Disrupting the entrenched education system is daunting. There are 7.2 million teachers in the U.S., 76 million students, and more than 98,000 public schools, according to a government census (as of 2008).
So what's the most effective way to unshackle the current archaic system from ineffective tactics that no longer work in the digital age?
Google, the world's go-to for answers, has an idea for the most impactful place to start. Last week, the company's educational overseers organized the Google Faculty Institute, to which they invited the faculty from California State University (CSU) schools of education. The mission: to show those who teach teachers the most effective, useful, and helpful digital tools.
Why the focus on CSU teachers? Simple math -- 60% of teachers in California and 10% of teachers in the U.S. -- are trained through the CSU system.
"We want to make California a model for the rest of the country," said Maggie Johnson, director of education and university relations for Google. "We wanted to find a mechanism for talking about education technology and all the ways of using it in transformational ways -- not just ways to support teaching as it’s always been done."