About Generation YES
We believe that technology in schools is critical to bringing 21st century educational opportunities to everyone. However, we see that traditional approaches to integrating real technology into classrooms have largely failed. Even though visionary educators have seen the potential for decades, and there are a few bright and shining examples of students having amazing experiences, more often than not there is a failure of implementation between the vision and the action.
We believe the missing component is student involvement, student voice, and student ownership of the process.
When students are actively involved in the process of planning and implementing education, they become invested in the process. They become key stakeholders in improving education for themselves and their peers. We focus on technology as a vehicle for this, because technology is a powerful conduit for constructive, collaborative learning, and the connection that today’s youth feel for this new technology-driven world.
We must stop thinking of school as something that happens to students, with all the information, learning and experiences flowing from “us” to “them”. Instead, students should be empowered to be agents of change, not objects of change. Teachers who are expert facillitators, guides, and co-learners are key to this process.
Generation YES was established to create tools for this kind of change - professional development, print materials and online tools to help students and teachers achieve these goals. We facilitate change in schools that are interested in transformation, growth, and fulfilling their potential as inclusive learning communities.
For this digital generation, there is no more important task than creating relevance between their lives and their education. This generation is connected, aware, and eager to put their minds and hearts into any problem facing the world. We believe that if we teach today’s students to solve real problems, learn how to learn, and give them the tools to do it, we are investing in the global citizens of the tomorrow.
More information about Generation YES and our programs can be found on our main website at www.genyes.org.
Why a blog?
- We like sharing ideas with people
- We want to think out loud as a company
- We want to include everyone’s voice in the discussion
Read our Welcome post for more reasons.
Most blogs are personal journals - how will this work as a company?
We aren’t sure. We’re willing to try. We set this up as a group blog and hopefully it won’t be confusing. Or maybe it will be and we’ll try to organize it better. The cool thing about these tools is they allow this flexibility.
Who is contributing?
Here’s who is contributing now. We hope that once Generation YES teachers and students find this blog, we will have more voices.
Dr. Dennis Harper is the founder and CEO of Generation YES. He has taught in over 40 countries around the world — K-12, undergraduate and teacher education programs. He’s known world-wide for his focus, research, and practical support of student voice in transforming schools with technology. Full bio
Sylvia Martinez is president of Generation YES. She has a varied background in both educational and consumer software and games, with expertise along the way in design and development of online environments that encourage learning and communication. Full bio
Megan Evander is the customer support lead for Generation YES. She is a recent graduate of The Evergreen State College, which focuses on providing authentic, project-based learning for all students. She is also the daughter of a GenYES teacher, so is apparently born to be doing this. Full bio
Others coming soon - we hope to talk a couple of other people (especially our student interns) into coming online. They are being shy for now.
All of us can be reached by email at our first names plus @genyes.org
Thanks!
