Welcome!

Welcome to the blog of Zaq Roberts, Associate Head of School at The Berkeley School in Berkeley, CA. I blog about a wide variety of topics, from classroom moments I witness, to administrative events and conversations, to the educational blogs, videos, and books I am reading and watching, and how they are influencing my thinking. I hope this eclectic approach will give you insight into the many ways that I am engaging in advancing the school and strengthening our program, and I welcome your thoughts and comments!

This blog takes its name from a quotation by Archimedes that reads "Give me a lever long enough, and I can move the world." The TBS mission speaks directly to the need to engage a changing world, while many of the experiences in our program focus on the development of students' agency and authority. TBS is the lever by which we all - administration, faculty, students, and parents - can together move the world to be more humane, compassionate, and responsive. To borrow an important Montessori phrase, it is our way to remake the world.

Friday, July 6, 2012

Distance learning gets redefined

This spring I posted a video of TBS parent Gene Wade talking about his new start-up, which is attempting to revolutionize higher education by offering a low-cost distance learning platform with academic rigor that is responsive to the cognitive development of the participants. Yesterday, CNN published an opinion piece about Udacity, another distance learning program at the college level, written by former Secretary of Education (and Drug Tzar) William Bennett. Putting aside the "puff piece" approach (Bennett basically takes Udacity founder Steven Thrun at his word for each claim that he makes), it's exciting to hear about another platform taking on the twin equity gates of college admissions and tuition. Now to figure out how to get free computers and internet access to anyone who wants it.....

In case you're wondering about what's new in online education in independent schools, check out the Online School for Girls, a consortium of schools offering online courses for high school students.
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