Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Aware/Enable/Empower

This TedIndia video was passed along to me in an email that was shared with some Challenge Based Learning junkies. I can see why. Kiran Bir Sethi describes an initiative at Riverside School in Ahmedabad to make India's cities more child-friendly. Her design includes features what we strive for in CBL:

If learning is embedded in real world contexts-- if we blur the boundaries between school and life-- then children go through the journey of

AWARE (see the change)

ENABLE (be the change)

EMPOWER (lead the change)


She then describes a challenge issued to the children of 32,000 Indian schools (sent out in eight different languages):  Take One Idea, Choose One Week, and CHANGE A BILLION LIVES.  As a consequence, students devised solutions for "big ideas" like loneliness, literacy, alcoholism, fixing pot holes, and child marriage.




Oh, and there is no evidence that "academics" suffer at her school.  Performance on standardized testing is top echelon.

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Thanks, Katie Morrow, for including me in the mailing of this link.

1 comment:

CherylCorte said...

Contagious! Wow, what a powerful video sharing the "i can" story of children. Aware, enable and empower could definitely change the world. Spreads a new light on how to make our CBL's come alive!

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