resource library: Video

John Abbott speaks about how schools have it wrong.

Featured in this video:
John Abbott is the President of the 21st Century Learning Initiative, an initiative to facilitate the emergence of new approaches to learning in the United Kingdom.

The changelearning website project emerged from the collaboration of John Abbott and Heather MacTaggart, the Executive Director of Classroom Connections, a Canadian non-profit educational organization dedicated to optimizing student learning.

This short video summarizes some of the most important characteristics of students today – how they learn, what they need to learn, their goals, hopes, dreams, what their lives will be like, and what kinds of changes they will experience in their lifetime. Created by Michael Wesch in collaboration with 200 students at Kansas State University.
(Runtime 04:44)

John Abbott speaks about how schools, communities and families must work together to educate children.

Featured in this video:
John Abbott is the President of the 21st Century Learning Initiative, an initiative to facilitate the emergence of new approaches to learning in the United Kingdom.

John Abbott speaks about how an expert can lead the novice (student) through the stages of learning.

Featured in this video:
John Abbott is the President of the 21st Century Learning Initiative, an initiative to facilitate the emergence of new approaches to learning in the United Kingdom.

John Abbott discusses the need for education to address the pressing issue of sustainability.

Featured in this video:
John Abbott is the President of the 21st Century Learning Initiative, an initiative to facilitate the emergence of new approaches to learning in the United Kingdom.

Heather McTaggart discusses the need for authentic learning opportunities for young people.

Featured in this video:
Heather MacTaggart is the Executive Director of Classroom Connections, a Canadian non-profit educational organization dedicated to optimizing student learning.

In this playful dramatization, two teachers, 20th C & 21st C , argue over using interactive tools in the classroom.

Featured in this video:
John Abbott is the President of the 21st Century Learning Initiative, an initiative to facilitate the emergence of new approaches to learning in the United Kingdom.

John Abbott explores the idea that the stage of adolescence may be one of the core driving forces of human evolution.

Featured in this video:
John Abbott is the President of the 21st Century Learning Initiative, an initiative to facilitate the emergence of new approaches to learning in the United Kingdom.

John Abbott and Heather MacTaggart discuss why the education of children is a concern of the whole society.
Featured in this video:
John Abbott is the President of the 21st Century Learning Initiative, an initiative to to facilitate the emergence of new approaches to learning in the United Kingdom. Heather MacTaggart is the Executive Director of Classroom Connections, a Canadian non-profit educational organization dedicated to optimizing student learning.

John Abbott and Heather MacTaggart discuss the need for people to take the time to examine the current research about learning in order to envision and create the best possible system of education.

Featured in this video:

Heather McTaggart discusses the role of the home, the school and the community in a system of education.

Featured in this video:
Heather MacTaggart is the Executive Director of Classroom Connections, a Canadian non-profit educational organization dedicated to optimizing student learning.

John Abbott and Heather MacTaggart discuss the fact that children need support and care from both family and the broader community.

Featured in this video:
John Abbott is the President of the 21st Century Learning Initiative, an initiative to to facilitate the emergence of new approaches to learning in the United Kingdom. Heather MacTaggart is the Executive Director of Classroom Connections, a Canadian non-profit educational organization dedicated to optimizing student learning.

A school education is meant to assist students in developing into active, productive members of the greater community. John Abbott explores the limitations of a classroom setting in preparing students for life in the greater world.

This video is a playful exploration of the disconnect between current educational thinking and the reality for today’s students.

John Abbott describes some aspects (including class size) of what schools might look like, if we had a system of education that reflected what we now know about how humans learn and develop.

Featured in this video:
John Abbott is the President of the 21st Century Learning Initiative, an initiative to facilitate the emergence of new approaches to learning in the United Kingdom.

This creative video asserts that American education continues to be afraid of technology and ignore its importance to our future as a nation and the future of our children. Further, it advises that we must move ahead and use technology to teach and to keep our kids safe, as wisely-used technology can be a friend of education, whereas ignorance is the true enemy.

Heather McTaggart speaks about the roles that community and home must play in our system of education, particularly in the context of a rapidly changing world.

Featured on this video:
Heather MacTaggart is the Executive Director of Classroom Connections, a Canadian non-profit educational organization dedicated to optimizing student learning.

The American Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) calls on parents, educators, policymakers, and communities to join forces to ensure our children become productive, engaged citizens. Our children deserve an education that emphasizes academic rigor as well as the essential 21st century skills of critical thinking and creativity.

John Abbott speaks about the influence of the industrial-age mindset on the development of schools.

Featured in this video:
John Abbott is the President of the 21st Century Learning Initiative, an initiative to facilitate the emergence of new approaches to learning in the United Kingdom.

John Abbott discusses the nature of the human brain and critical periods for learning in a person’s development.

Featured in this video:
John Abbott is the President of the 21st Century Learning Initiative, an initiative to facilitate the emergence of new approaches to learning in the United Kingdom.

A 2007 study by psychologist Carol Dweck from Stanford University shows that if you teach students that their intelligence can grow and increase, they do better in school.

This video captures a conversation between Stanford Report writer Lisa Trei and psychologist Carol Dweck about the ways in which people’s self-theories about intelligence have a profound influence on their motivation to learn.

Related items

Listen to an interview with study author psychologist Carol Dweck on the National Public Radio website.

Heather McTaggart discusses the need for schools to educate students for the realities of today and the possibilities of tomorrow.

Featured in this video:
Heather MacTaggart is the Executive Director of Classroom Connections, a Canadian non-profit educational organization dedicated to optimizing student learning.

John Abbott discusses the need for us to understand critical ‘windows of opportunity’ in human development in order to maximize learning. In particular, he discusses very key – and very different – opportunities afforded by the early years and the period of adolescence.

Featured in this video:
John Abbott is the President of the 21st Century Learning Initiative, an initiative to facilitate the emergence of new approaches to learning in the United Kingdom.

Jeff Lackney of School Design Studio facilitated a month long series of design workshops with students and teachers from West High School in Madison, Wisconsin aimed at creating smaller learning communities within the large 2,000 student school. This process was one of many activities involved in a planning grant awarded the school in 2003 by the U.S. Department of Education.

Greg Whitby, Executive Director of Schools for the Catholic Diocese of Paramatta in Australia speaks of the urgent need to transform how both schools and teachers understand what they do to meet the needs of the students and realities of the 21st century. Mr. Whitby has been widely recognized for his leadership in the area of learning and teaching in a digital age.

Heather McTaggart speaks about the fact that although human beings are inquisitive by nature, for many children learning becomes something that is viewed as ‘not fun’.

Featured in this video:
Heather MacTaggart is the Executive Director of Classroom Connections, a Canadian non-profit educational organization dedicated to optimizing student learning.

Creative Commons (see site) licenses offer a variety of choices in ensuring work can be shared in the proper educational context while preserving ownership and proper use of the copyrighted work. This video provides a great overview for those not yet familiar with Creative Commons licenses.
(Runtime: 03:00)

Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining (and profoundly moving) case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity, rather than undermining it. With ample anecdotes and witty asides, Robinson points out the many ways our schools fail to recognize — much less cultivate — the talents of many brilliant people. “We are educating people out of their creativity,” Robinson says. The universality of his message is evidenced by its rampant popularity online. Watch it now.
(Description from ted.com)
(Runtime: 19:29)

Heather McTaggart discusses the fact that a factory-production model of education still exists, although we are now well into a knowledge-based economy era.

Featured in this video:
Heather MacTaggart is the Executive Director of Classroom Connections, a Canadian non-profit educational organization dedicated to optimizing student learning.

This playful student-made video exhorts teachers to “teach for the future” because students are the future.

This video is a presentation about school design made by a teacher in the USA in hopes of sparking some discussion her district.

John Abbott speaks about the need for human interaction and the concept of social capital.

Featured in this video:
John Abbott is the President of the 21st Century Learning Initiative, an initiative to facilitate the emergence of new approaches to learning in the United Kingdom.

Featured in this video:
John Abbott is the President of the 21st Century Learning Initiative, an initiative to facilitate the emergence of new approaches to learning in the United Kingdom.

The changelearning website project emerged from the collaboration of John Abbott and Heather MacTaggart, the Executive Director of Classroom Connections, a Canadian non-profit educational organization dedicated to optimizing student learning.

John Abbott discusses the history of western education and the loss of the apprenticeship model (learning by doing) to the current schooling structure.

Featured in this video:
John Abbott is the President of the 21st Century Learning Initiative, an initiative to facilitate the emergence of new approaches to learning in the United Kingdom.

John Abbott speaks about the fact that children are innately inquisitive and insists that schools need to capitalize on this fact.

Featured in this video:
John Abbott is the President of the 21st Century Learning Initiative, an initiative to facilitate the emergence of new approaches to learning in the United Kingdom.

John Abbott speaks about the importance of the home in predicting educational success.

Featured in this video:
John Abbott is the President of the 21st Century Learning Initiative, an initiative to facilitate the emergence of new approaches to learning in the United Kingdom.

The changelearning website project emerged from the collaboration of John Abbott and Heather MacTaggart, the Executive Director of Classroom Connections, a Canadian non-profit educational organization dedicated to optimizing student learning.

Video designed by student to describe the research regarding cooperative learning. Asks the question, “Is it best for all students?”

The MacArthur Foundation (USA) launched a $50 million initiative in 2006 to help determine how digital technologies are changing the way young people learn, play, socialize, and participate in civic life. The foundation asserts that the answers are critical to developing educational and other social institutions that can meet the needs of this and future generations.

More information on The MacArthur Foundation website.

John Abbott speaks on the ways that biological adaptation interacts with human culture.

Featured in this video:
John Abbott is the President of the 21st Century Learning Initiative, an initiative to facilitate the emergence of new approaches to learning in the United Kingdom.

The changelearning website project emerged from the collaboration of John Abbott and Heather MacTaggart, the Executive Director of Classroom Connections, a Canadian non-profit educational organization dedicated to optimizing student learning.

John Abbott speaks about the role of the community in supporting and improving schools. In particular, he discusses a project in Princeton, New Jersey, in which an entire community (90 000 people strong) was challenged to find a mission statement for their system of education.

Featured in this video:
John Abbott is the President of the 21st Century Learning Initiative, an initiative to facilitate the emergence of new approaches to learning in the United Kingdom.

John Abbott discusses a program in Sweden in which students spend a number of school days per year shadowing adults at their jobs. The program begins at the age of seven and continues until high school graduation.

Featured in this video:
John Abbott is the President of the 21st Century Learning Initiative, an initiative to facilitate the emergence of new approaches to learning in the United Kingdom.

21C Learning Community Toolkit explores how a small Cree reservation in northern Alberta has employed an innovative learning game called ‘Prelude’. The legacy of residential schools and inappropriate European models of pedagogy have left the Bigstone Cree cautious about embracing ‘mainstream’ education. The collaboration between the game’s inventor, educational experts and, most importantly, the teachers and children of the Bigstone Cree Nation demonstrates that imaginative solutions to longstanding problems are possible.

This video was created as an introduction for a presentation at Pennsylvania Educational Technology Expo and Conference (PETE&C) . The session was designed to show teachers how to connect their classrooms to the world of information.

John Abbott asks what kind of people our education system is aiming to produce.

Featured in this video:
John Abbott is the President of the 21st Century Learning Initiative, an initiative to facilitate the emergence of new approaches to learning in the United Kingdom.

The changelearning website project emerged from the collaboration of John Abbott and Heather MacTaggart, the Executive Director of Classroom Connections, a Canadian non-profit educational organization dedicated to optimizing student learning.

John Abbott speaks on the shortcomings and inadequacy of typical ‘back to basics’ educational reform.

Featured in this video:
John Abbott is the President of the 21st Century Learning Initiative, an initiative to facilitate the emergence of new approaches to learning in the United Kingdom.

John Abbott speaks about the nature of the human brain and the existence of developmental ‘windows of opportunity’ for learning.

Featured in this video:
John Abbott is the President of the 21st Century Learning Initiative, an initiative to facilitate the emergence of new approaches to learning in the United Kingdom.

John Abbott discusses human evolution and the incredible amount of brain development that takes place in our earliest years.

Featured in this video:
John Abbott is the President of the 21st Century Learning Initiative, an initiative to facilitate the emergence of new approaches to learning in the United Kingdom.