Envision Schools Featured in the San Francisco Chronicle

UC Berkeley Professor, Bruce Fuller, featured Envision Schools and City Arts and Tech HS in two articles in Sunday, January 17th SF Chronicle. Links to the the full articles are below.

The four 'R's' - a charter school that works
San Francisco Chronicle
CAT exemplifies President Obama's push to seed innovative schools that demand much ... Envision Schools, a network of charter schools that includes CAT. ...

Market fixes for California's schools
San Francisco Chronicle
The jury is still out on charter schools. Stellar nonprofits, like San Francisco's Envision Schools and New York's KIPP academies, show remarkable results. ...

A World Summit on Innovation in Education -- Who Knew?

Reflections on my trip to WISE, the World Innovation Summit in Education in Doha, Qatar are posted on my blog on Edutopia: A World Summit on Innovation in Education -- Who Knew?

WISE Conference Day 2

Another fascinating day at the World Innovation Summit for Education in Doha, Qatar.

Quote of the day from the breakout session: Increasing Access to Education through Technology

"I am entirely certain that 20 years from now we will look back at how we deliver education today and wonder how we could have tolerated something so primitive."

Gardner, J.W. 1968

Learned about PocketSchool. Created by an amazing professor and Chief Technology Officer at Stanford, Paul Kim. PocketSchool is a very low cost mobile device that uses Flash, a Linux system and has low power needs to provide engaging learning opportunities for very poor students in developing countries that have no schools or teachers. The stories that learners write using the device are sold on Amazon for the iPhone and Kindle and help fund the project!

This session was also the first where the moderator used a best practice of having the audience discuss each speakers ideas in small groups. I had great discussions with educators from Romania, Australia, the USA and Germany. Learning with people from all over the world is cool!

Off to the Gala!

WISE Global Citizens

The Declaration of Human Rights has been invoked in several presentations at the WISE forum. I felt proud that some of our Envision students are well versed in this principle since they completed a project on human rights last year. They are global citizens!



-- Posted from my iPhone

Doha, Qatar - A City on the Rise

It is hard describe how much new construction is going on in this desert city on the Persian Gulf. It seems like every other building is a new skyscraper under construction. The people are very friendly and helpful. Things do move a little more slowly - had to wait 1 hour for my ride to the hotel and the security line took 1 hour this morning. The tempature is about 85*F and the sky is hazy. Seems a little like a Middle East Version of Las Vegas.


-- Posted from my iPhone

WISE: Day 1

World Innovation Summit for Education is off to a great start. Excellent energy and amazingly diverse - truly an international forum of experts in education.

It makes one realize how isolated and local we can be in our thinking and living. I have met people from UK, Canada, Jamaica, Thailand, Vietnam, Qatar, Senegal, Singapore and Nigeria.

Nonetheless, what strikes me most is the common themes that we all bring - people all over the world are working to address many of the same issues we do at Envision Schools. Also, it appears that our work at ES is also a very small scale attempt to put in practice the solutions education leaders are calling for to address the challenges of the 21st Century - preparing students to be experts and be critical thinkers, collaboraters, flexible and globally minded.

I have included some photos from Day One.

World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) in Doha, Qatar

I am leaving today for the WISE Forum in Doha, Qatar. I will be capturing my experience and learning regularly during the next several days here on my blog and on Twitter. I hope you will follow along. Here is an overview of the conference and who I will be joining in Doha, Qatar:

The premiere edition of the World Innovation Summit for Education – WISE - initiated by Qatar Foundation and held in Doha, Qatar, from November 16th to 18th, has attracted a remarkable line-up of high-profile international personalities, coming from the public, academic and private sectors.

The WISE multidisciplinary platform will bring together an audience of 1,000 opinion leaders and stakeholders from 120 countries, including academics, political leaders, representatives of international organizations, NGO members and private sector executives.

Among the 90 world-class speakers, Gerhard Schröder, former German Chancellor, will take the stage on November 16 to address sustainability issues, while Biz Stone, Co-founder and Creative Director of leading social network Twitter, will address the audience during the plenary session dedicated to innovation, on November 18th.

Eminent voices are also expressing their support for the WISE initiative through written or video messages in which they share their views about pressing educational issues.

Some of these luminaries include:

• Statespersons such as current President of Senegal Abdoulaye Wade, current UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
• Renowned education experts such as Nicholas Burnett, outgoing Assistant Director for Education, UNESCO and Zhou Qifeng, President of Beijing University, both members of the WISE Awards International jury.
• Prominent business figures such as General Electric President and CEO Jeff Immelt, Chris Hughes, Co-Founder of Facebook and Founder of MyBarackobama.com.
• Philanthropists such as Lord David Puttnam, Chairman of Futurelab as well as Yann Arthus Bertrand, CEO of Good Planet and Director of the acclaimed movie Home.