 144). To rectify this problem, some project-based learning experiences in certain schools have moved into after-school hours which include afternoons, evenings, weekends, and summers. It has also been suggested to have students attend school during the summer months as a third semester. Unless we profoundly change our thinking and policies about when, where, and how children learn and develop, our steady progress as an economy and a society will end (Chen, 2010, pg. 148).

Edge 5: The Co-Teaching Edge: Teachers, Experts, and Parents as Coeducators High-quality teachers are the keys to a students success yet the United States still does not pay teachers commensurate with their value, nor do we provide the working conditions, support staff, and professional development they need and deserve (Chen, 2010, pg. 189). The reason mentioned previous is the reason why Chen feels parents and experts in the community and abroad should be coeducators in our American students lives. The tyranny of time that has ruled over schedules for schools and students has constrained learning time for teachers as well (Chen, 2010, pg. 190). Some teachers are already much more collaborative, involving partnerships with other coeducators such as after-school educators, parents, and may types of professionals-to bring the innovative learning of the other edges to reality for students (Chen, 2010, pg. 193). A case studied featured in this chapter focuses on an organization from Tucson, Arizona called Opening Minds through the Arts. This organization uses its opera singers and orchestra members in the class to assist teachers with teaching reading to primary grade students. OMA musicians and teachers work together to provide students with experiences listening to expressive, illustrative language, using their bodies to act out feelings, and concepts and writing their own operas (Chen, 2010, pg. 194). Chen states (pg. 196) that every community has artists and writers, musicians and dancers, gardeners and chefs, and scientists and engineers who can contribute to the learning of its students. In addition to experts being coeducators, it is also important to have parental involvement when addressing childrens learning. A school in Sacramento, California involves their parents with the teachers through home visits. Every student and every family, not just those whose kids are misbehaving or falling academically, is involved in the project (Chen, 2010, 200). Many schools are also linking home and school via the Internet with programs such as PowerSchool and School Loop. These programs enable administrators and teachers to publish to the community information about the school including school news, calendar, and special events, a one-to-many solution (Chen, 2010, pg. 202). Edge 6: The Youth Edge: Digital Learners Carrying Change in Their Pockets The Youth Edge represents the biggest edge of all, the 50 million students in schools who are digital natives, who were born digital (Chen, 2010 pg. 213). In this final chapter, Chen describes how students of the 21st century are walking through schools, carrying a transformational change in their pockets in the form of powerful multimedia handheld devices. Chen concludes there are two large groups currently thriving in our nation; the native born and the digital immigrants, (those over the age of forty). Within the digital native generation, there are two generations; those who have only used PCs and MP3 players, whose fingers have never touched a typewriter or an audio tape recorder and those who have used all technology mentioned (born in the 1980s). The second generation of digital students has only known powerful multimedia computers which are capable of video editing and storing tens of thousands of photos and songs. It is this second generation that is carrying the reform out nation seeks with them. But these born digital natives still need caring adults who can lead them to the right digital learning experiences (Chen, 2010, pg. 217). Within this final chapter,

Chen features stories of students whom were born digital and their uses of technology for learning in school. These students were featured on the Edutopia.org website as well for being teachers of technology to younger students and to adults. Some of the students featured also give advice to adults concerning what they need to know about technology. Chen (pg. 232) states one of the most important new roles for students is to use their technological prowess to help their teachers teach. Todays youth are using digital media for new forms of learning: creating, collaborating, and teaching. Digital media potentially enables every student with access to the tools to express a much richer variety at earlier ages, on a regular, daily basis (Chen, 2010, pg. 227). This digital generation is using the Internet, computers, cell phones and smartphones, video games, and many other new tools to learn and socialize in ways that were not possible in previous generations. Conclusion The world is changing more rapidly than any other time in human history. Progress in education has been slow to change when compared with the pace of technology and global change. For us as a nation to fully take these edges detailed in Education Nation: Six Leading Edges of Innovation in our Schools, as a nation, we must come to a consensus about what is possible, understanding these edges, and having parents demand them. Our policymakers need to come to a consensus that education today is much more dense and diverse. There is also a constant connectivity to knowledge, people, and tools; changing human-computer relationship as technology takes on more tasks previously done by people. As a nation we must also come to the realization that education is and can be taken place outside of the four walls of a classroom. Students clearly want and deserve a digital learning environment. If adults provide it, students are ready and willing to carry more of the responsibility for their own learning, (Chen, 2010, location 5255 of Kindle edition). References: Darling-Hammond, L. (2008). Powerful learning: Studies show deep understanding derives from collaborative methods. Accessed at www.edutopia.org/inquiry-project-learningresearch. The Escondido school district iRead; http://sites.google.com/a/eusd.org/eusd-iread. Internet Ready School Buses; www.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/education/12bus.html. The National Summer Learning Association; www.summerlearning.org Opening Minds Through the Arts in Tucson, Arizona; www.edutopia.org/arts-openingminds-integration-video. Sacramento Parent-Teacher Home Visit Project ; www.edutopia.org/makingconnections-between-home-and-school.

School Loops; www.schoolloop.com.