Hope for the future

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With Greece, global recessions and the possibility of yet another war, it's nice to find some hope for the future. Amidst global belt-tightening the government funded-education is being called upon to do more with less. Programs like full-day kindergarten which have a significant amount of research documenting the benefits are being questioned. Teachers as a union worker are the root of all that ails our economy. When teachers are vilified our collective futures are at risk.

As i've said before, I'm a huge fan of the the Khan Academy. Short and to the point. It explains a specific concept using easy to understand examples.

Now from the makers of some of the most inspirational videos TED comes TED-Ed. The objective is to provide videos to get students excited about broad subjects. They recognize all the great granular instruction out there and are building something complimentary. I'm very happy that people aren't trying to reinvent things and corner the market.

At the same time a very interesting piece from the NYT on a recent   OECD  study with the relationship between countries levels of education and their focus on mining. talks of the inverse correlation between resource-extracting focussed countries vs people-developing countries. While our natural resources are finite it's good to see countries prospering in a more sustainable manner. It's a lesson that all countries can learn from that the easy money with resources isn't always the best way.

To capture and amplify the world's best lessons to excite learners worldwide definitely a noble cause.

Related Posts:
http://tedchris.posterous.com/behind-todays-ted-ed-launch
http://shaunbala.blogspot.com/2011/07/gamification-of-everything.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/opinion/sunday/friedman-pass-the-books-hold-the-oil.html

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