Educational Innovators Ask ‘Why Can’t Learning Be Fun?’

Educational Innovators Ask ‘Why Can’t Learning Be Fun?’
July 02, 2013
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=198013793

Guests:

Larry Scripp is the founding director and principal researcher for the Center for Music in Education. That’s a research and development organization that helps schools develop arts education programs

Jessie Woolley-Wilson is CEO of DreamBox Learning. That company develops computer-based learning programs that adapt to individual students.

Remember the days when everything from ABCs to math and the arts were taught the same way to every student? Well now, innovations in education are changing the ways that children learn. Host Michel Martin finds out more at the Aspen Ideas Festival.

how do you diversify learning?

DreamBox Learning
2008
http://appscout.pcmag.com/web-services/275211-dreambox-learning-serious-learning-that-s-seriously-fun
DreamBox is more fun than a media textbook and has more substance than a video game, with educational elements sprinkled into the gameplay.

Do not be afraid to use disappointment to create something

Avoiding The Post-Millennial Mid-Life Crisis
July 02, 2013
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=198013801

Guests:

Meg Jay, she is a clinical psychologist. She’s author of the book “The Defining Decade,” about thriving during your 20s. She’s also a mom of two.

Daniel Kim is the 33-year-old founder and CEO of Lit Motors. That’s a sustainable transportation company.

Dr. Pamela Cantor is a psychiatrist. She works with children. She’s the CEO of Turnaround for Children, which helps improve low-performing schools. She’s also a mom of five and grandmoth er of 15.

There’s been no shortage of articles written about how twenty-somethings are struggling to turn the corner into adulthood. But psychologist Meg Jay says it’s not because they lack opportunity: it’s because they lack motivation.
She joins host Michel Martin for a special parenting segment to discuss life skills for millennials.

broadcast from the Aspen Ideas Festival 

CANTOR: the tolerance for kids failing is very low, and the requirement for kids to do something unusual – very high.

calibration of failure

JAY: So I became an Outward Bound instructor, which had a lot of identity capital, didn’t make a lot of money, but it helped me get into Berkeley…

identity capital – it’s a sociologist term. It means that it’s something that said a lot about who I was, what I was capable of, what I was about, and what I might want to do next. So it had a lot of grit, and it said a lot about my commitment to working with people, being willing to work hard.

CANTOR: them to like – to really be able to see the opportunity that is in front of them.
And sometimes that’s guided by curiosity, but sometimes it’s really guided by disappointment.
So do not be afraid to use that disappointment to create something.

related:
http://www.wired.com/2014/09/two-common-misconceptions-about-learning