Big Picture schools allow students to set a curriculum based on their interests, and spend two days a week interning.

Slow Food USA is running the “Time for Lunch” campaign, a national effort to improve the country’s school lunch programs by offering healthier food choices.

Reddit (in association with TED) recently asked its community to come together and create questions to ask creativity and education expert Sir Ken Robinson. Questions were suggested, and the ten with the most votes by Reddit members were answered. The result is a fascinating exploration of creativity, school, learning and more.
Robinson begins:
The basis of my argument is: creativity isn’t a specific activity; it’s a quality of things we do. You can be creative in anything — in math, science, engineering, philosophy — as much as you can in music or in painting or in dance. And you can certainly be [...]

Norway is testing out a program to distribute laptops to all secondary students. Nord-Trondelag county is acting as the guinea pig in the trial, where a government-issued computer has been given to every 16-19 year old.  These computers are designed to be used solely for schoolwork, and to act as sophisticated test-taking machines. Big-brotherish monitoring software is installed on all the laptops to ensure no cheating takes place – spellcheck is as much help as they’re allowed.
Good Magazine also has a great in-depth article about laptops in schools here.
[BBC via Engadget]
[image credit: Corey Arnold for Good Magazine]

Originally constructed in the 1960s, Oslo’s International School was worn down and in need of an update. The private school, of which 500 students from over 50 nations are represented, renovated the building in three phases to optimize the school’s usage and functionality. The construction established new educational areas in the building, in addition to structural renovation.
While paying respect to the previous design, the one story building’s new fixtures create three recreation areas for children. The walls are organically shaped and the school’s façade is covered with multicolored boards. The simple additions to the building create an inviting and playful [...]

The City of Ely Community College in the UK is using facial recognition technology to take attendance. Instead of doing a roll call, students check in and out of the building by having their faces scanned by an infa-red light. The scanned image is then compared against an archived image, and matched up to make sure it’s  them.
It’s reported both students and teachers are loving the new system. The school’s principal claims the staff saves about an hour and a half a day that would have been normally used to manually record attendance data, and that students enjoy the [...]

Seth Godin is running an alternative MBA program that has, at its heart, a new vision of learning about being a businessperson. Nine participants are currently learning about entrepreneurship, freelancing and marketing in a practical, real world apprenticeship with Godin rather than going the traditional business school route.
You can follow the group at the excellent SAMBA (Six Month MBA) blog, where they’ve recently come up with 999 new business ideas. The list is a testament to creative thinking that can act as a great catalyst for developing your own brilliant new ideas.
The first 20 to get your brain moving:
1. Prepackaged [...]

We’ve come across an interview by Holy Ghost Megazine with some members and participants from The Temporary School of Thought. They’re a group of squatters, formerly housed in an opulent London mansion who have started up a unique free school promoting open source learning. The interview gives some interesting insight into the unique dynamics and benefits of collective living and learning.
About the school:
HG: What exactly is the Temporary School of Thought?
LB: A school based on the ideal of the exchange of free knowledge, letting people come in, attend various workshops. If you feel there is something you would like to [...]

We’ve written a lot lately on the idea of alternative and open source education. Independent schools and learning centers are frequently being created to serve life-long learners and those who may not be able to afford the rising costs of higher education. And of course, there’s the ever widening pool of educational resources available online. Besides the sea of disparate knowledge comprising the web, there are also numerous instances of more formal offerings of educational materials, such as MIT’s open courseware.
Author John Robb, who has done extensive studies on networks, communities and international relations foresees this critical mass of freely [...]

The Temporary School of thought is reminiscent of a rave or outlaw party – only it’s dedicated to learning rather than dancing all night to techno. Like some kind of festival of underground schooling, Temporary School is being run all this week by a group of squatters in the prestigious Mayfair area of London. Classes take place in a beautiful townhouse and range from “infrastructure for anarchists” to book binding, laughter workshops, bicycle maintenance and gardening. Everything is free, the event is dedicated to the admirable ideals of mutual learning and skill sharing rather than making money. This is another [...]