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During October 12-14 of this year Anqing Teachers College will sponsor a conference on Leapfrog-inspired changes in the near futures of Chinese and U.S. education. The University of Minnesota, Anqing Teachers College, and the World Future Society are collaborators in this exciting development.

The official title of the conference is Interdisciplinary Education in Teacher Training Programs via Leapfrog Principles. More information about the conference will be released in the near future.

Eight draft papers for the ATC conference are linked here. Please make any comments that you feel will improve the papers. In the near future, the papers will be edited by Dr. Tim Mack, President of the World Future Society, for a special issue of the journal Futures Research Quarterly.

As Education Futures nears its third anniversary, a couple changes are taking place:

1. The Library of Congress has issued ISSN 1940-0934 to this blog. This means Education Futures is a recognized serial and is cataloged by the Library.
2. Global Leapfrog Education (ISSN 1933-0200) is now merged with Education Futures. Future GLE articles will be published as a section within Education Futures and cataloged with the new ISSN.

As the academy (slowly!) moves toward recognizing blogs as legitimate, peer-reviewed publications, and as the boundaries between blog posts and traditional publications continue to blur, it is important for blogs to adopt ISSNs. For more discussions on ISSN and blogs, see especially:

• The Library of Congress Blog on the topic
• Joe Clark’s “ISSN for Weblogs” page (includes a “how to” for applying for an ISSN)

Yesterday’s New York Times Sunday Magazine had an article on educational reform in China. Whereas the United States is moving toward an educational model that displays characteristics of traditional Chinese education (especially an emphasis on testing), the Chinese are moving toward an educational model that is, in their view, more Western. This means integrating liberal education into curricula otherwise dominated by the “left-brained” fields of the sciences and mathematics.

As China moves to a whole mind approach to education, where will this leave the U.S. and other nations that aggressively pursue partial-mind education only?

My interest in China is booming. I will travel to China in April for a teacher education conference sponsored by the Ministry of Education and several international organizations. I will present a workshop on leapfrogging in teacher education to build globally-competent and competitive human capital –particularly among youth. It appears they’re taking leapfrogging seriously. China is determined to become the world’s dominant economic power, and it is aggressively pursuing policies to meet that goal.

James Kynge believes China will “shake the world,” but others disagree. Is China on the verge of becoming the dominant world power, or will its bubble of development burst due to inherent defects in its social, economic and political structures?

By Internet standards, this article is a bit dated, but it is still a good read. Global Business Network posts a reprint of a Business 2.0 article on Four Futures for China Inc. Doug Randall and Jesse Goldhammer propose four scenarios for the future of China:

In “Emperor of Business,” China grows peacefully and plays by the rules, while in “Emperor’s New Clothes,” China’s growth rate is short-lived and it basically becomes a bigger Brazil. In “Emperor of Asia,” China grows only as fast as its neighbors; by contrast, in “Emperor of the World,” China’s speedy growth tips all the scales in its favor.

Read the full article…

Today marks the first release of Global Leapfrog Education (ISSN 1933-0200), an open access, online journal hosted by the Global Leapfrog Institute, LLC.

The official journal repository is located at http://www.leapfroginstitute.org/journal/index.php/gle

The GLE blog (located at http://www.leapfroginstitute.org/gle) will be used to broaden discussion and serve as an access point for sharing further ideas and resources.

As we learn to master the OJS journal software, articles will be released in two trenches. First, Cristobal Cobo (FLACSO Mexico) discusses new learning opportunities provided by “Web 2.0″ and successor technologies. In a near future release date, Arthur Harkins, myself and George Kubik (University of Minnesota) describe a leapfrog pathway through simulational learning.

Introduction and mission

Global Leapfrog Education (GLE) is devoted to exploring how, through education and human capital development, communities can transcend current problems and challenges by empowering themselves to invent their own futures. GLE publishes articles spanning a wide range of interests related to leapfrog education (viz. change, technologies, knowledge production and innovation, global youth leadership, and futures-oriented philosophies and theories of education). This journal provides open access to all of its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.

Our electronic submission process is designed to facilitate rapid publication. Once an article is published, peer reviewers submit written, critical feedback to the author as an addendum to the article, published in GLE. Such reviews may be considered publications in their own right. Reviewers and other participants are also encouraged to contribute to discussions related to each article via the journal blog at http://www.leapfroginstitute.org/gle.

What is leapfrogging?

• Leapfrogging means jumping over obstacles to achieve goals.
• Leapfrogging is a leadership necessity.
• Leapfrogging saves precious time.
• Leapfrogging builds institutional and community prestige.
• Leapfrogging works best if everybody collaborates.

Focus and scope

The first country to adopt the Leapfrog Paradigm, bolster it with advanced communications technologies, and apply it in preschool through graduate contexts, will either continue to lead or will acquire newfound leadership among emerging knowledge and innovation economies.

We are aware of the need for simplicity, but the reality is that the Leapfrog Paradigm we describe is fundamentally cognitive in nature. It is the new educational mission required to support knowledge based innovation economies. New language and concepts are required.

The focus of GLE is on the language, concepts and education required to produce knowledge and direct it toward continuous innovation. This calls for an entirely new education mission –one that requires a different vocabulary and mindset compared to the now globally-distributed education missions for agricultural, industrial, and information-based societies.

GLE will help readers and contributors:

• Understand that states, regions and individuals are in a global competition in human capital development and application;
• Understand how technology shapes human world views and choices;
• Understand the relationship between technological change and social change with emphasis on the emerging Technological Singularity;
• Understand exponential acceleration of technological, scientific, societal and economic changes;
• Understand multiple perceived realities and their vectors;
• Develop leapfrog education scenarios related to technology, innovation, systems design and integration; and,
• Connect these leapfrog scenarios with 21st Century education redesign and redirection.

Journal keywords and key concepts

accelerating change, basic knowledge engine ecology, creativity, cybernetics, design, entrepreneurship, global leapfrog education, invention, innovation, knowledge engine ecologies, knowledge production, knowledge engine ecologies, memes and new social patterns in thought and belief, sociocultural prosumers, youth development

Full information on the journal architecture and instructions to contributors is located at http://www.leapfroginstitute.org/journal/index.php/gle/article/view/3/3

Call for papers

Global Leapfrog Education

Volume 2, Number 1 – March 2006

(Submissions are due November 30, 2006)

Global Leapfrog Education (GLE), a new, open access journal, is devoted to exploring how, through education and human capital development, communities can transcend current problems and challenges by empowering themselves with the tools to invent their own futures. GLE publishes articles spanning a wide range of interests related to leapfrog education (viz. change, technologies, knowledge production and innovation, global youth leadership, and futures-oriented philosophies and theories of education).

GLE offers its authors:

• Timely peer review and publication
• Free online publication
• Web-based platform for comments and discussion
• Online manuscript submission and tracking
• International editorial review board

Scholars of all fields are invited to submit articles and reviews on topics in the following areas:

• Accelerating change and related technologies
• Knowledge production and innovation
• Global youth development and leadership
• Futures-oriented philosophies and theories of education

Articles considered for publication are normally between 8 and 25 pages in length. Detailed information regarding author guidelines and the submission process are available online at: http://www.leapfroginstitute.org/journal/index.php/gle/information/authors

Journal Web page: http://www.leapfroginstitute.org/journal

Editorial contacts:

• Arthur Harkins, University of Minnesota, harki001@umn.edu
• John Moravec, University of Minnesota, moravec@umn.edu