Achievable, Deliverable … Anchored By 3 Pillars Of Education … Today …
The words sound important … and enigmatic … Global Education Transformation … a fitting term for the Knowledge Society. Increasingly, the three words are read together and spoken more often. The term is becoming part of the “world speak”.
In reality, Global Education Transformation is not either an abstract concept or a term-of-art or the most recent “buzz words”. And GET is not the project or initiative of any one organization, businesses or country. See, Transforming Education for a World of Opportunity, Transformation Of Education, Cisco Global Education Transformation, ATC21S.
GET is an international call-to-action for transformative education that prepares all public school students for the rigors of university [college] and the Global Economy Workforce, K-12→College→Career.The call-to-action is necessitated and made all the more significant by the convergence of three global crises … . financial, economic and academic … and the inexorable fact that …
1.2 Billion Youth join the Global Economy by 2015 … 90% of them are not prepared with the 21st Century Skills needed by the Global Economy Workforce …
GET … Best Educators, Best OER Content & Best Applied-Learning Programs For All Public Schools K-12→College→Career …
Another, equally important fact exists: Today, Global Education Transformation [GET … the best Educators … best OER Content … and best Applied-Learning Programs … can be delivered to transform education for all public schools and assure that every student, at every grade level, at every public school both attains and can apply 21st Century Skills with proficiency, K-12→College→Career:
… Ah, The Naysayers …
There are … and will no doubt always be … the naysayers. They will ask: How can every public school be served with the best educators, best OER content, and best applied-learning programs?
So, at this juncture, it must be acknowledged that acts of nature and mankind can always deter progress and interrupt the flow and delivery of education … anywhere … everywhere. Tsunamis, tornadoes, earthquakes and hurricanes can wreck havoc on property, lives … and education … across the lands … from remote, rural communities to the industrialized urban centers of countries, worldwide.
So, too, can the violence of men and warfare among nations disrupt and destroy lives, property and education. And remote, rural communities with no Internet, few computers, and sparse libraries pose serious challenges to the delivery of education under even the best circumstances … A robust infrastructure of fast Internet connectivity, servers and computers are needed for all public schools to be competitive and enable their students to learn and apply 21st Century Skills with proficiency.
But no matter how long the disruption or how severe the challenges … the fact remains: Global Education Transformation, anchored by 3 Pillars Of Education … can deliver the Best Educators, Best OER Content, and Best Applied-Learning Programs … today … for all public schools, worldwide, K-12→College→Career … even if interim measures of mobile labs and printed materials must be used in the short-to-mid term.
… 3 Pillars Of Education Transformation …
3 Pillars Of Education, together, anchor Global Education Transformation. That is the message leading international educators convincingly discussed with The Ford Program-GEI Project during three years of collaborations, 2006-2008. Each of the 3 Pillars Of Education that anchor transformative education is grounded on a well-developed and tested track record. Each of the 3 Pillars has been recommended by researchers and educators, worldwide.
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Pillar I: Teachers-As-Education Coaches’ Training … enables leading local and international educators provide core STEM subject matter and 21st Century Skills’ training with mentoring and follow up for all public school teachers … both in-service and pre-service teachers … and for STEM public university graduate fellows.
Pillar I will also establish a Teachers-As-Education Coaches [TEC] network at each public school where more experienced STEM teachers help train and mentor new and less experienced in-service teachers, pre-service “practicum” teachers, and STEM education graduate fellows. Pre-service teachers are a critically important group. Ignore this group, and the cycle of classroom teachers who under perform will continue. Sustainable, cost-effective education transformation cannot occur unless pre-service teachers are regarded as professionals and required to receive 21st Century professional development training.
Equally important to transformative education is the sizable group of graduate fellows in STEM education. University graduate fellows are often overlooked and almost always under-utilized as education transformation-resource assets.
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Pillar II: 21st Century MultiMedia eLibrary … enables delivery of the best OER STEM content and best world STEM educators who demonstrate the best practices for teaching government-mandated curricula and incorporating 21st Century Skills into the STEM school work … on demand and at the finger tips of all public school teachers and students, K-12→College→Career.
Cost-effective, transformative, multimedia technologies exist today capable of delivering excellence in education globally to all public schools, K-12→College. These web 2 technologies can “capture the teaching” of the best world educators, accelerate the scope and depth of student learning, transform both the classroom and the teacher-student learning relationship, and strengthen the Global Economy. The web 2 technologies, with their ability to capture the best training by the best educators, worldwide, are available, today … and in many instances … at no additional cost. See, “Supporting Data Technology Templates”
Pillar II is the cornerstone of Global Education Transformation. It is through the Pillar II – 21st Century MultiMedia eLibrary that education transformation becomes systemic, scalable and sustainable … and highly cost-effective. It is with Pillar II that aggregate savings in remedial training of over $2.0 billion, USD, a year can result, worldwide. Because it is Pillar II that can deliver the best content and best world educators, on demand, at the finger tips of all public school teachers and students for training, mentoring and follow up, and closing painful education gaps from K-12→College, worldwide.
Without Pillar II, all in-service and pre-service public school teachers cannot receive both core subject matter and 21st Century Skills’ training with mentoring and follow-up by the best educators. Without Pillar II, systemic, scalable, sustainable transformative education is simply not cost-effectively possible for all public schools, K-12→College→Career.
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Pillar III: Students’ STEM Applied-Learning ILAB Training … enables closure of painful K-12→College→Career education gaps; and assures that every student, at every grade level, at every public school attains and can apply 21st Century Skills with proficiency, K-12→College→Career.
It is the Pillar III – Students’STEM Applied-Learning iLAB Training that accelerates 21st Century learning and closure of painful College education gaps for all students; and enables students to excel in understanding and applying all 21st Century Skills, K-12→College→Career. With Pillar III, countries worldwide develop the next-generation leading scientists, engineers, technologists, educators and executives locally, regionally, and nationally within public schools, K-12→College→Career.
Pillar III functions primarily to extend K-12→College school work by enabling students to research; collaborate locally, nationally and internationally; learn and apply all 21st Century Skills and Bloom’s Taxonomy Learning Domains to real-world issues; and produce real-world work products in science and engineering issues challenging the Global Economy. With Pillar III, students can apply their core STEM subjects and other 21st Century Skills to clean water, alternative energy, environmental preservation, preventing communicable diseases and climate change, nanotechnology, biotechnology and controlling biohazardous materials.
Pillar III is the spark plug that accelerates education transformation and Global Economy workforce development in the 21st Century. Pillar III develops the next generation of leaders who excel among the Global Economy competition.
… 2 Consortia Oversee Education Transformation: STEM Education Consortium & Training Mentors’ Consortium …
Overseeing the design, delivery and implementation of the 3 Pillars Of Education are two Education Consortia, both critically important for implementing transformative education: the STEM Education Consortium and Training-Mentors’ Consortium.
(i) STEM Education Consortium, is comprised of leading experts in science, math, engineering and technology from K→12 education systems, colleges and universities, businesses and government agencies across the country, region or state. The STEM Education Consortium will form a“STEM Think Tank”for reviewing STEM education and making recommendations to government education departments, to assure that the country, region or state is not just competitive, but also able to excel among the Global Economy competition. In addition, the STEM Education Consortium can select and convene the Training-Mentors’ Consortium … the second consortium vital for successful implementation of education transformation.
(ii) Training-Mentors’ Consortium, consists of experienced educators in both STEM and other academic areas, K-12→College. This Consortium will form the accessible educational body to assure the creation and usage of an on site Teachers-As-Education Coaches’ [TEC] network at all public schools, K-12→College. The TEC network will include experienced onsite educators who will train, mentor and follow up with both new in-service and pre-service teachers and with students, →Career.The training provided by TEC network experienced educators can be recorded with the web 2 technologies that form the Pillar II – 21st Century Multi Media eLibrary,. which will make the TEC network systemic, scalable and sustainable.
… The GET Formula = 3 Pillars Of Education + 2 Education Consortia … .
3 Pillars Of Education Transformation plus 2 Education Consortia Economy is the formula for delivering transformative education that closes education gaps … reduces the $2 billion spent annually on remedial education for new university and college freshman who do not have needed STEM and other required skills … and assures that every student, at every grade level, at every public school will attain and be able to apply 21st Century Skills with proficiency, K-12→College→Career.
… GET Benefits …
There are eight ROI benefits to countries, regions and states from GET anchored by 3 Pillars Of Education:
- Increased base of qualified in-service and pre-service public school teachers with strong core subject matter and 21st Century Skills’ competencies, K-12→College→Career;
- Increased base of qualified public school students with strong STEM and other 21st Century Skills, K-12→Career;
- Increased core subject matter and 21st Century Skills’ Training for all public school teachers and students, K-12→Career;
- Reduced costs of training for public school systems, K-12→College→Career;
- Increased time and ability of teachers to provide RTI [response to intervention] and differentiated [flexible, adapted] instruction as needed and when needed by diverse student populations;
- Increased funding for development and installation of updated 21st Century computer and science labs with immersive learning and simulations that increase the scope and depth of applied learning and knowledge acquisition, K-12→College→Career;
- Increased funding for developing more challenging, interdisciplinary curricula applied to real-world issues at all levels of the K-12→College continuum of learning; and
- Increased funding for developing more interdisciplinary core subject matter and 21st Century Skills’ assessments of both teachers’ and students’ performance levels, K-12→College→Career.
… Potential Black Holes Of Waste …
Unfortunately, there are also five significant areas that can turn education transformation efforts into black holes that waste billions of dollars and the lives of more than 1.2 billion students, worldwide:
- Absence Of Real Implementation: Truly transformative education requires not only a comprehensive business plan that states the vision, strategy and hoped-for objectives; an implementation plan must also be provided with important details of how, when, and where the business plan will be executed and objectives will be measured over 12-18 month increments. And, both the business plan and implementation plan(s) must be thoroughly reviewed by funders, funding recipients and other education stakeholders, and collaboratively revised as needed.
- Systemic, Scalable And Sustainable … On Paper Only: Unless education transformation can consistently and cost-effectively connect the best online educators, OER content and applied-learning programs to on-ground grassroots public schools, K-12→College, the concept of systemic, scalable and sustainable transformation is illusory. At best, education transformation efforts will become terminable initiatives … and frequently before completion. The interrelated 3 Pillars Of Education Transformation … collectively … can deliver truly systemic, scalable and sustainable implementation. But, critical to systemic, scalable and sustainable education transformation is an infrastructure with a robust Internet backbone that enables public schools to connect continuously with one another and with the best world educators and best content through comprehensive, applied-learning programs and web 2 technologies, K-12→College→Career.
- Bureaucracy: The roles and responsibilities of the STEM Education Consortium and Training-Mentors’ Consortium, and onsite TEC network at public schools are crucial to successful implementation of all 3 Pillars Of Education. But, great care, thoughtful reasoning and detailed planning and review are required to put safeguards in place that prevent such Consortia and networks from becoming unwieldy bureaucracies with exorbitant costs and expenses.Cost-effective,even free multimedia technologies and content management systems [CMS] can help prevent a crushing overload of bureaucratic implementation for education transformation.
- Politicization: Global education transformation is not the property of politics. Excellence-in-education is the need and right of more than 1.2 billion youth, worldwide, and of all the youth that come after them. Systemic, scalable, sustainable global education transformation through the 3 Pillars Of Education provides the backbone of excellence-in-education for countries, worldwide, to compete and excel among the Global Economy competition. And truly systemic scalable, sustainable global education transformation provides the backbone of sustainable economic growth and development, national sovereignty and international security.
- Access Without True Accountability: With a comprehensive business plan and incremental 12-18 month implementation plans … the GET formula 3 Pillars Of Education + 2 Consortia can provide access to transformative education, worldwide. But, without true accountability at every level of education, K-12→College, there will be continued waste of billions of dollars and the lives of our youth, the world’s greatest assets and next generation leaders.
… GET Blueprint … Modifiable By Grassroots’ Stakeholders …
The GET formula … 3 Pillars Of Education Transformation under the aegis of 2 Consortia … is a blueprint for transformative education recommended by leading international educators to establish a strong foundation of long-term growth for 21st Century public school education that is the backbone of sustainable economic development, national sovereignty, multinational collaborations and understanding, and international security.
The formula is not intended to be a panacea. Strong leadership for education transformation will always be needed from grassroots education stakeholders, including private-public partnerships of government departments / ministries of education with private foundations and businesses, parents, local community leaders and non-government organizations. Education stakeholders will no doubt add other important components or pillars for transformative education, which may include: superintendent and principal [school administrator] training; community outreach, education and support; and greater parent-teacher involvement and collaborative efforts.
The success of education transformation ultimately depends upon both access to excellence in education by all public school teachers and students, and true accountability from all public school education systems and education stakeholders. The 3 Pillars Of Education can deliver systemic, scalable and sustainable access to the highest quality education for all public schools, K-12→College→Career. It is strong leaders for education transformation from local and regional grassroots’ education stakeholders who must require true accountability.
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