Our responsibility to provide the education kids need has changed. What worked in the last century may be folly now. With the new tools at our disposal the acquisition of knowledge accelerates in ways we are only beginning to understand. For example: The idea of breaking subjects up into 176 – 42 minute doses is artificial and has no foundation in the principles of effective learning.

Completely new approaches to subject-and-seat-time are being explored. Real learning takes place in intensive, involvement-based, interactive surges. Time-on-tasks accelerates and whole courses we once thought of as a semester or year-long are mastered in days or weeks. In the 24/7/365 virtual world available to all educators now, secondary school learners may take one or any number of courses at a time, according to their readiness and the resources the teacher(s) can put together with them. Good to know, before the ship sinks.

Excerpts taken from: Vital Lies: The Irrelevance Of Our Schools In The Information AgeWritten as a format for national discussion.