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Ray Kurzweil is going to be interactively live on C-SPAN2’s “Book TV” this coming Sunday from 1100-1400 CST. Here is the blurb from this morning’s NYT:

“Join us for a live conversation with Ray Kurzweil, author of several books about artificial intelligence, including The Age of Spiritual Machines, and his latest, The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. Participate in the discussion by calling in or e-mailing your questions.”

Last Friday, 26 leaders from Minnesota’s PreK-17 spectrum gathered for the second meeting of the Horizon Forum. Dr. Tom Tapper, superintendent of Owatonna Public Schools, presented a compelling argument that public education is nearing obsolescence. He states:

Today, the system of public education has a choice: it either leads change, or is led by it. The essence of our society is dynamic and is becoming innovative in nature. Changes in public education will follow, to refuse change is not an option, however, how we change is. The power to decide lies within it.

Dr. Arthur Harkins (University of Minnesota) followed with a presentation on undergraduate knowledge production and its innovative potentials in the College of Education and Human Development. The College, also, needs to decide whether it will lead or become obsolete, and that it has several alternatives:

• Help upgrade the USA culture, starting with families and schools
• Help massively (and selectively) encourage emigration of outstanding families and individuals to the USA
• Advocate funding of all ‘performing’ students fro PreK through 17 to create required human and social capital. (no student debt)
• Utilize advanced technology

The next Horizon Forum meeting will be on at 12:00pm on December 12 in Coffman Memorial Union at the University of Minnesota.

The current topic of the third forum is Human Capital Development and PreK-17 Education. More details on this upcoming event will be posted soon.

(Thanks to Tom Elko for providing notes from the meeting.)

Arthur Harkins and I yesterday released “version 5.0” of our Building a “Leapfrog” University series. The document provides recommendations gathered from the University of Minnesota community on steps the University may take to transform into one of the top universities in the world. The recommendations generated by this activity run parallel to and complement the University’s own strategic repositioning process.

Future development of this memo series and its leapfrog concepts will now be conducted entirely online at the University’s community Wiki in “open source” tradition: https://wiki.umn.edu/twiki/bin/view/Leapfrog/WebHome

We invite your comments, corrections and additions to what we have written as well as direct input to the Leapfrog Wiki. We especially request your thoughts on the application of innovative and dynamic design principles to the University’s future

For your reference, previous release versions are available online at http://www.educationfutures.com/leapfrog

Contact:

• Arthur Harkins, University of MN, harki001@umn.edu, 612/743-7528
• John Moravec, University of MN, moravec@umn.edu, 612/325-5992

(Read more …)

Join us for this year’s first meeting of the Horizon Forum!

The Horizon Forum is a “mold breaking” round-table initiated by the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota to facilitate action-oriented discussions on how we may design outstanding educational futures for Minnesota. Dr. Tom Tapper, Superintendent of Owatonna Public Schools, will speak on the challenges and successes of integrating technology and innovation in schools.

Friday, October 27, 12-3 p.m.

Cherrywood Room, St. Paul Student Center

University of Minnesota St. Paul Campus

2017 Buford Avenue, St. Paul

Lunch and validated parking will be provided.

Please RSVP by October 20 to John Moravec, 612-625-3517 or moravec@umn.edu

Map to event: http://onestop.umn.edu/Maps/StCen/index.html

Future Horizon Forum meetings:

• December 12, 2006: PreK-17 Education for a Competitive World
• February 5, 2007: Advanced Technology, Games, Simulations

Horizon Forum on the Web: http://www.education.umn.edu/cps/Horizon/