Dive Brief:
- Four South Carolina districts, which make up the Carolina Consortium for Enterprise Learning (CCEL), received $24.9 million in federal Race to the Top funding to pursue their new and innovative approach to learning.
- A fairly new concept, the general gist of enterprise learning is that it's not enough to teach students content (anyone can Google facts these days) and they must also learn how to be innovative and "enterprising" with the information they gather.
- Those spearheading enterprise learning say it's different from project-based learning because it encompasses parents, teachers, and the community, while PBL deals specifically with student work.
Dive Insight:
The federal funds were used to hire enterprise learning and digital resource coaches, with the former planning professional developments and helping classroom teachers push more innovative, enterprise takeaways into their lessons. The money is also being used to make all the districts 1:1.
While it's exciting to see new approaches to education, especially approaches that value critical thinking, it's also important to remember that it's easy in to get focused on "ed lingo." This can make it seem like the wheel is being reinvented when some of these approaches are, in fact, already being found in the classroom.