I couldn’t have said it better myself! This is what I want to keep on an index card to pass out to those people who either have never heard of the Khan Academy (seriously?) or who scoff at it’s relevance or purpose in our education system. In fact, I just may whip a few up when I finish this post! Leave a comment below if you want me to send you your own!
“This has absolutely nothing to do with replacing teachers. When we talk about getting lectures out of the room, that’s because we think we can move teachers up the value chain. That they are better off forming the bonds and connections. That’s what you need a human being to do and for a really great teacher to do. Khan Academy takes some of the more traditional stuff off the plate and now, all of a sudden, the classroom becomes a richer and more stimulating experience.” ~ Sal Khan
Are people born innovators, or can they learn to become that way? An interesting new book, “Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World,” by Tony Wagner, a member of Harvard’s Technology and Entrepreneurship Center, explores this question in detail. The book will be released on April 17th – I can’t wait! In the book, Wagner does some pretty cool things.
He uses over 60 QR codes within the book to link to video footage of many of the interviews he undertook for the research into this book.
He outlines what he sees as the four main characteristics of an innovator – which, not surprisingly, are very similar to the 4 C’s of 21st century education:
Curiosity, the habit of asking good questions and a desire to understand things more deeply
Collaboration, which begins with listening to and learning from others who have distinct perspectives and expertise
Associative or integrative thinking
A bias toward action and experimentation
He talks to loads of really interesting people who share really interesting ideas with him from their perspective, on innovation:
How important is innovation? How important is oxygen to life? Dean Kamen, Segway Inventor
Raising someone with the intention that they’ll be an innovator is actually different to raising a child that you want to behave all the time and be quite compliant. Annemarie Neal, CISCO Vice President
Knowledge is a commodity. You can get this on Google. It’s about asking the right questions. It’s about having the right insights and perceptions. Richard Miller, Olin College
Let them fail. Because they are going to learn more from that than we could ever teach them directly. Unknown
Here is the book trailer that I can almost guarantee will leave you wanting more. The reviews thus far indicate that this is ‘must have’ for those looking to move themselves or their students or children forward as innovators in the 21st Century – and beyond!
Khan Academy Co-Deans for Art and History Beth Harris and Steven Zucker have created over 100 videos as part of the new Google Art Project, which launches today.
The Google Art Project attempts to provide more access to Museums and works of Art. The Google Art Project is an initiative to provide thousands of high quality, high resolution images from museums across the globe in one place, making art’s history, meaning and beauty available in ways never possible before.
Harris and Zucker have added 90 Khan Academy videos, like the one below, to the project. The videos offer a unique opportunity to view paintings and works of art that would otherwise be inaccessible unless you were to travel to their museum home. The videos have close up frames – so close, that in the case of the Van Gogh Bedroom video, you can see the layers of paint on the canvas as they describe his thick, heavy style.
In addition to the videos, there is a section called Look Like An Expert which offers tutorials on topics such as The Birth of Avant-Garde, Signature Strokes and Hidden Meanings, in which you can learn all kinds of tips that you would normally pick up from the friendly docent at your museum. Here is an example from the Signature Strokes tutorial:
Look closely. Can you read these signature styles? Which eye is from the seventeenth century, before artists experimented more aggressively with color and brushwork to construct the forms of the face?
The coolest part (in my opinion) is that once you have explored the extensive galleries, learned all these inside tips from the experts and really brushed up (pun intended) on your art history and appreciation skills, there is a whole list of DIY choices for you to actually USE this resource in hands on ways beyond simply looking. The options are diverse and really cool, utilizing both online content, tech tools and good old fashioned art supplies – depending on which project you choose. Here is the current line up of DIY projects:
YouGalleryTry on the role of curator by creating an Exhibit in the Google Art Project, choosing a style or artist and deciding the order in which people will view your collection.
RebusCreate links between one piece of art to the next. Create your own collection but with a twist – have your audience try and find the key that connects one piece to the next.
Remix If you could bring one piece of work home, how would you display it? What would the room look like? And what would someone wear whilst in your room, looking at your art, in order to complement the style of the art work?
Wildlife Photo ExpeditionYou are on safari – in the art museum! How many creatures can you find amongst the art works? Take pictures for your scrapbook!
The Lens of NowHow would the works of art from history be transformed if they had been created today? What would their narrative be?
Materials MatterThe materials that art is made from can change the way we view it. Pick a favorite from the gallery and then grab some materials and recreate it in a different media.
Inventing ColorCreate your own gallery based on the Color Wheel, choosing images that represent segments of the wheel.
Scavenger HuntSend your friends on a Scavenger Hunt through the Google Art Gallery!
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the MuseumEvery piece that makes it to a museum has lived somewhere else beforehand. This information is included in the ‘details’ section of each art work. Think beyond this and create your own story behind how a piece of art made it to the museum.
Whilst looking through all of this amazing stuff, I came across something I hadn’t seen before which I thought was too cool not to pass on: Sesame Street’s brilliant, “Three Primary Colors”. Maria Popova of the fabulous blog,Brainpickings, wrote of this short stop-motion film, “it might just be the finest treat for budding designers.” Enjoy!
sonya terborg 