Edutopia

=Edutopia=



Edutopia is a website published by The George Lucas Educational Foundation (GLEF). GLEF was founded in 1991 by filmmaker George Lucas and venture capitalist Steve Arnold. Edutopia, a non-profit organization, serves as the publishing medium for GLEF. Edutopia's mission is to highlight what works in public education through the creation of media featuring creative educators, parents and others contributors who are making positive change.

Edutopia, "Educational Utopia", represents an ideal educational landscape, where students are motivated to learn and teachers are energized by the excitement of teaching. Utilizing the latest in Web 2.0 technology, free of charge, Edutopia enables students, teachers, and administrators to seek knowledge and expertise beyond the school building.

The website is structured into 6 major components, Core Concepts, Videos, Blogs, Groups, Magazine, and Special Reports.

Within each component, users can access thousands of archived articles, short documentaries, printed and video interviews, links to relevant websites, books, organizations, blogs and other online or printed publications, Edutopia is a vast and convenient resource to aid and improve public school education.

[|The Edutopia Homepage]

=Core Concepts=



The [|Core Concepts] are divided into 6 subsections. Each concept is detailed in its own way, yet must be included in the "big picture", indicating its equally shared importance in a complete "Concept" of growing successes of public education.


 * 1) [|Comprehensive Assessment]
 * 2) I[|ntegrated Studies]
 * 3) [|Project Learning]
 * 4) [|Social and Emotional Learning]
 * 5) [|Teacher Development]
 * 6) [|Teacher Integration]

=Videos=

Edutopia features an exhaustive collection of videos posted online. From short documentaries, to interviews, and media presentations.

Here is the most recent video discussing America's academic competitiveness on an international scale. media type="custom" key="5352581"

[|Edutopia Video Homepage]

=Blogs=

Edutopia's page entirely devoted to Blogs. Leading minds in education, (teachers, administrators, parents) update their posts on a daily basis and engage in conversation with anyone who responds to their thoughts.

[|Edutopia Blog Homepage]

rss url="http://www.edutopia.org/teaching-manners-young-children-schools-responsibility" link="true" number="10" date="true" author="true"

=Groups=

Edutopia's Group Page allows users to directly communicate to any special interest group associated with this website.

[|Edutopia's Group Page]

=Magazine=

Edutopia's online archive for its printed publication.



[|Edutopia's Magazine Homepage]

= = = = = = =Special Report=

Edutopia offers the ability to explore educational issues. Think of it as an online "news channel".

[|Edutopia's Special Report Homepage]

=Thoughts=

While Edutopia is what I would consider to be a "21st Century Educational Library", if one does not have "21st Century skills" the website can be overwhelming and inefficient to navigate through if attempting to acquire a specific piece of information. It seems contradictory to me that a website solely devoted to the refinement of the education of 21st Century Skills, requires the user to be completely 21st Century literate to navigate the website. Then again if you are incapable to navigate through Web 2.0 without stumbling onto some type of relevant information, literally you've been living under a rock. Perhaps my thoughts on Edutopia are a bit contradictory. Maybe I'm just skeptical about entities that incorporate the word "Utopia". Maybe SkyNET will eliminate what its calculates to be its single threat...humans. I do think Edutopia is a valuable resource, as it is a constantly-evolving "virtual agora" where you can directly communicate with professionals, and other like-minds. Instant communication to topics and issues broad and minute is ultimately the way people will communicate in the 21st Century. Unfortunately, problems may not always be solved as instantly as they are discussed and discovered.

Rocky Smith

How cool is it that Someone outside of education with a major following would produce this powerful learning tool? The price is right at being free, too. It seems as though companies try to gouge every penny out of school districts. It's nice to have things handed out for free once in a while. -Chris Gargasz

I agree with you Chris that this website can definitely be a very valuable resource to teachers and education professionals alike. I really think that in the field of teaching, being book smart is not enough, you have to combine personal experience with the advice of other teachers as well. There is never one easy answer for everything, and this website seems like the perfect place for teachers to be able to communicate freely about techniques that work for them and those that do not. One thing from the webpage that I thought was really cool was the "Shakespeare Shake-up" that catches your eye as soon as you log on. Being an English Undergrad, that immediately caught my attention. Bringing Hamlet into present day through rap is a great idea, and I would love to see that in action. -Christie

Nice job Rocky! Your site it a little more "simple" than GLEF's edutopia. When I first went to the website, I was a little overwhelmed with all the content. I guess if you do not know what you are looking for on this site, there would be a definite sense of confusion, but at the same time, if a person were to spend a little time exploring, they would find a plethora of useful resources. -Andy Luciano