Remembering Lee Kuan Yew
On March 29, 2015 world leaders both past and present from more than fifteen countries including China, India, Japan, Qatar, the United Kingdom and the United States, gathered on the island city-state of Singapore to pay their last respects and bid a final farewell to its founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, who passed away peacefully six […]
Online Networks: New Actors in Higher Education
With the expansion of hybrid learning spaces, career opportunities are much more conditioned by the building of networks than before, and the ability to build a digital identity allows better access to key professional networks. Using open licenses of content under Creative Commons; knowing how to create networking platforms; using social media; promoting face-to-face meetings with networks’ […]
China’s New Normal Requires a New Education
This article is adapted from a special address given by Dr. Yong Zhao at the Xinhuanet Thinker Conference in December 2014. Read the original address in Chinese. Innovation is the new fuel for China’s future growth. The world’s second largest economy is in great need of innovative talents, and thus an innovative education system. The most […]
Asia Needs More Male Champions for Gender Equality
When Warren Buffett issued a rallying call a couple of years ago for men to champion the advancement of women, the world took note. Exhorting fellow men to get on board, he said the prospect of unleashing the talent of 100 per cent of America’s human capacity made him an unbridled optimist about the nation’s future. From […]
The Power of an Educated Woman
On International Women’s Day, I would like to celebrate the ways in which the world has improved for women and girls. In many countries, primary and secondary school enrollment rates are the same for boys and girls. Two-thirds of all countries have reached gender parity in primary enrollment. Globally, however, 62 million girls between the […]
Should My Kids Learn to Code?
A recent article in The New York Times paints a fascinating picture of college prep hitting the playground, with first graders visiting college campuses, making diagrams of what classes they want to attend and filling mock applications to ensure that the class of 2030 is college-ready. Indeed, the ‘college admissions’ frenzy is now kicking off as early […]
Teachers Should Be Clamoring For Edtech
Most arguments for edtech focus on the ways in which new digital tools will help students. While learners will certainly benefit, the science fiction fear of robot teachers is exacerbated when we forget that edtech is fundamentally a tool for teachers. Great learning tools help teachers do their jobs more effectively by providing more data. […]
Parenting with Technology
When we relocated from Oklahoma City to Abilene, Texas, my kids were unhappy to leave their friends and teachers. My daughter, for instance, loved the lessons given by her violin teacher Dr. Hong Zhu. We decided to use Skype to continue the lessons, which seemed a wild idea for music lessons. We just wanted to […]
Intrinsic Motivation in Education and Video Games
Why is it that children can be so dedicated to learning and mastering the languages, systems, and patterns of video game worlds but not interested in school work, which teaches them how the languages, systems, and patterns of the life world around them? The answer is not a mystery. It is simple: context. Games give […]
Paul Tough: A New Take on ‘Character’
In this interview, Paul Tough – author of How Children Succeed and other works – redefines “character” as a collection of skills and habits that children can all practice, learn and improve, not least at school. “Character” refers to skills like the ability to persist, bounce back after a failure, or deal well with a confrontation. “They’re really about […]