I am currently enjoying listening to a forum on 21st Century Learning being hosted by the very able Richard Aedy in Melbourne. It features the following:

Professor Barry McGaw
Head of the National Curriculum Board and Director of the Melbourne Education Research Institute

Valerie Hannon
Director of Strategy for the UK Innovation Unit

Chris Wardlaw
Former Deputy Secretary of Education in Hong Kong

Michael Stevenson
Vice President of Global Education at Cisco Systems

Here is a direct link to the audio file of around 55 minutes duration.  I urge educators to have a listen as the comments are quite considered and telling.

I was glad to be given a link to a Cisco paper by Michael Stevenson, who by the way, makes some great

statements. In this paper, entitled “Equipping Every Learner for the 21st Century” it gives a telling chart on page 13 “Exhibit 4″. This chart shows the average Dutch Student’s Media Consumption over a 24 hour period. Guess what parts of the day, other than sleeping, are where it drops lowest? Yep! Good old traditional School time!

There appear to be some other good resources on the Cisco 21st Century Learning site.

I will look forward to checking them out in due course but for now, time to listen to the rest of the podcast.

Oh! If you are Aussie Expat and you like catching up with Education Issues from “back home” make sure you subscibe to ABC radio’s EdPod. Definitely worth listening to and always great questions from Aedy, a former English teacher and now well-researched journalist.