Interesting Times (get it?)

There are lots of outside-the-box initiatives going on in education south of the border. One category is, of course, all the new charter schools and school voucher/tax credit programs, and the Canada/US border may be somewhat non-permeable to them - although it's just a matter of time before Canada is influenced by such powerful trends.

Another category of outside-the-box initiatives is the development of education technology, and for these things the Canada/US border is virtually (get it?) non-existant. To get a handle on the magnitude of this movement, read this New York Times article. Rethink Education Fund has just agreed to donate money to NewSchools, which already receives funding from foundations with very deep pockets - like the Broad Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Walton Foundation. You'd have to read the article to believe how solid NewSchools is. They are definitely a force to be reckoned with, and they are directing all of their funding to initiatives like charter schools and the Khan Academy which are doing an end run around status quo educators.

And here's just one more example of developments going on below the surface - Zynga, a huge gaming company, is going to be developing a new learning games accelerator.

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