Meg Stowe| Director of innovation, Rocky Hill School
1. What was the catalyst for the creation of your position? Rocky Hill School focuses on innovative teaching and providing interactive educational experiences that encourage students to become critical thinkers, citizens and communicators who are innovative, self-aware, ethical and globally minded. My appointment to this permanent role demonstrates a commitment to the program and reshaping education. Our Center for Innovation will be a hub for educational collaboration and creativity.
2. Since the start of the academic year, Rocky Hill has partnered with LearnLaunch – a Boston education, technology accelerator and incubator. What is the foundation and focus of that partnership? This partnership embraces real-world collaborative potential between social enterprise and education. LearnLaunch entrepreneurs bring cutting-edge products to the classroom while modeling resilience, risk-taking, motivation, problem-solving and communication.
3. What is the role of technology in the 21st-century classroom and what obstacles does Rocky Hill face when designing a contemporary curriculum? Technology is a tool to be integrated, the greatest challenge now is content curation, determining which parts of our parents’ and grandparents’ curricula should remain.
What is most crucial, and will serve students for a lifetime, is fostering their capacity to filter content, make informed decisions, be empathic to others and collaborate.
4. How will the technological innovation of the classroom prepare students for the future workforce? Technology is developing at an exponential rate, driving industries to adapt and creating new industries unable to be staffed due to a severe skills gap. At this rate, simply learning how to use and develop technology isn’t enough. Students must also learn how to creatively leverage innovations to solve local and global challenges.
5. You are also the founder and executive director of leadership development and women’s empowerment company Girls Leadership Collaborative. How did your time teaching the community to invest in young girls as changemakers prepare you for your current role? My work as a social entrepreneur and founder of GLC has provided me the opportunity to turn an idea into a meaningful experience for hundreds of girls and adult facilitators. These skills have prepared me to take a concept [such as] The Center for Innovation and guide it from conception to launch and beyond.
