I like seeing Hsieh take a sense of ownership in the city he’s living in and investing in the infrastructure of it: 

“This is the plan (modest it’s not): $100 million will go to the purchase of land (not including the new Zappos headquarters) and building acquisition. An additional $100 million will go to residential development including the building of high-rise apartments. Fifty million dollars will go to tech startups Hsieh plans to recruit to the area with seed investments of $100,000 or so apiece. Another $50 million will go toward drawing local small businesses like bakeries, yoga studios, restaurants, coffee shops and other requisite creative-class amenities. And because Hsieh wants people to move here and that requires having decent education for their children, another $50 million will go toward education and the building of — what else? — a school system.”

Witnessing Hsieh’s visionary qualities, along with his renowned importance on happiness in the workplace, it’d be fun to collaborate with him on a vision for a school system steeped in the 21st century necessities of creativity and technology.  I wish him the best of luck.

This is the epitome of fostering an environment for learning. 

“I never teach my pupils. I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.” ~ Albert Einstein

It’s time to move beyond the ‘assembly-line’ approach to learning from the 20th century and embrace a new, more encouraging, attitude towards helping students find their interests and passions.

With regards to my previous post — this author argues that we should be teaching all of our students how to code.  I totally agree.

It’s about time Computer Programming is taught in the public school systems.  This could be the most important thing a student learns in the 21st Century.  Computers are going to be around for as long as I can see, and the sooner you start learning about them the better equipped you’ll be. 

I had the idea of inserting an RFID chip into a Student Card, and then you could record when a student enters the school campus and whether he/she is present in class.  Currently, teachers in public high schools record on paper who’s absent, someone comes and picks it up, scans it into a computer, and then stores into a database.  If students had an RFID chip present on their uniform, you could know in real-time where they are on campus and whether they were present for their 4th period Algebra class. 

There are definitely efficiencies to be had by embracing RFID chips on a school campus but there should be a discussion on privacy issues before embracing such a change.  Personally, I think if the RFID chips are used only on campus, and solely for the purpose of alleviating Administrative redundancies, it would be a worthwhile initiative.

Learn American History in this video game from Florida Virtual School — an accredited, public, online e-learning school serving students all around the world