Education in the Flat World: What Knowledge of Most Worth?

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Education in the Flat World:

What Knowledge of Most Worth?

Yong Zhao, Ph. D

University Distinguished Professor

Director, US-China Center for Research on Educational Excellence

College of Education

Executive Director, Confucius Institute Michigan State University

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Our Nation is at risk. Our once unchallenged preeminence in commerce, industry, science, and technological innovation is being overtaken by competitors throughout the world. The

educational foundations of our society are

presently being eroded by a rising tide of

mediocrity that threatens our very future as a

Nation and a people.

We are raising a new generation of

Americans that is scientifically and technologically illiterate.

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By comparing how these students prioritize their time (approximately four years or “two million minutes” of high school), the film demonstrates that the typical student in the U.S. spends much less time on his/her education and gives less thought to future career opportunities than his/her global peers in India and China.

--2 million minutes

Two Million Minutes_{, vividly reveals that American students are no longer “at risk”}

of falling behind -- they are now clearly behind even Third World students in India and China, in addition to being in 24th place among developed countries.

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U.S. treading water in reading

Bloomberg News Service

Russia, Hong Kong and Singapore shot to the top of 45

countries and provinces participating in a fourth-grade

reading test, while England fell below the United States,

according to results released yesterday. (Honolulu

Advertiser, November 29, 2007)

U.S. Students Fall Short in Math and Science

Teenagers in a majority of industrialized nations taking part in a leading international exam showed greater scientific

understanding than students in the United States—and they far surpassed their American peers in mathematics. (Education Week,

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The First International Mathematics

Study (FIMS)

• Year data collected: 1964

• Target Population: 13 year olds

• Participating Countries: Australia, Belgium,

England, Finland, France, Germany

(FRG), Israel, Japan, Netherlands,

Scotland, Sweden, United States.

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Jefferson told us where to look

to see if a nation is a success.

He did not say to look at test

scores. Instead, he said to look

at “life, liberty, and the pursuit

of happiness.”

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40 years later: Wealth

FIMS scores in 1964 correlate at

r

=

-0.48 with 2002 PPP-GDP. In short,

the higher a nation’s test score 40

years ago, the worse its economic

performance on this measure of

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40 years later: Rate of Growth

The nations that scored better than the U.S. in

1964 had an average economic growth rate for

the decade 1992-2002 of 2.5%; the growth rate

for the U.S. during that decade was 3.3%. The

average economic growth rate for the decade

1992-2002 correlates with FIMS at

r

= -0.24.

Like the generation of wealth,

the rate of

economic growth for nations improved as

test scores dropped.

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40 years later: Productivity

There is no relationship between

FIMS scores and hourly output

,

r

=

-.03. In 2004, the average hourly output of

those nations that outscored the U.S. in

1964 was 3.4% lower than U.S.

productivity, though the three nations with

higher hourly output all had higher test

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40 years later: Quality of Life

The average rank on the Quality of Life Index for

nations that scored above the U.S. on FIMS was

10.8. The U.S. ranked seventh (lower numbers

are better).

FIMS scores correlated with

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40 years later: Democracy

On the Economy Intelligence Unit’s Index

of Democracy,

those nations that

scored below the median on FIMS

have a higher average rank on

achieving democracy (9.8) than do

the nations that scored above the

median (18).

Once again, the U.S.

scored higher on attaining democracy than

did nations with higher 1964 test scores.

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40 years later: Livability

An alternative to the Quality of Life Index,

the Most Livable Countries Index, shows

that

six of the nine countries that

scored higher on FIMS than the

U.S. are worse places to live.

Livability correlates with FIMS scores at

r

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40 years later: Creativity

The number of patents issued in 2004 is one

indicator of how creative the generation of

students tested in 1964 turned out to be.

The

average number of patents per

million people for the nations with

FIMS scores higher than the U.S. is

127. America clobbered the world on

creativity, with 326 patents per

million people.

However, FIMS scores do

correlate with the number of patents issued:

r

=

.13 with the U.S. and

r

= .49 without the U.S.

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Baker, Keith (2007).Are International Tests Worth

Anything?

Kappan, October, 2007

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What does education often do? It makes a straight

What does education often do? It makes a straight----cut ditch

cut ditch

of a free, meandering brook.

of a free, meandering brook. ---- Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau

Schools have not necessarily much to do with education.

----Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill

The only time my education was interrupted was when I was

in school.

in school. ---- George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw

My grandmother wanted me to have an education, so she

kept me out of school.

kept me out of school. ---- Margaret Mead

Margaret Mead

In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then

In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he

he

made school boards.

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If you want one year of success,

grow grain;

If you want ten years of success,

grow trees;

If you want one hundred years of prosperity,

grow people.

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What will be the challenges they must face?

Where will they live & work?

Who will they work with & for?

How will they work?

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The emergence of two new worlds

Local-Physical

Virtual Global

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Virtual marriage & 2nd Life:

Socializing virtually

Anshe Chung has become the first online personality to achieve a net worth exceeding one million US dollars from profits entirely earned inside a virtual world.

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Gold-farming and digital produce:

Digital farmers market

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Real-money trade of virtual items (RMT)

“I estimate the total worldwide RMT volume to reach 2,090M” Virtual Economy Research Network:

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YouTube and podcasting:

Running your own show

With the 100 millionth account being created on August 9, 2006[4] and a news story claiming 106 million accounts on September 8, 2006,[5] the site reportedly attracts new registrations at a rate of 230,000 per day.

Currently staffed by 67 employees,[1] the company was named _TIME magazine's "Invention of the Year" for 2006.[2] In October 2006, Google Inc. announced that it had reached a deal to acquire the company for US$1.65 billion in Google's stock. The deal closed on 13 November 2006.[3]

Podcast Users Expected To Reach 60 Million In Five Years

The number of podcast users in the United States is expected to increase nearly 15 fold over the next five years, a research group says. –Information Week, May 15, 2005

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What can an 18 year old do?

Hackers and Thieves:

Morality and Crimes in CyberSpace

In the UK, Sasser forced staff at the Maritime and Coastguard Agency to return to manual map reading because computer systems were made unusable by the worm. Check-in for some British Airways flights was also delayed thanks to Sasser.

Around the world, the Australian Railcorp trains stopped running because computer problems caused by Sasser made it impossible for drivers to talk to signalmen.

In Taiwan, more than 400 branches of the post office were forced to use pen and paper because Sasser crashed desktop PCs.

Anti-virus firm Sophos estimates that 70% of all the virus infections in the first half of 2004 could be blamed on Mr Jaschan's creations.

Statistics gathered by Sophos show that in the first six months of 2005 there were four variants of Netsky in the top 10 viruses and they accounted for 25.5% of all infections. Unlike many other viruses, Sasser made its way from

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Digital Citizenship

• Living in the digital world

– Consumers

– Citizens

– Community leaders

• Making a living in the digital world

– Digital workers

– Global workers

• (Re)Creating the digital world

– Innovators

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World Population Distribution

World Wealth Distribution

World Tertiary Education Enrollment Royalties and License Fees ExportsToy Exports

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共存

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History of Colonization and Decolonization

变化

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As electrically contracted, the globe is no more

than a village.

Marshall McLuhan, 1964

“Honey,” I confided, “I think the world is flat.”

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By almost any economically relevant metric, distances

have shrunk considerably in recent decades.

[T]he shrinking globe has been a major source of the

powerful wave of worldwide economic integration

and increased economic interdependence

that we

are currently experiencing. But the full implications of

these developments for all aspects of our lives will not

be known for many years.

--Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the U. S. Federal

Reserve 2006

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When I was growing up, my parents told

me, “Finish your dinner. People in China

and India are starving.” I tell my

daughters, “Finish your homework. People

in India and China are starving for your

job.”

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It’s a Big Job to Make the Mini:

Global Supply Chain

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Yao Ming and Herbert Hoover:

Global Trade of Talents

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The eBay Phenomenon: Expanded

Market

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Today, Indian engineers make $7,500 a year

against $45,000 for an American engineer with the

same qualifications. If we succeed in matching the

very high levels of mastery of mathematics and

science of these Indian engineers — an enormous

challenge for this country — why would the world’s

employers pay us more than they have to pay the

Indians to do their work? They would be willing to

do that only if we could offer something that the

Chinese and Indians, and others, cannot.

--New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce (2007). Tough Choices or Tougher Times

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Therefore we need to move into niche areas where they will not

be able to completely replace us for quite some time.

---Lee Kuan Yew, 2007

In the global economy, our student’s careers are global.

Where can they find employment depends on their niche

talents.

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Daniel H. Pink (2005).A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age

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A Whole New Mind

Information Age:

L-Directed Thinking

– Sequential – Literal – Functional – Textual

– Analytic

Conceptual Age:

R-Directed Thinking

– Simultaneous – Metaphorical – Aesthetic – Contextual – Synthetic

Asia

Automation

Abundance

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Essential Aptitudes in the

Conceptual Age

• Design

• Story

• Symphony

• Empathy

• Play

• Meaning.

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Are we preparing citizens for the

globalized world?

• Unique talents

• Creativity, Imagination, and Passion

• Cross-cultural competencies

– Understanding the globe

– Foreign languages

– Understanding other cultures

• Global responsibilities

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Implications for Schools:

Schools as Global Enterprises

• Global products

• Global resources

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Schools in the Flat World:

Some Experiments

• Zon: the Virtual School

• 3e and Education for Global

Citizenship

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