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Harvard Educator Focuses On Education Innovation At Westchester Expo

BRIARCLIFF MANOR, N.Y. -- Dr. Tony Wagner served as the keynote speaker at the Lower Hudson Regional Information Center’s Tech Expo 2015 Friday, April 17 at the Edith Macy Conference Center in Briarcliff Manor. 

Tony Wagner, expert-in-residence at Harvard University's Innovation lab, addresses the audience.

Tony Wagner, expert-in-residence at Harvard University's Innovation lab, addresses the audience.

Photo Credit: Colette Connolly

More than 350 educators from across the region attend to learn from some of the nation’s leading experts on the growing influence of technology in the classroom and in students’ lives.

The event continues to grow as school district representatives savor the opportunity to network with their peers and to learn from experts in the area of instructional technology.

Wagner, an expert-in-residence at Harvard University’s Innovation Lab, urged his audience to put a larger context on the work of improving test scores and Common Core requirements.

“We have been talking about getting kids college-ready for years,” said Wagner to the audience, many of them superintendents from across the region. “But guess what, it’s not enough, not even by half."

“The world no longer cares about how much you know,” he said. “It’s about what you can do with what you know and how you prepare young people for innovation.”

Wagner, the author of several books including his latest, “Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World,” explained many of today’s employers are seeking different criteria from their prospective employees. Fifteen percent of new hires at Google don’t have a college degree, and the word “college” does not appear on the jobs section of its website, he told them.

To better prepare students for this new landscape, Wagner suggested schools teach the skills that matter most.

“No Common Core can begin to do that,” he said. “We’ve got to be clear about the competencies that matter most, including creative thinking, collaboration, communication and creative problem-solving.”

The Lower Hudson Regional Information Center is a non-profit consortium providing educational and administrative technology services to 62 school districts in Westchester, Putnam and Rockland counties. It is one of 12 regional information centers in New York that are part of the BOCES system. 

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