1. The 21st Century, Knowledge Age School
Our Future
Go direct to full site© 2009, Barry Wansborough

2. The 21st Century, Knowledge Age School
Our present school system will not
provide the knowledge or skills our
citizens will need for the 21st Century.
We need a pilot 21st Century
Knowledge Age School.
Now.

3. The 21st Century, Knowledge Age (KA) School
Why?
The Educational Reasons:
 one third of Ontario’s elementary students fail
to meet the provincial standards of literacy and
numeracy
 one quarter of high school students drop out
before graduation – a further one quarter of the
students are arguably undereducated.
 one third of the Toronto students have no
academic help outside the classroom.

4. The 21st Century, Knowledge Age School
Why?
The Economic Reasons:
 Manufacturing and Web 1.0 technology (20% of
wealth base and diminishing) has moved to Mexico,
China and India.
 Natural resources (10% of wealth base) are depleting
and are more costly to harvest in a Green era, but will
help in the short term.
 Service sector (70% of wealth base) is the potential
remaining source for new long term wealth generation.
Different skills and knowledge are required to build
wealth in this sector.
The old era is over
Shift Happens

5. The 21st Century, Knowledge Age School
Does that mean we’re lost? No.
Fareed Zakaria
Because we have:
 The foundation, funding and tradition of
universal, compulsory, public education
 A diverse, multi-cultural and very ambitious
population with major links to most other nations
 An economy that can support the transformation
better than in most other countries
 No other country, except for the USA, is ahead of
us so far.

6. The 21st Century, Knowledge Age School
What are these skills for the 21st
Century?
Why can’t schools just adapt to them?

7. The 21st Century, Knowledge Age School
The 21st Century skills
Ken Kay
 Mastery of core skills and content
 Team work, partnerships and collaboration
 Critical thinking and analytical skills
 Problem solving skills
 Creative and innovative approaches
 Superior personal and technical communication skills
 Flexible organization skills
 Personal management skills
 Comfortably operating in a Web 2.0, 3.0 and future
electronic environments
 Global awareness and understanding
It’s not about laptops. It's about shouldertops.

8. The 21st Century, Knowledge Age School
Why can’t the schools just change to meet the
new needs?
 Because teachers are mandated first and
foremost to deliver ‘subjects’ to ‘classes of students’
and only incidentally to build learning, solving and
co-operative skills – even among themselves.
 Because ‘content’ is the master, not the servant.
 Because most of the requisite 21st Century skills
and technology are inconsequential in schools.

9. The 21st Century, Knowledge Age School
Inconsequential?
Key 21st Century skills that are presently
incidental or not commonly counted for marks:
 Collaboration/ teamwork/partnerships
 Most Web 2.0 programs and devices
 Team self-directed program organization
 Group problem solving for marks
 Schedule outside of timetabled subject classes
 Innovative/creative thinking
 Skills in Web 2.0 world
 Global awareness and understanding
Learning is still a personal contract between
individual teachers and students, K to 25.

10. The 21st Century, Knowledge Age School
But there are all sorts of reformed, ‘alternative
schools’ and/or programs:
 Arts
 Athletics
 GBLT – diverse gender identity
 Sleep deprived
 Optional attendance
 Single sex
 Africentric
 Individually timetabled
 Distance
These are socially reconfigured schools, not
educationally reformed.
Educational reform is creating a new system,
no matter what the social configuration.

11. The 21st Century, Knowledge Age School
That being the case, what’s next?
Putting the pieces together

12. The 21st Century, Knowledge Age School
Key 21st Century elements involved in
creating the KA School:
 Curriculum/program (Results that Matter)
 Organization (The Economist, January 21, 2006)
 Facilities (The Language of School Design)
Prakash Nair
Form follows function

13. The 21st Century, Knowledge Age School
Curriculum/Program: From classroom to
directed learning -
 Team based
 Problem solving design
 Key skills and content covered
 Organized around a growing understanding of
community
Schools organized in divisions by ages of students: Up
to 7 years old; 8 and 9; 10 and 11; Middle I, 12 and 13;
Middle II, 14 and 15; and Senior, 16 and 17.

14. The 21st Century, Knowledge Age School
The Learning Organization:
Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline
Teacher created/directed curriculum/program designed
to a mandate from the Board:
Vision: Prosperity in the Knowledge Age
Mission: Create an organizational model that reflects and
realizes the vision
Goals: 90% of the students to graduate from school and 70%
prepared to follow further education
Values: No harm, inclusive, accountable
Implementation: Community exploration frame, deepening
over the years to grow into global partners.

15. The 21st Century, Knowledge Age School
Facilities:
From ‘cells and bells’ to ‘community’ learning centre.
To accommodate at least 15 learning modalities
Independent study
Peer tutoring
Team collaboration
Teacher one-on-one
Lectures
Projects
Web 2.0 + technology based
Distance learning
Individual/team exhibition/performance driven
Problem-based team learning
Community service-oriented
Green and geothermal
Collaborative and partnership-based
Centred on the Personal Learning Profile
Active, constructivist learning
 With acknowledgements to Piaget, Gardner and Nair et
al.

16. The 21st Century, Knowledge Age School
Facilities
From this:

17. The 21st Century, Knowledge Age School
To this:

18. The 21st Century, Knowledge Age School
Supported
by this:

19. The 21st Century, Knowledge Age School
In Green
From this:

20. The 21st Century, Knowledge Age School
To this

21. The 21st Century, Knowledge Age School
And
over the
longer term
to this:

22. The 21st Century, Knowledge Age School
And Now to Action:
Realizing the 21st Century Knowledge Age
School:
The Pilot

23. The 21st Century, Knowledge Age School
The Action Plan
Steering Team
Management Team
Operations Team
Vision
Mission
Goals
Values
COO/Manager
CFO
Design/architect
Organization
facilitator
Curriculum
facilitator
Tech facilitator
Teachers
Working with
Management team

24. The 21st Century, Knowledge Age School
$7,300,000$4,800,000Totals
500,000500,000Web 2.0/Eq’pm’t
500,000500,000Green/
Geothermal
3,000,0002,000,000Facilities
2,500,0001,250,000Educators’ team
600,000450,000Management team
200,000100,000Steering team
HighLowItem
Cost Ranges for the Pilot Project

25. The 21st Century, Knowledge Age School
And the Payback is -
$760,000 lifetime earnings:
+ welfare, health care, detention
savings
One saved student“
Annual 20,000 dropouts mean
$280,000,000 potential
income gain
Nil“
Attract new students = more
income
Nil“
Whole new industry for job
growth in the new economy.
1,000’s of export jobs.
Marketing to global market“
With out-of-country paid
enrolment: $3,000,000 p.a.
Annual budget $6,000,000“
Leading schools good for
community prosperity
$5 million to 7 million.21st
C KA School
3 years’ payback$500,000Green/geothermal
Seminal investment$2,500,000Trained Core Team of 35
educators
PaybackValue/costItem

26. The 21st Century, Knowledge Age School
Where do we find the investment?
Public/private partnership
Government (Ministry and School Board): (One half of funds)
The facility
The normal per pupil operating budget
Share educational preparation
Steering/management set-up
Public subscription: (One quarter of funds)
Foundations, Corporations and Chambers of Commerce
Share educational preparation
Share renovations
Corporate providers (ground floor of huge new industry) (One
quarter of funds)
Green/geothermal
Web 2.0 systems and equipment
Share renovations

27. The 21st Century, Knowledge Age School
Call to action
What more do we need to know before we
act?
Nothing
What have we to gain by creating the pilot
21st Century, K A School
Everything

28. The 21st Century, Knowledge Age School
Our Future!
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