IMAGINATION, CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION

--> 26% of Australian students – more than 1 in 4 – fail to complete year 12 at school or a vocational equivalent, according to the Educational Opportunity in Australia2015 report by the Mitchell Institute.   And the numbers are worse for those from socio-economically disadvantaged areas and worse again for Australian Indigenous students. Is this a failure rate that a business would put up with?   What if your business lost 1 of every 4 of your customers a year?   Every year?   Wouldn’t your business be in crisis mode?   So where is the panic from government?   Why aren’t the customers of our education system – the students and their parents and guardians – up in arms?   And the ultimate end-users – the businesses that need bright, creative new employees – why aren’t they screaming for change? How did we become so complacent about failing the next generation of employees and employers, of entrepreneurs and innovators? In poorer countries, where the provision

I’m acutely aware that I work in an industry filled with creative people.   People who have a talent for interpreting a syllabus, for understanding teacher and student needs and for fashioning and developing a product or a service that meets those needs.   I’m also aware that this is an industry with a conscience.   That we believe in what we do and that it makes a difference. Educational publishing has an opportunity to use its creativity, experience and social conscience to explore how technology can improve what we do and how we do it so that modern school needs can be better met. Here is a phrase that gets bandied about a lot.   “School is broken.”   But is it? In 1899, William T. Harris, the US commissioner of education, celebrated the fact that US schools had developed the “appearance of a machine,” one that teaches the student “to behave in an orderly manner, to stay in his own place, and not get in the way of others.” In other words – sch

--> Adapted from Reynolds, R   The Future of Learning Content 2012 Is content still king in schools?   The learning process is evolving because of technology.   The shift from analogue content to digital content is causing a number of changes. 1.      Tethered learning has become mobile.   Students are no longer tied to their classroom or their bulky textbook.   They can study anywhere and at any time on a laptop, tablet or smartphone.   Study materials have become tactile – we can touch, feel and interact with content in ways that we previously couldn’t.   Content can be presented in a variety of ways – useful video and animation complement text and flat illustrations. Example - http://dynamicscience.cambridge.edu.au 2.      In the ‘traditional’ chalk and talk classroom information was broadcast to students all at once.   Whether the students were listening to the teacher - reading a text or doing exercises, activities or tasks – they did it together,