Into the Driver's Seat

Education may be the passport to the future, but for all the good teaching out there, it would seem that schools are failing to impart some of the most important life skills, according to one educational expert.

Dr. Tony Wagner, co-director of Harvard's Change Leadership Group, argues that today’s school children are facing a “global achievement gap”, which is the gap between what even the best schools are teaching and the skills young people need to learn.

This has been exacerbated by two colliding trends: firstly, the global shift from an industrial economy to a knowledge economy, and secondly, the way in which today’s school children – brought up with the internet – are motivated to learn.

In his book The Global Achievement Gap, Wagner identifies seven core competencies every child needs in order to survive in the coming world of work.

1. Critical thinking and problem-solving

Skype is a great tool to use in learning as it provides real time engagement with experts. This a great article with ideas about thinking outside of the box when integrating Skype. 

Microsoft recently showcased a new Skype feature that allows for real-time, two-way, voice translation! This feature will make the Skype Cultural Exchange even more extensible and will allow those who use Skype for non-native language acquisition to have in-depth conversations, in their own languages, about their progress and issues in their learning. 

Rescooped from Sarah Kozlowski. This make distance learning possible for virtual classrooms. While this setup up isn't ideal for a lot of virtual classroom setups, it can work as a low-tech solution.