Harvard's Tony Wagner - Seven skills students desperately need

In his address to the State Technology Directors, Tony Wagner discussed the failure of schools in not preparing our students for today's world. We have been discussing this for years, and yet it seems that students come out of K-12 schools without the ability to solve problems and having lost much of their creativity. According to Wagner, students of this generation are not unmotivated; they're just differently motivated. He say:

we are making ADP (adequate yearly progress as demanded by the No Child Left Behind program) at the expense of failing our kids at life.

We agree that something has to change!

The seven skills:
1. Problem-solving and critical thinking;
2. Collaboration across networks and leading by influence;
3. Agility and adaptability;
4. Initiative and entrepreneurship;
5. Effective written and oral communication;
6. Accessing and analyzing information; and
7. Curiosity and imagination.

I find it very interesting how closely they align with the National Educational Technology Standards recently updated by ISTE. These skills are taken from Wagner's book: The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don't Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need--And What We Can do About It

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