Education 3.0

In some forward-thinking schools, technology isn't just layered on top of traditional processes. Instead, it is woven seamlessly through all aspects of education, from building security to lesson plans and student collaboration -- interconnecting all facets of school life, and truly revolutionizing the education experience.

Cisco Systems calls this next step in ed-tech integration “Education 3.0,” and the global networking giant is leading the charge in helping schools adopt this approach.

If Education 1.0 was characterized by a teacher lecturing from the front of the classroom and writing on a chalkboard while students were primarily observers and listeners, Education 2.0 took those traditional teaching methods and replaced chalkboards and filing cabinets with personal computers, digital projectors, educational software, and data systems, Cisco says. But while schools have added these technologies to their instruction, most haven’t yet made these tools a vital, transformational part of the curriculum; for the most part, teachers still impart knowledge from the front of the class, and students still listen and take notes.

The idea behind Education 3.0 is to take a holistic approach in which technology is as important a part of instruction as the teachers and the lesson plans, and where all three pieces work together seamlessly. Education 3.0 creates a transformational, hands-on learning environment that helps motivate students to develop the skills and knowledge they’ll need in the 21st-century workplace: problem solving, critical thinking, innovation, and collaboration.

For more information about the Education 3.0 concept, read on.

--The Editors