Guest Commentary: Chris Dede--21st Century Education Requires Lifewide Learning

Christopher Dede is the Timothy E. Wirth Professor in Learning Technologies at Harvard Graduate School of Education. His fields of scholarship include emerging technologies, policy, and leadership. He, along with other members of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, took over Education Week's "The Future of School Reform" blog to post their viewpoints. In his post, Dede writes, "Educational transformation is coming not because of the increasing ineffectiveness of schools in meeting society's needs - through that is certainly a good reason - but due to their growing unaffordability." "New media are at the heart of innovative models for education: empowering new forms of learning and teaching while simultaneously contributing to the obsolescence of traditional schools/universities as educational vehicles," he continues. "In the past five years, social media, immersive interfaces from the entertainment industry, and ubiquitous mobile broadband devices have coalesced in powerful ways to empower and integrate learning in and out of school. Too often, I have seen educational technologies used to put "old wine in new bottles." Now, if we seize the moment, we not only can have new wine - such as peer mentoring anytime, anyplace - but also can move beyond the "bottle" of the stand-alone school, he adds. Click here to read his complete post.