Learners Without Borders

About the Author Chapter 1. New Possibilities The Failure of Educational Reforms Our Changing World Hope for the Future Chapter 2. The School Pathway The Borders of Schooling The Dysfunctional One-to-Many Model Summary Chapter 3. New Learning Opportunities The Impact of Technology What Matters: The Pressure on Education New Students and Their Interactions With Technology How to Improve: The Opportunities Summary Chapter 4. Changing the School Pathway The School Pathway Rethinking the School Pathway Breaking Out of the School Pathway Dropping Out of the School Pathway Changing the School Pathway New Personalized Pathways Summary Chapter 5. Breaking the Curriculum Border Futile Efforts The Owners of Curriculum The Missing Actor Students as Co-Owners Summary Chapter 6. Breaking the Classroom Border The Classroom Is Not the Only Place for Learning The Human Teacher New Forms of Teaching and Learning Technology and Teachers' Roles Summary Chapter 7. Self-Directed Learners Natural-Born Learners Diverse Learners Self-Determined Learners The Loss of Learning Teaching Self-Determination Cultivating Future Creators Advocacy Summary Chapter 8. Making the Change: Learners Without Borders Advocating for the Right Outcomes Making the Changes Learners Without Borders Conclusion: Can Change Happen? References Index

Yong Zhao, one of our most consistently profound leaders in the transformation of education, breaks the rigid mold of traditional schools, replacing it with a global ecosystem of student-engaged learning. In this future, which is already here, students, teachers, and a community of resources are liberated from those molds, and we are inspired to re-create school as unbounded learning environments. -- Grant Lichtman * Educator, Chief Provocateur, Author, Thrive, Poway, CA * This book presents some very provocative notions on why we need significant changes in today's schools. The remote learning environments that have been implemented as a result of COVID have taught us some very real lessons and this book begins to put them in the perspective of individualized and personalized learning for students at all levels. -- Marianne Lescher * Principal, Kyrene Traditional Academy, Gilbert, AZ * Learners Without Borders is a thought-provoking look at the opportunity before us. For decades, schools have remained relatively unchanged, though overnight change was forced upon us by a global pandemic. Zhao urges us to consider this upheaval as a gateway to fundamentally redesign schools, break the "default view" and disrupt education as we knew it. -- Melissa J. Weatherwax * K-12 Instructional Technology, Averill Park Central School District * Professor Zhao consistently pushes us to dream big about what's possible in teaching and learning. Anyone who wants a pulse on the future of our rapidly changing world needs a copy of this book! -- Julie Stern * Learning Facilitator Author, Learning That Transfers, Visible Learning for Social Studies, and Tools for Teaching Conceptual Understanding * Long before COVID, a second virus began spreading around the world, infecting school systems and rendering them resistant to change. Its costs to students, families, and societies have likewise been enormous. In Learners Without Borders, Dr. Yong Zhao delivers the much-awaited vaccine. Its active ingredients include treating students as owners of their own learning and helping them harness technology for education, work, and life. As educators and policymakers plan for a post-COVID world, this book is their best vaccination against the pandemic of educational mediocrity. -- Milton Chen * Executive Director, Emeritus, George Lucas Educational Foundation *