Academy participants heard from Gene Wilhoit, executive
director of the National Center for Innovation in Education.
UK College of Education
Leadership Academies
The UK College of Education’s involvement
in KVEC plans is two-fold. The college works
alongside district leaders and teachers to provide
support, leadership and professional learning
communities on issues that help schools meet the
unique needs of 21st century learners. The plan
involves about 100 principals and district-level
staff participating in the College of Education’s
Next Generation Leadership Academy each year
over the course of the next four years. Additionally,
100 teachers will participate annually in the
Next Generation Teacher Leader Academy. The
academies are year-long professional learning
endeavors focused on the critical attributes of Next
Generation Learning, developed by the Council of
Chief State School Officers.
Innovative Projects Partner
UK Faculty with KVEC Schools
The partnership between the school districts
and UK is also a launching pad for a number of
innovative special projects. For instance, UK College
of Education professor Dr. Joan Mazur is part of a
multi-disciplinary team that presented plans at the
Pikeville summit for a mobile “FabLab” (short for
“fabrication laboratory”) to help eastern Kentucky
join the growing Maker Movement. Within
Schooling for the
Next Generation
From Pikeville to Paducah, school leaders
are seeking new and innovative ways to
help Kentucky’s students have a school experience that readies them for college and
careers in a global market. The UK College
of Education’s Next Generation Leadership
Academy has become a launching pad
for districts to design new approaches to
schooling. For more information visit http://
p20.education.uky.edu/nxgl-academy/
the lab, students can engage in analysis, design,
rapid prototyping and fabrication of 3D printing
technology for sculpture and artifact replication.
By replicating this course in a mobile FabLab
for students in the KVEC districts, the FabLab
has the potential to show students how they can
leverage eastern Kentucky’s culture of hand crafts
and makers into an economically robust industry.
Those behind the project say the FabLab can create
opportunities for entrepreneurship and innovation,
leadership development and youth engagement,
lifelong learning, and regional collabora ѥ