INN OVATIVE STATE
Rather than await some
centrally designed civics
curriculum for all to adopt,
we’ve lowered barriers
for everyone to deliver
world-class civics instruction
at a pace that is right
for them.
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“Third,” he concluded, “I highlighted our work
with Education Secretary Arne Duncan on the
‘Open Education Data Initiative’ to flip the model
of top-down curriculum development (whether
for civics or other topics) to a more democratizing model harnessing a new ‘Learning Registry’
standard that empowers teachers and stakeholders to ‘tag’ any learning object on the Internet,
including the ability to share peer ratings and
reviews. Anyone can now contribute pieces and
parts for a new civics course that can be more
rapidly assembled for use by schools, non-profit
institutions or parents. All at no charge. Rather
than await some centrally designed civics curriculum for all to adopt, we’ve lowered barriers for
everyone to deliver world-class civics instruction
at a pace that is right for them. How did Justice
Breyer respond? He said he would be buying my
book.”
Although Chopra’s enthusiasm is infectious
and his examples are persuasive, serious issues remain. Long-time readers of OR/MS Today may remember reports of a broad, strongly
backed initiative toward a standard electronic
patient record in health care and other IT efforts
20 years ago [Samuelson, 1995]. Many knowledgeable people asserted, as we reported, that
information problems were most likely the single biggest driver of both high costs and quality
problems. Five years later, the National Institute
of Medicine announced much the same conclusion. Still, very recent studies indicate that
many of the same problems persist [James and
Samuelson, 2013].
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