Education Committee Discussion

Provo Accelerated's Education Working Group has posted some thoughts about their discussions on how to accelerate public education with the technology assets in our community.  Thoughts and comments are welcome about these key questions.

Foundational Questions 

• What are our community’s educational needs? 
• Are we fulfilling a need, or are we developing new innovation? 
• What do we want to be known for? 
• What makes us special/different? 
• How do we establish ourselves as players in economic growth and development? 
• How do we help failing kids? 
• When could we convene an event in Provo to share our ideas? 
• How do we teach differently with Google Fiber? 
• Who should be on our advisory board? 
• How should we publicize our plan? 
• How do we prepare our students for the future? 
• How can we make it go viral? 

New Learning Models 

• What if we could expand a student’s experience around the world without purchasing a plane ticket? 
• How do we teach entrepreneurship skills to kids? 
• How can we use a competency-based model to unleash creativity in kids? 
• What if we could help people gain new skills and/or certify with less cost? 
• What if our community could develop a pilot/magnet school that served as a “showcase” of what is possible in early/middle grades? 
• What if we created a model school for visitors? 
• How can this work serve non-traditional learning? How can this work serve traditional learning? 
• What if we could bring lecturers in from all over the world? 
• What if we could make the online learning environment more social and interactive? 
• How do we establish thought leadership in personalized learning? 
• What if all of our classrooms were connected and led by innovative teachers? 
• What if we could encourage recreational learning at all ages w/quality learning opportunities focused around tech and innovation? 

Partnerships 

• What if we could use tech/internet to connect students with subject area experts? 
• What if UVU offered online concurrent enrollment? 
• Which thought leaders can we invite to participate? 
• What if our schools had daily partners who demonstrated how they use technology/internet to promote innovation/entrepreneurship ideals? 
• How can we build a powerful apprenticeship system? 
• What if we could share best practices? 
• What if we could align efforts? 
• How can we connect with/feature local experts? 
• How can we get other mayors and chambers of commerce to visit? 
• How do we leverage shared resources? 
• How can we share our city more with others? 
• What if we could easily share resources and content? 

Digital Divide

• What if we could make Provo cultural/educational events(live streams and archives) available to anyone? 
• How do we leverage ubiquitous connectivity? 
• What if we could leverage high-speed internet to ensure that education quality doesn't depend on household income level? 
• How can we leverage social media? 
• How do we assist residents to overcome the digital divide? 
• What if 100% of households found the internet to be relevant to their lives? 

Production 

• How do we teach kids to use technology to produce value vs. only consume “stuff”? 
• Change how we teach and what we teach. 
• What if we created public collaborative learning centers(e.g. for online students to gather and share ideas, coding/development academies for kids, maker spaces, etc.)? 
• Create master/competency based education?