Techcrunch ran an interesting article today about ‘Time to Know‘, an Israeli technology company trying to revolutionise classroom based teaching.

The basic thesis Time To Know is operating under is that today’s current classroom is following a teaching paradigm designed in the industrial age, i.e., a teacher standing in front of a class, a blackboard on the wall and students at their desks. Think of it this way… Imagine time warping a teacher from the 1800’s and implanting her in a classroom in 2010. She could basically hit the ground running with little to no adjustment in teaching style. Quite scary when you think about it.

Time To Know believes there are three main reasons why today’s classroom is ineffective: First, relevancy—or rather, irrelevancy. Kids are living in a digital world with a tremendous amount of stimulus. Expecting them to happily and effectively embrace ‘passive learning’ that requires them to just sit, listen and provide output in exams is simply unrealistic. Second, variance. There no such thing as a homogeneous level of learning and comprehension in a classroom of students. Third, assessment—aka, the feedback loop. In today’s classroom a student could have gotten lost with the material three weeks back, but the teacher would be oblivious to it.

It’s an interesting concept that I tend to agree with. I see so many young people that are uninspired with school and disengaging from their education. I’m not sure if Time To Know is the solution to this problem, but it is certainly refreshing to see someone trying to tackle the issue.

This (slightly too long) video is their sales pitch about the product, but it gives the general idea:

T2K: a Paradigm Shift in K-12 Education from Time To Know on Vimeo.

Click through to their website to see the full product and adaptable curriculum.