Are great leaders born or made?

A new study suggests it may be both. The study that followed 106 students from the age of one through 29 found those who became leaders in their adult lives shared some common traits, but that educators and parents can also encourage leadership in students. The study hopes to help educators and parents identify leaders early on, as well as help identify which behaviors to look for and support, according to “From Math Helper to Community Organizer: New longitudinal studies identify key factors in leadership development.”

In the study, leadership was defined as: “taking on the role of and engaging in the process of influencing others toward a common endeavor, goal or cause, regardless of designated formal position.” The study found the following to be characteristics or qualities in children who went on to become adult leaders:

Students who engage “tend to become more extroverted, socially engaging, and become everyday leaders.” Also, children who pushed their parents or educators to let them be involved in activities were more likely to become leaders, no matter the type of activity. Equally important was parents’ supporting children to pursue their interests by showing genuine interest.
There was “a little overlap” between having a high IQ and strong inner motivation, but the study showed those who were “motivationally gifted” were much more likely to become leaders. “We have fallen into a culture that tests and labels—and we need to be creating people who are visionaries, who are risk takers, who know how to adopt a challenge and pursue it over time,” says Carol S. Dweck, psychology professor at Stanford.
• Students who were comfortable with ambiguity and could boldly go forth, comfortably, without a map were able to negotiate new territory as young adults and successful professionals.

How can we cultivate leadership in schools and at home? Schools must become “’intentional and purposeful’ in creating opportunities for students to connect with real-world experiences, to fail and pick themselves up, and to connect with passions they can pursue and master, according to Tim Magner, executive director of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. At home, parents have to let students explore, stumble fall and get back up again.  Hold your tongue and your tension as your child asserts himself and suffers his own setbacks which will strengthen him for life’s inevitable challenges.  School and home have to promote messy, creative and open-ended learning where students have choice, take risks and discover their own inner talents and interests.

As colleges and the workforce get more selective, more people choose to become entrepreneurs, and we search for more innovators to pave the way in the 21st century, leadership will continue to be a valued skill in any field. Through the study of both historical and modern day leaders, LifeBound’s Leadership for Teenagers, helps students develop 21st century leadership skills that compliments core curricula presented in high school classrooms. Visit the LifeBound website to find out more about how you can cultivate leadership at home, in class and around the world.

The Obama administration announced they want every student to have an e-textbook by 2017. In an effort to speed up the process and reach the 5-year goal, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski and Education Secretary Arne Duncan want states to modify their textbook adoption process by allowing K-12 schools to use taxpayer funding to purchase iPads, Kindles, and other e-readers, as well as software, according to USA Today.

The administration is also pushing publishers, e-reader makers, and Internet providers to lower prices in order for digital learning to become more accessible for all students. The cost of a new iPad starts at $499, which has a higher up-front cost than a traditional textbook, but is expected to pay for itself with time. Some electronic textbooks are free, some are sold by chapter, while other full textbooks, like those created using the iBook2 app, will never exceed $14.99. E-textbooks don’t only cost less, they can also integrate interactive media and be updated regularly, whereas a flat textbook cannot.

E-textbooks have grown in popularity recently, but there still isn’t solid evidence that digital formats actually advance learning. Earlier this week I wrote about how classroom environments need to change in order for computers to revolutionize the classroom. Technology is a tool that could turn a school around, if it’s also supplemented with things like teacher training, academic coaching, student engagement , and parent programs.

Even though we don’t have many hard facts on whether e-books can improve learning over a reading hardcopy, we do know that technology brings more options for school improvement and that low-income students deserve equal access to digital learning.

The principal of Clintondale High School, Greg Green, recently wrote an article on CNN explaining how he turned around the failure rate at his school by implementing the “flipped-classroom” model. Almost 75% of Clintondale’s students qualify for free or reduced lunch, and a large majority commute over an hour on the bus from Detroit. With a technology grant, the school was able to afford more computers and new software for their students. Using the “flipped-classroom” model, students watch their lectures in a video format outside of class that is created by their teacher and posted to the school website or YouTube. Students come to class having learned the day’s lesson and use class time for one-on-one instruction with the teacher, to work on group projects, or do worksheets in an environment where they can ask questions.

An e-textbook isn’t just a textbook; it’s a piece of technology that could make learning more accessible for all students. Imagine how learning can change if every student has access to their own textbook. Imagine how student engagement could soar if they were using up-to-date texts. Imagine the innovations made by the next generation of professionals who were educated in a system where computer privileges weren’t divided by rich and poor.

As the price tag of a college education soars and families continue to adapt their lifestyles to the recession, students approaching college might be considering putting off college or looking for cheaper alternatives.

Last year, one of the PayPal cofounders started a $2 million fund to get students under 20 to drop out of school and each start their own business with $100,000 in startup money. Stanford also launched open source classes available to anyone, from anywhere in the world who wanted to take a free course and receive a grade. In the last few years, people’s lifestyles have become more integrated with technology, playing with educational apps, searching the Internet for information from a handheld device, and sharing information via social media.

Education is no longer confined to a one-size fits all model or even a single definition. Education is adaptable and customizable for the student depending on their location, interests, and socioeconomic standing. There may be many choices, however, a common goal for those searching for higher education in an unstable economy is to find an affordable form of education that can help them get a job and that won’t bury them in debt. Open-source classes are affordable, but they don’t come with the same job outlooks as the $40,000 – $50,000 master’s degree from Stanford.

What options do students have who desire a top education without paying top dollar? Go overseas, says Charles Kenny in his article “Foreign Policy: Outsource Your Kid.” He says, tuition at some of the best universities in Asia, Europe, and Africa can be as low as $4,000, well below the median cost of a college degree in the United States. Of the top ten universities ranked by Time, seven of them are in the U.S. However, 99 percent of U.S. college applicants won’t be attending top schools like Harvard or MIT. Many could benefit culturally, academically and financially by going to college overseas.

Did you know, South Africa’s University of Cape Town beats out Georgetown University on the QS rankings, but Georgetown students pay upwards of $40,000 for their education, while foreign students at Cape Town pay $8,000?

Not only are there colleges around the world that will save the cost-conscious family money on a quality education, students will gain more global knowledge than they ever could attending an in-state school. Students will be immersed in a new culture, possibly learn a foreign language, and get first-hand experience that will prepare them for the global world of work.

Would you consider a college education abroad for you or a family member? Why or why not? What are the benefits of staying in your own country and paying more? What are the benefits of studying abroad and paying less?

Many educators and authors are anxious to see if Apple’s new iBook2 will be the technology that revolutionizes the way a new generation learns. The iBook2 is a free app for the iPad that allows anyone to author a textbook and hopes to make textbooks more available to students with the maximum textbook price set at $14.99.

As exciting as the idea of education being revolutionized by the affordable tablet-based textbook is, some believe the new format won’t make as large an impact on learning as hyped. Consider the introduction of the computer in the classroom. “Computers were supposed to be an educationally revolutionary technology, but actual research on computer-aided learning paints a surprisingly complicated picture,” writes Brandon Keim in the Wired article “iPad Textbooks: Reality Less Revolutionary Than Hardware.” We can see this uncertainty in many of today’s classrooms. Some schools ban computer use in school, while others rely heavily on it. Some schools have more gadgets than they know what to do with, while other schools can’t afford enough computers for all their students to do their homework.

Research shows that for some students technology increased student performance, while in other studies, technology didn’t make any improvements. However uncertain the results of computer use in the classroom may be, one thing is clear, says Keim: the environment in which computers are used seems to impact school improvement the most. What can studies already done on computer use tell us about the future of the iPad in the classroom? It can work, it can even improve student performance, but it must be seen for what it is: a learning tool.

Just like any new teaching methodology, teachers must be trained in how to use it, students must be engaged, and parents must be supportive. Computers and iPads don’t have the power to revolutionize education, but the learning community does. How can teacher training help move a technological revolution in education? How can parents support this movement? How could changing the way your school values technology (whether more or less) help student achievement?

“Technology makes good schools better, but it doesn’t make a bad school good. If you have a place with bad teachers and poor instruction, it’s a great way for both teachers and students to waste time. Between the two, having good teachers is much more important than having digital media,” said Mark Warschauer, an education expert at the University of California, Irvine, who specializes in educational technology development.

Could getting students out of high school earlier be beneficial to higher education and to the students themselves? More and more states think the answer is yes. An increasing number of states are encouraging students to take college courses or graduate early in hopes to bypass the senior slump, save families college tuition money, and curb the school districts’ instructional costs, according the the article “Some States Prodding Students to Graduate Early.“

Dropping out of high school doesn’t only effect the individual. While students who drop out of high school will personally have less chances of employment, make lower incomes, and are most likely just a piece in the poverty cycle, they also represent a huge drain on our economic potential. On a larger scale, high school graduates and dropouts shape our economy, define the abilities of our workforce, and set the stage for our leaders of the future in business, industry, and government.

Even though “bridging the gap” has become a familiar phrase in education reform, the attention alone won’t  solve anything: we need action. Decades of research strongly suggests that the most effective education reform starts when kids are in preschool, where they are fed and taught in small groups, get home visits by teachers and have meetings with parents, and have teachers who make higher salaries, according to the article.

Our future depends on not only more graduates, but more successful graduates who are ready to succeed in the world of work and their lives as a whole. Starting early, staying consistent, and holding the bar high as students progress will provide a society with the brain potential, talent, and follow through to negotiate and leverage the global challenges that lie ahead.

Advances in technology have always come at the price of taking jobs, and we can expect them to continue taking even more. “As they say, if horses could have voted, there never would have been cars,” writes Thomas Friedman in his article “Average Is Over.”

But that doesn’t mean everyone should worry that their job will be replaced by technology anytime soon. As history has shown us, we will adapt to new technology by gaining new skillsets, possibly lose more low-level jobs, but still have the need for a human workforce. The reality is that technology is changing this generation of workers’ role in the workforce, by delegating menial tasks to technology and requiring workers to bring something fresh to the table.

“In the past, workers with average skills, doing an average job, could earn an average lifestyle. But, today, average is officially over,” writes Friedman. What does an above average worker look like? They are unique. They bring skills and ideas to a company that computers don’t have the capacity to mimic.

Higher education is also key to being successful in this changing economy. It used to be that people could get entry-level jobs straight out of high school, have 20-year careers, and end with a retirement plan. In the last few decades, we’ve seen the average professional spend 4.4 years at each career, their education level increase to a college degree, and an expectation that they will pay for their own retirement.

In Friedman’s article he shares the BLS’s unemployment stats for Americans over 25:

• those with less than a high school degree, 13.8 percent.
• those with a high school degree and no college, 8.7 percent.
• those with some college or associate, 7.7 percent.
• those with a bachelor’s degree or higher, 4.1 percent.

What we know about the future is that workers must pursue higher education and refine the skills that make them unique to be in demand. How do you identify your unique skills? How will you stay up with technology? How will you pass along the importance of higher education to your generation, or the next generation?

Yesterday, I wrote on finding a balance between digital and traditional teaching. There were also two articles I came across touching on the same subject, one debating whether handwriting is still a necessary skill to teach in the 21st century classroom, and the other debating whether blogging should replace writing a formal research paper.

Both articles, along with my blog yesterday, came to the same conclusion: Yes, digital skills should be taught in the classroom, but they should be balanced with traditional learning that students will also need in school, life, and career. One literacy teacher in the article “Summit to Make a Case for Teaching Handwriting” articulated it well: “We don’t live in a handwriting world, and we don’t live in a digital world. We live in a hybrid world.”

These two articles show a demographic of students who have an abundant access to technology, so much so, that the fear is they are overexposed to it. However, there is another side to the blended-learning debate. In a recent article by The Hechinger Report, we get a look inside The Bronzeville Scholastic Institute in Chicago. The nearly 1,000 students on campus must share 24 computers in the homework lab. Many students don’t have computers at home, and most aren’t able to spend enough time at a school computer to master basic skills, like setting margins in a Word document or saving files to a flash drive, say teachers.

It is said the digital divide that exists in Chicago schools probably looks a lot like the digital divide across the country. Chicago Public Schools spent nearly $40 million in a year on technology, but some Chicago students saw digital programs grow in their schools, and others remained in outdated infrastructures.

Many urban schools are in the spotlight of the digital divide, but rural students have the same demands for a blended education and face some of the same funding obstacles.

How do we get technology in the hands of rural and urban students so they are prepared for the changing world?

What are the effects on the workforce of students graduating without computational skills? Without core skills?

How long before our blended world becomes more digital than “traditional”?

As more schools embrace technology, many are experimenting with finding the balance between digital and traditional instruction. A group of charter schools in the Bay Area, Rocketship Education, requires two 50-minute technology sessions daily for all students, known as the Learning Lab. In the Learning Lab, students complete exercises in math and reading that are similar to “short video games,” according to the article “Combing Computer Games with Classroom Teaching.”

Blended learning is becoming popular in schools as educators realize that when students are having fun while learning their core subjects they are more engaged, learn more, and raise standardized test scores. A math teacher in the article explains how the Learning Lab has given her more time for classroom instruction since she doesn’t have to spend teaching time doing rote and ineffective exercises.  Students are also happier because their “drill exercises” have been replaced by video game breaks. The math teacher said:

“They’ll be doing [drill and kill exercises] using fun games and exercises, and in here they’ll be applying their practice knowledge. I think I’m allowed to be a teacher, more so because of this model, because I can teach to their general needs rather than having to play catch-up. So I’m teaching what I’m supposed to rather than what should have already been taught.”

Rocketship schools have already started to see the benefits of their blended learning curriculum. One of their low-income schools, which 91% of its students qualify for free or reduced lunch, have seen their standardized test scores grow to the same average of a nearby school in an affluent community.

To tap into the benefits of blending the digital and traditional worlds, educators will need to assess if the blended curriculum is more than fun and that it is teaching students core subjects, electives, or computational skills. Your school doesn’t need technology like Rocketship’s DreamBox Learning to join the blended learning movement. Introducing free programs like YouTube and Scratch in the classroom allow educators to teach basic computer skills in any subject. For example, students in an American Government class can make a short documentary of a local politician using YouTube for their group project. Students can create a cartoon in a history class using Scratch to illustrate a battle in the American Revolution.

How will you assess if learning is taking place while students are having fun with technology?

What tools are you willing to learn with your students so you are also improving your digital skills?

Are you ready to experiment with student led teaching?

Many homes are plugged into at least one form of media. Television is still the number one form of media consumption for families, but many also have computers and portable devices. Parents often worry that kids are too plugged in due to their daily rituals of using iPods, cellphones, and the Internet — sometimes all at the same time.

However, many studies show that parents can not only participate in their child’s media use, but that their children might actually benefit from coviewing, according to the Media/Shift article “With Media, Parents and Kids Learn More Together.” The Joan Ganz Cooney Center recently released a comprehensive report, The New CoViewing: Designing for Learning Through Joint Media Engagement, which studied the effects of “joint media engagement” (JME).

Studies show JME is beneficial because parents and students get a chance to discuss their opinions, ask questions, and have a conversation around something their child is interested in. When parents are included in their child’s media consumption the parent also benefits in learning more about what their child is doing, which might lessen their anxiety as Internet use becomes less of a mystery. Parents can ask academic coaching questions like:  What did you think of that?  What was confusing?  What was the most interesting to you?  What can you connect this to something else you know?  What are three questions you can think of based on this?

Findings from the Cooney Center report showed a younger generation of parents who grew up with the Internet are more likely have broad Internet use in their families, than older parents who may impose greater restrictions. More “seasoned”  parents are more likely to be untrusting of information shared on the Internet and use parental controls without really knowing what is useful and what isn’t.

Playing video games has also proven to be less anti-social than some parents suspect. Kids who are each given a gaming device may give each other tips on how the best gaming techniques to get past a level and support each other in winning the game, says Tina Barseghian in the article. When kids are in charge of learning together they collaborate, celebrate, and bond.  In addition, kids tap into their imaginations in ways that are generative and creative.

New media can be intimidating for some parents, but before calling a judgement on a child’s media activity, parents should ask their child to give them a tutorial. Parents can also search the Internet for a video or article they want to share with a child and use it as an opportunity to spark a discussion or simply watch something together. If parents can play the role of the academic coach, they will be able to participate, inspire and learn themselves from the new frontiers of media. With that type of teamwork and involvement, parents can see first-hand what is useful and what may be inappropriate from a learning or enrichment standpoint.