The 21st Century Principal’s 20 Applications for Everyday Use

For those of you who have a bit of time on your hands this summer, and want to explore some applications, here’s my “Apps-I-Use-Everyday List.” Let me know what you think, or if you have an alternative app that you think is better.

Google Docs: Google Docs, perhaps now known  as Google Drive, is another one of those extremely versatile tools with access across devices. I use so many aspects of these tools now, that I couldn’t possibly list them all. Throw in the ability to collaborate and Google Drive usability expands even more. With the ability to access and edit your documents through the mobile app,  I can’t possibly see any reason to have a paper copy of anything any longer. For more information on Google Docs: https://www.google.com

Gmail: Since our district chose to move to Gmail a few years ago, it has become my primary email service. I have both personal and professional email accounts. In addition, the ability to easily integrate with Google Drive and Google Calendar, make using Gmail even easier and more functional. For more information on Gmail: https://www.google.com

Google Calendar: Google Calendar has been a part of my life now for about five or six years. There are certainly all kinds of calendar apps, but the ability to set up multiple calendars, share, and collaborate through those calendars makes Google Calendar one of my personal favorite applications. For more information on Google Calendar: https://www.google.com

Windows Live Writer: Blogging is a important part of my life, and Windows Live Writer is a desktop application that allows me to draft blog posts on my desktop before posting the draft to Blogger. I like to save a draft on my desktop, which Live Writer gives me the ability to do. The interface in Live Writer allows me access to all the things I could want to do in a blog post: add links, pictures, video, etc. I can set up multiple blog accounts too. To download Windows Live Writer (It’s Free!) http://www.microsoft.com

Wunderlist: Wunderlist is my task management tool of choice. Personally, I like its ease-of-use more than anything else. It also helps that it has a mobile version, desktop version, and web version of its app too, which gives me access to my To-Do List across devices. For more information about Wunderlist: http://www.6wunderkinder.com/wunderlist

Wunderlist Desktop App

Kindle: Kindle is still my e-reader of choice, and as a voracious reader, I constantly access this application. My entire current working library, as I call it, is located there. I also use the Send to Kindle Chrome app to send web articles for later reading too, and with the ability to send any document to my Kindle account, I can send lengthy PDF files to review using my Kindle apps too. For more information about the Kindle apps: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000493771

Kindle App on iPad

Dropbox: While some have become a bit disenchanted with Dropbox for a variety of reasons, I still use it for a great deal of my cloud storage needs. I have a “Working Docs” folder on my desktops that syncs through Dropbox, so that I have across-device-access to any projects I am working on. I also have photos that I use often stored in my Dropbox account. For more information about Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com

KeePass: As an administrator, trying to keep up with all those passwords is quite a task. Every time the state or district subscribes to a new online service, I get another password to keep up with. KeePass calls itself the “password safe” because it allows users to store all of their passwords in one location with a single password. To get more information about KeePass and download it (It’s free too!) http://keepass.info/

Chrome: Chrome is still my own primary web browser of choice. This is mainly due to all the Chrome extensions and apps that the browser offers and interacts with. It still loads faster than some. Having the ability to access and use fixed tabs is an excellent feature too. For more information about Google Chrome: www.google.com/chrome

Skype: Because our school does not have an intercom system, Skype is the primary tool my teachers use to make announcements and interact with each other. Skype is also useful for interviews and interactions with remote locations as well. To download Skype: http://www.skype.com/en/

Tweetbot: Tweetbot is an iPad app. I am not sure whether there is an Android app or not. I use Tweetbot primarily because it gives me access to both my professional and school Twitter accounts. It also has exactly the features I want. Perhaps in the end, Tweetbot is just one of those apps that fit how I like to access Twitter. For information about Tweetbot: http://tapbots.com/software/tweetbot/

Twitter’s Tweetdeck: Twitter’s Tweetdeck desktop app is also one of those apps I start each day. For those of us who have been using Twitter long enough to remember Tweetdeck before Twitter took it over, using Twitter’s version has been a compromise of sorts. There just wasn’t much of an alternative that provided real-time access to tweets. Tweetdeck under Twitter has improved though in recent times, and has become more functional. For information and to download Tweetdeck: http://tweetdeck.com/

Facebook: Facebook is also one of those social media applications I access often. Now that I have a school Facebook page set up, I use it quite often to interact with our school community. I also have a personal-professional Facebook page as well, though I have found I mostly use it to connect with old friends and acquaintances.  Check out Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/

LinkedIn: LinkedIn has continued to improve over time as well. I have found it to be an excellent way to connect with others professionally and share professionally too. To set up an LinkedIn account: http://www.linkedin.com/

Google+: When I originally created this list of  apps, I omitted Google+. I am not sure why that is, other than I have not yet explored completely the power this social media application offers. Still, it is one application I use daily for sharing resources. I am aware though that Google+ has a great deal of connectivity features I must learn how to use myself. For  more information about Google+: https://www.google.com

Flipboard: Flipboard is a mobile app that allows users to basically customize how they get the news. I use Flipboard to pull together my favorite news sources, and with the ability to share through social media and save to my Pocket account, I find myself using this app every day too. For more information about Flipboard: http://flipboard.com/

Flipboard for iPad

Pocket: Pocket is also a mobile app and a web app. Basically I use pocket to collect articles or blog posts I find interesting and might either want to read later or otherwise use at a later time. It is an excellent app to collect web content. To set up a Pocket account: http://getpocket.com

Entertainment Apps: 

I just couldn’t leave out my two favorite entertainment apps.

Pandora: I use Pandora because once again it gives me access across devices to my personally selected music, with a web version, mobile app, and now even a desktop app. I can even listen to my favorite music channels on my new Samsung Smart TV. Check out Pandora: http://www.pandora.com

Netflix: Where else am I going to have access to all those old Star Trek episodes I love to revisit from time-to-time. Check out Netflix: http://www.netflix.com


Each of these applications have enough features and capabilities to keep anyone exploring and experimenting for an entire summer. Happy explorations!

Becoming a Competent 21st Century Leader of Innovation in Your School or District

“If a company is not nimble enough to rethink its strategy while it still has the assets and strength to change and adapt, it is doomed to wither or die.”  Working with Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman

Blockbuster, Borders, and Circuit City are examples of companies that failed to be “nimble enough” to rethink how they do business in the face of change around them. Each of these companies withered and died because they did not change and adapt while they still had the resources and strength to do so. Now public schools are in similar circumstances, and they might not have what it takes to survive.

In the end, Blockbuster did not see and react fast enough to streaming video. It failed to see the revolution in a new way to deliver video to customers because its leaders were perhaps not open to new ideas and new approaches to video delivery. Borders failed to respond in a timely manner to the reality of e-readers and e-books brought on by Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Perhaps their leaders still saw a bookstore in a physical location as the primary way people can and will purchase books. Circuit City failed to see, first of all, the "electronics superstore” model brought forth by Best Buy, and secondly, the inroads of online electronic retailers such as Amazon in their retail business. Perhaps their leadership failed to be open to new ideas on how to sell electronics to customers. Each of these businesses failed, not because they couldn't do what they had been doing well, but because leadership was shortsighted. Their leaders were not open to new ideas and novel approaches to do business until it was too late. 

Today, I fear that too many school leaders and their schools are following the path these business leaders and their companies trod. These school leaders are not open to new ideas and new approaches to teaching and learning. They still see standardization, testing, textbooks, and traditional schooling as the only means to educate all students, so they spend inordinate amounts of time and effort perfecting and trying to make these work. They are not open to entirely new ideas and novel approaches to teaching and learning, unless those new ideas of teaching and learning only allow their schools to continue operate as they always have. Then, they scratch their heads because too many of our kids still fail, drop out, or graduate unable to be productive. What they need is a mind that is open to the new and novel that will allow them see the things that could revolutionize teaching and learning.

What can school leaders do right now to demonstrate what Goleman calls the competence of "innovation" or the ability to be open to the novel and new? How can they demonstrate they are open and actively seeking new ideas and novel approaches to education? Borrowing from Goleman, here's 4 things school leaders can do to open up to innovation.

• “Seek out fresh ideas from a wide variety of sources.” In the information age this should not be a problem for school leaders. Fresh ideas and new sources of information are just a “Tweet” away for those school leaders willing to wade into social media. RSS feeds and RSS readers can help with the gathering of potential resources and ideas, and web tools like Diigo, Evernote, and Pocket can help with archiving and sharing. Finally, there are explosions of print materials available too. Personally, for me, the Kindle and Nook apps on my iPad make it possible for me to carry around 20 to 50 books and resources at one time, so that I can engage in a quick read at a moment's notice. If 21st century school leaders want to be open to innovation, they must seek out new ideas and resources wherever they can find them.
• “Entertain original solutions to problems.” In public schools, there’s still too much of “We've gotta do it this way because we've always done it this way.” Try to change something radically, and you are immediately put in your place with, "You can't do that." As 21st century school leaders we need to look for original, out-of-the-box solutions to our problems, instead of doing the same old kinds of things and hoping things turn out different. We see so little innovation in schools or districts often because no one looks for original solutions; they revamp and tweak old solutions. They either do what they always have done, or they do what everyone else is doing, both of which do not work. If 21st century school leaders want to be open to innovation, they must be alert and willing to engage in original solutions to the problems their schools or districts face.
• “Generate new ideas.” Twenty-first century school leaders need to purposefully find ways to generate new ideas. They can turn their schools into incubators of innovation by engaging staff, and themselves, in techniques and tools that foster original thinking and ideas. They can create a culture where “no-idea-is-too-dumb" and original thinking is welcomed. If 21st century school leaders want to foster original thinking and new ideas, they need to demand and accept originality, unconventionality, and non-conformity as a rule.
• “Take fresh perspectives and risks in their thinking.” School leaders who want to be open to innovation have to stop seeing education through the eyes of bureaucrats and policymakers and see education through the eyes of teachers, students and their parents. They need to do whatever is necessary to see teaching, learning, and schooling with the eyes of those engaged in those activities. And to take risks in thinking, they need to be willing to try things that no one else is trying and need to stop being risk-averse. If 21st century school leaders want to be open to innovation, they must view teaching and learning through new perspectives and be willing to take risks, and encourage others to do so as well.

If our public schools are ever going to be nimble enough to survive the massive changes occurring around them, they are going to need both school leaders and teachers willing to be open to “novel ideas and approaches” instead of simply trying to preserve things the way they are. 

3 Ways to Create a Climate of Possibility and Creativity in Our Schools

“The real role of leadership in education is not and should not be command and control. The real role of leadership is climate control; creating a climate of possibility, and if you do that, people will rise to it and achieve things you did not anticipate and couldn't have expected.” Sir Ken Robinson, TED Talk "How to Escape Education's Death Valley"

What is ultimately wrong with No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, and the Common Core State Standards? Each of these initiatives are a product of what Sir Ken Robinson calls mechanistic thinking. In mechanistic thinking, education is seen as an “industrial process” done to kids. You subject kids to this process, and at the end, you test them, then declare (or not declare) them college and career ready, educated, or whatever term you choose. As Robinson points out in his TED Talk "How to Escape Education's Death Valley," subjecting kids to these kinds initiatives and the standardization movement means millions of children have been left behind.

Why are so many children left behind in the current American system of education? The whole problem, according to Robinson, is simple: American education "contradicts 3 principles under which human life flourishes." These principles are: 1) Human beings are naturally different and diverse, 2) Human beings are naturally curious creatures, and 3) Human life is inherently creative. By contradicting these principles, we are losing students because the American system of education ignores the very things that allow humans to thrive and survive.

There's no denying that these fundamental principles of humanity are ignored in an education culture where standardization and conformity are elevated above principles of diversity, curiosity, and creativity. But what can we do, as school leaders, to create a "climate of possibility and creativity?" Perhaps we can begin to establish that climate by doing three things:

1. We can treat students as different and diverse, not as standardized unfinished products to which we "add value" through subjecting them to the same curriculum and the same tests. Education under No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, and the Common Core is all about conformity and standardization, not diversity. Each of the initiatives is about narrowing the curriculum so that we can test kids the same way, compare their scores, and boast or censure what we have done educationally. Instead of moving more and more toward standardization, we need to be moving to personalization. Under a personalized education system we capitalize on students' natural talents and abilities, not stifle them with standard curriculum and standardized testing. As 21st century school leaders we need to focus not on data entirely, but more on individual students. Drop out rates, proficiency rates, growth rates are not the center of what we should be doing as educators. Kids are.

2. We can recognize that human beings are naturally curious creatures, and create systems of education that value curiosity above all else. As Robinson points out, “Curiosity is the engine of achievement.” Yet in our efforts to treat our education system mechanistically, we stamp our curiosity with standardized curriculum and standardized testing. We treat “teaching” as a delivery system, when it should be treated as the "art of mentally stimulating, provoking, and engaging children in learning."  Robinson points out that the dominate culture in American education does not focus on teaching and learning, it focuses on testing. We have turned our schools into places where the culture is about compliance, not curiosity. As 21st century school leaders we need to make human curiosity central to our school cultures, not compliance.

3. We can recognize in our schools that human beings are inherently creative and turn them into places where creativity is valued. We spend our whole lives creating; it is a part of who we are as humans. Our role as educators should be to awaken this creativity and power it up, instead, we are too busy standardizing everything and stifling creativity. Our students should be engaged creatively, not engaged in test prep and testing at the expense of all else. As 21st century school leaders we need to create a school culture that values creativity above standardization and conformity.



Sir Ken Robinson's TED Talk: How to Escape Education's Death Valley


As long as policymakers at the national level, state level, and the district level continue to see education as this mechanistic, industrial process that is “done to kids” we're going to continue to have an education system that fails a large number of students. Changing our tests and our standards every few years is not going to create a climate of possibility and creativity in our schools. It only perpetuates the mechanistic system of education that has failed many of our kids for over a hundred years.

3 Principles for Operating Schools with a Responsive Mindset: Steps Toward Personalizing Education

After being an administrator at a “public school of choice” I can’t help but wonder: “What if we ran our schools as if our parents could choose to remove their children tomorrow if they felt we were delivering the education they wanted for their children? How would we choose to operate? How would this affect policy implementation? How would we change our decisions and decision-making processes?

While I am certainly not convinced that “school choice” or vouchers are the salvation of public education, but there is one thing inherent in the idea of choice that I think warrants consideration. That idea is that schools, when facing competition, are forced to be more responsive to student and parent needs. Public schools in our country are massive bureaucratic institutions that are too often unresponsive to student and parent needs, and more interested in preserving and promoting themselves and the status quo. For example, how many times as school leaders are we forced to use the justification, "Well, it's just board policy." Or, "It's state regulations?"

I sympathize with parents who do not feel that their public schools are meeting the needs of their kids. Whether or not their claims are true, it is still their perception. Many decisions are made, from the legislative level to the classroom, for all kinds of reasons. And, if one questions those decisions, the reaction is "How dare you question my motives!" but the reality is, as educators and school leaders, we should be hyper-vigilant and willing to question all decisions. Decisions that can't be entirely justified to be in the best interests of kids, should be questioned vehemently. As 21st century school leaders we must be willing to scrutinize decisions that are made and be willing to express our opinions when we do not feel those decisions are being made in the interests of our students.

It's too bad public schools can't adopt a customer service model in their approach to educating kids. While schools are not businesses, nor should they be considered so, the disposition of approaching our kids and parents as if what they need and want matter is what I call having a "responsive mindset." Schools with this responsive mindset approach school with a disposition that says, "What if my parents could pull their students out of my school immediately? How would that affect how I make decisions and deliver education to the students in my building?"

For all the reasons and arguments others have made, I realize treating our kids and their parents as “customers” in the business sense is not totally adequate. Still, public schools do owe students and their parents to be responsive. Perhaps if school leaders acted with responsiveness there would be fewer people who advocate for vouchers in the first place.

What would some of these responsive mindset behaviors look like? Here's three that come to mind.

• As school leaders, we never say we are doing something simply because policy says so. While we need policy to guide us, policy should never be something to hide behind. If what we are doing can’t be argued to be in the best interest of kids, perhaps we should not do it period. Arguing that we do it because policy or the law says so makes us look like that policy or law is more important than the child. Being a responsive school leader means always making decisions for the good of kids, not because it is written down in some policy manual. It also means making sure we can meticulously explain our actions and decisions in, not hide behind the law.
• As school leaders, we should make every effort to make the rationale for what we are doing clear to our kids and their parents. Most parents, if we take the time to explain, can understand why we do what we do. They still might not agree, but we must give them the opportunity to have their say. When we make decisions that affect the lives of their kids, we must always keep in mind, even parents who struggle, most often want the best education they can get for their kids. Being a responsive school leader means taking whatever amount of time it takes to explain our decisions, allowing parents the opportunity to explain their disagreement, and being willing to change our decisions if our parents make a good argument for changing our decisions. There's no room for ego in the process for doing what's right for kids.
• As school leaders, we should make decisions as if all our parents could pull their kids out of our schools tomorrow if they so desired. Making decisions in this manner, makes us responsive when it comes to providing an education to kids. If our parents could simply go elsewhere to get an education for their kids, we would perhaps scrutinize our decisions as school leaders a bit more carefully. In a district or school that operates with a responsive mindset, every decision is viewed through a lens of its impact for all kids and for individual kids, and care is given not to delude oneself into thinking that what's being done is best for kids when it clearly is not. I would hope we would never sacrifice a single student for the good of all students, hence arguing that the needs of many outweigh needs of the few, or one, does not give us an excuse to harm the few or one at the expense of the many. Being a responsive school leader means always examining the impact of a decision on every single student.

As school leaders, we can personalize education for all kids by adopting a responsive mindset that truly places students at the center of what we do.

Top Five 21st Century Principal Blog Posts for Week of May 25, 2013

Graduation and end of the year festivities have prevented my from posting as much as I would like this week, but here’s what most everyone has been reading on my blog.

Which Model of Project-Based Learning Is Needed for 21st Century Schools?

Using Yong Zhao’s PBL framework from his book World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students, this post looks at the various iterations of Project-Based Learning and provides some thoughts about what form is best for 21st century learning.


7 Principles to Guide Amazingly Simple School Improvement Plans and Planning

There’s no need for our school improvement plans and planning to be complicated. Our school improvement plans should be readable and legible to all audiences. This post provides some principles and thoughts to guide having “amazingly simple school improvement plans” in the spirit of Steve Jobs and Apple.


5 Abilities of Successful School Leaders in a Sea of Change…Mindful Leadership

In an era when change is all about us, and within our schools as well, being able to effectively lead that change is vital. This post captures some tips from author Maria Gonzales that empowers school leaders with mindful leadership abilities that equip them to face change.


Structuring Classrooms for Exploration, Risk-Taking, and Engineering

Why are we basically still building schools and classrooms like we always have? Maybe we should structure our classrooms to empower students to explore, take risks, and engineer new ideas and products. This post looks at possible characteristics of a classroom that places these characteristics front and center.


Transforming Our Schools by Changing Mindsets Not Buying More Technology
If we really want to change teaching and learning, we are not going to do that by putting more computers in our schools and classrooms. We must change teacher mindsets on what teaching and learning is. We need to reinvent how “we do school” by changing how teaches see what they do. This post briefly looks at that idea.

Structuring Classrooms for Exploration, Risk-Taking and Engineering

“But engineering isn’t about perfect solutions; it’s about doing the best you can with limited resources.” Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture

As Randy Pausch suggests, engineering isn't about "looking for the one right answer or perfect solution." Engineering is about looking for solutions that work. While our policymakers and politicians talk incessantly about the need for more engineers and scientists, they advocate for a system of education of standardization and accountability that is in some ways direct contradiction to the kinds of tasks and thinking engineers and scientists do.

According to Sylvia Martinez and Gary Stager, authors of the book Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom,

“The past few decades have been a dark time in many schools. Emphasis on high stakes testing, teaching to the test, de-professionalizing teachers, and depending on data rather than teacher expertise has created classrooms that are increasingly devoid of play, rich materials, and time to do projects.”

With classrooms that are bleak and where test scores dictate every move, it is no wonder our schools are rapidly becoming places where no one wants to be. Why can't we reduce a drop out rate that seems to stubbornly persist no matter what we do? Why do our students stare at us with blank expressions from their uniform rows of desks? Why are our so many of our students so disengaged from school and see it the last place they want to be? It is because our schools have become prisons of standardization where creativity and inventiveness are sacrificed for conformity. It is because of an emphasis on comparing student test scores for the purpose of determining school effectiveness and  teacher/principal effectiveness which fosters more test-prep and teaching to the test. These reforms dictated through NCLB and Race to the Top have made our schools “places devoid of play, rich materials and time to do projects” as Martinez and Stager describe it. That's why no one wants to be there.

What is our alternative? How can we create classrooms and schools where learning is the focus again, not just test scores? How can we make our schools into places where our kids want to be and want to learn? How can we have schools that encourage the kinds of tasks and thinking engineers and scientists do? The answer lies in turning our schools into places where students can “make, tinker, engineer” to use the terms of Martinez and Stager.

I am just now beginning my reading  of Martinez and Stager’s book Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom, and I am intrigued by what they propose. Martinez and Stager point to all the “amazing tools, materials, and skills that turn us all into makers.” We are all "makers" and "tinkerers" at heart they say, which means we can do as these authors suggest and use "technology to make, repair, or customize the things we need" and "bring engineering, design, and computer science to the masses.” Furthermore, we can create the kinds of learning places where “Children should engage in tinkering and making because they are powerful ways to learn.”

But what would a classroom that emphasizes “making, tinkering, and engineering” look like? Martinez and Stager will no doubt answer that question in their book, but I suspect that some of the characteristics of such a classroom would be like the following.

• Structured for exploration: The physical space would not be structured with a teacher’s desk or podium-presentation equipment at the center. Instead, space would be structured for collaboration, for individual learning, and for student-centered learning activity. A variety of high-tech and low-tech materials and equipment would be available for making, tinkering and inventing.
• Structured for risk-taking: The classroom is purposely designed to allow students to take risks in learning and in trying new ideas. Mistakes are allowed and actually encouraged. Experimentation is the rule, not conformity.
• Structured for inquiry: Students asking their own questions rather than answering predetermined questions provided by a teacher is the norm for classrooms structured for inquiry. Students pose the questions and their learning comes from the exploration and search for answers to those questions.
• Structured for students: The classroom would be structured for students, not teachers, not principals, not policymakers and not politicians. Too much of what we currently do in the classroom is done to satisfy politicians with agendas and leaders with egos. Classrooms structured for students exist for student learning and places them at the center.

One can perhaps argue whether our schools are going through “dark times” as Martinez and Stager suggest. It probably depends on your perspective of standardization and testing. But, it is difficult to deny that some aspects of our standardization-accountability movement are turning schools into places where creativity and invention are devalued in favor of conformity and test-prep, and those who continue to push for more testing and more standardized curriculum need to be aware of what they may be trading in to obtain those things.

Which Model of Project-Based Learning Is Needed in 21st Century Schools?

“PBL has been practiced in various ways in education and has become increasingly common with the advent of of digital technologies in recent years.” Yong Zhao, World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students

Project-Based Learning (PBL)  is being touted as the 21st century answer to how we should be educating students and the perfect delivery-system for the Common Core State Standards. While those reasons for implementing PBL are legitimate, there are other reasons for implementing PBL as well. First of all, it has the potential to be a more engaging learning and teaching strategy. Secondly, it may more accurately mirror the world of work by engaging students in problem-solving. Thirdly, it can engage students in using technology to create and innovate. While these are additional reasons to implement PBL, we also need to be clearer regarding what we mean by PBL. There are multiple versions of PBL and those versions are not all equally effective in addressing these same reasons.

In his book World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students, Yong Zhao describes three different iterations of PBL, each with its own features and desired outcomes. He specifically advocates for the third model, Entrepreneurial Model of PBL, in order to educate students to effectively tackle the problems we face in the 21st century, but his PBL model framework is an interesting way to help us think about what we mean by PBL and what we want to accomplish with its implementation. Here’s Zhao’s three models:

Academic Model of PBL	Goal or intention is to teach prescribed content and skills. This prescribed content and these skills drive the project. The resulting products are byproducts of learning and not considered as important as the content/skills learned. Products are not really meant for authentic consumption. Effectiveness of this model of PBL is assessed by how well students master the content and prescribed skills as identified on achievement tests. Teacher controls the content, what is taught, how projects are created and how projects are evaluated.
Mixed Model of PBL	This model values the artifacts---the products students create, but also values prescribed content. End products created by students are expected to be of high quality, and are sometimes created for consumers outside the school. Mandated content and standards aren't ignored, but they are not the starting points for projects.Content and skills are not allowed to define, constrain, or guide the projects. To ensure content and skills are taught, teachers are in control of the process: teachers may ask for input but they decide how the project is carried out. Students have varying degrees of freedom within the prescribed project. Students may engage in peer review or evaluation of projects, but evaluation is largely at teacher activity. Focus is less on transmitting knowledge and more about learning real-world skills.
Entrepreneurial Model of PBL	Aim is cultivate entrepreneurial spirit and skills. Places more emphasis on artifacts, the products, than either of the other two models. Products must be of high-quality and must appeal to external consumers. Products must meet an authentic need of a customer. Students are in more control of their products. They propose and initiate the product proposal process. They must sell the product to the teacher and get the teacher to approve the product. Students develop a business plan: documentation and analysis of target audience, feasibility studies, and marketing plan. Teacher takes on the role of “venture capitalist,” consultant, motivator, and facilitator. Projects can be individual or collaborative. Time for students to work is divided into large chunks. Traditional schedule and calendar may not suffice. Focus is on the product, not the process or skills necessarily. Product-oriented learning.

It's clear by looking at Zhao’s three models of PBL, that the first two models are about teaching the prescribed curriculum, but only using PBL as the conduit for that teaching. The last model, the Entrepreneurial Model, is designed to foster an entrepreneurial mindset and skill set which is what Zhao’s book advocates and states is needed in the 21st century.

Whether you see Zhao’s “Entrepreneurial Model of PBL” or product-oriented learning as being feasible or not, it does offer some interesting ideas to ponder. As Zhao points out, “Entrepreneurship is about inventing a solution to an existing problem or creating a product or service to meet a need.” And if what we really need are creative and inventive solutions to the problems staring us in the face as 21st century citizens, then there’s certainly a great deal merit in this Entrepreneurial model of PBL.