How to bring schools into 21st century

This article just came out. What I like it about
includes

(1) Knowing more about the world.
(2) Thinking outside the box
(3) Becoming smarter about new sources of information
(4) Developing good people skills

I have taught K-college and presently am a gifted education consultant/ teacher at a High school near Kansas City. These 4 ideas are for all students.

With (1), students should use the internet all resources including TV to learn about the world. On 12/11/2006 there was an interested Discover program on killer jellyfish. I saw these lethal Box jellyfish when I was in the Aquarium in Capetown , South Africa. I knew about these creature but I learned more. They "sleep"and swim faster then humans!I learned more when I looked up further information on Wikipedia (valuable).Our Enigma projects , they have to separater Fact from Opinion. And you need to write notes about what your learning on the internet, not copy it.

With (2) I have students try acivities that stress what I call CFC (Creative, Futuristic and Critical ) Thinking. I expect them to try the activities the best they can and try , try , try. Since many of the activities are nearly all impossible to get, they get credit for trying too.

Number (3) relates to the use of technology and information. I always use Google but Ask has some good information. It is important to use keywords to trim you list of words to activitate and have them in order or importance to find better article, websites and more. And I show the students how to use The utility Trackstar which can find good webistes which have already been selected by teachers. Cuts down on their "fishing for websites " and wasting time.

And (4) I am always learning too. I wish some of my students would say "please " and " thank you " more often. Look up emotional intelligence articles for more insights into more about this too.

Well the article is below. Enjoy.

Dr. Eric Flescher, Olathe, KS(dreric1kansas@aol.com)

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How to bring schools into 21st century
POSTED: 9:38 a.m. EST, December 10, 2006

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/12/10/time.cover.tm/index.html

Editor's note: The following is a summary of this week's Time magazine cover story.
(Time.com) -- -- American schools aren't exactly frozen in time, but considering the pace of change in other areas of life, our public schools tend to feel like throwbacks.
Kids spend much of the day as their great-grandparents once did: sitting in rows, listening to teachers lecture, scribbling notes by hand, reading from textbooks that are out of date by the time they are printed.