Young people growing up today will surely be called upon to address thorny problems that cut across global, interconnected systems: the environment, the economy, the global infrastructure. Few skills will be more important than the capacity to see, understand, and innovate systems. The Interconnections collection, created through a collaboration among scholars, curriculum developers, and teachers across the National Writing Project, provides approaches to teaching systems thinking through activities that also build literacy and support Common Core Standards and career-readiness. This 'both-and' approach is a demonstration of what forward-looking curriculum must be in a digital age.
Elyse Eidman-Aadahl, Executive Director, National Writing Project, University of California, Berkeley
The books in this collection offer wonderful activities for engaging young people in new ways of making, helping them learn to express themselves creatively with new technologies. But even more important, they engage young people in new ways of seeing, helping them develop new perspectives for understanding the world—and understanding themselves.
Mitchel Resnick, LEGO Papert Professor of Learning Research, and Director, Lifelong Kindergarten group, MIT Media Lab