His schools have been referred to as an exemplar for real and hands on learning in the U.S. by President Obama himself. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded a 25 million dollar grant to replicate his model of schools nationally and internationally. He is known for turning tradition on its head and delivering concrete results. Meet Dr. Dennis Littky, founder of Big Picture Learning, U.S. to talk to us about his radical school model and share with us how educators world over are riding the changing tides of learning and knowledge dissemination.
The tides are definitely turning and how. In today’s time, learning has moved beyond the confines of classrooms. Students now have the opportunity to learn what they want to learn, when they want to learn, from whom they want to learn and at what pace they want to learn—and these possibilities are limitless and growing. Here at Heritage, we have been asking ourselves if as schools/colleges/universities, we are doing enough. Does the current system of education work in building real life skills or are we still just focused on preparing for exams? While the students are prepared to conform and compete, the workplace needs leaders who can create and collaborate. This disconnect has left our students stranded, not knowing how to bridge that gap between “school/college life” and “real life”.
The Big Picture Schools, founded by Dr. Dennis Littky, part of the Deeper Learning Schools network, have truly bridged this gap like no other model. His radical work at Big Picture has prompted Fast Company to rank him #4 among the top 50 Innovators of 2004 and the George Lucas Educational Foundation to select Dennis as part of their Daring Dozen. His network spans 40 schools across the US, 25 in Australia and 13 in the Netherlands.
The Heritage School has invited Dr. Dennis to come to India to engage in a dialogue about deeper learning and his work with Big Picture Schools—and the school wants to share this opportunity with you all.
Come join us on 22nd December, 2014 at Stein Auditorium, IHC, Delhi from 4.00 p.m. – 5.30 p.m.
