Fred Swaniker: Reimagining university

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Ranked among the "top 10 young power men in Africa" by Forbes Magazine, and as one of the top 15 social entrepreneurs in the world by Echoing Green, Fred Swaniker is leading a quiet revolution in Africa. He is training Africa's future decision-makers, politicians, entrepreneurs, scientists and Nobel Prize winners. This serial entrepreneur has founded 5 organizations that aim collectively to groom 3 million high-impact leaders for Africa over the next 5 decades.

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Eric Klinenberg: Living Single

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Eric Klinenberg is a professor of sociology and director of the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University.

He's also editor of the journal Public Culture and research director for the federal government's Rebuild by Design Competition, as well as an acclaimed writer.

With eye-opening statistics, original data, and vivid portraits of people who live alone, renowned sociologist Eric Klinenberg upends conventional wisdom to deliver the definitive take on how the rise of going solo is transforming the American experience.

Raspberry Pi: The Tech Teacher's New Textbook

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Eben Upton

Eben Upton is a founder and trustee of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, and serves as its Executive Director.

Computer technology teachers have a new teaching tool that has given students the foundation for a mass of invention and innovation.

The Raspberry Pi — a circuit board the size of a credit card — has served as the starting point for computer science students to build an astonishing number of complex devices, learning the basics of programming in the process. And the cost for this incredibly small tech tool? Around $35USD. 

The small and economical computer was first developed by faculty members at the University of Cambridge in Britain who had noticed their incoming computer science students were ill-prepared for a high-tech education. They decided to build an inexpensive device that students could learn from.

The Raspberry Pi is an ultra-low cost, credit card-sized computer designed to fill a much-needed technological gap in communities that cannot afford more traditional computing hardware and to provide children around the world the opportunity to learn programming.

Learn more at www.raspberrypi.org

Margrét Pála Ólafsdóttir: Adapting & Learning

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Margrét Pála Ólafsdóttir is a preschool management specialist in Iceland who advocates sex-segregated classes, natural play material instead of conventional toys, and a long-forgotten belief in discipline to develop optimism, courage, and resiliency in young children. “Feel the cold! I even take them into the snow -- and then the lava. Scream a little bit! But continue! And enjoy it!”

Amanda Ripley: Where the Smart Kids Are

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Amanda Ripley is an investigative journalist who writes about human behavior and public policy. For Time Magazine and the Atlantic, she has chronicled the stories of American kids and teachers alongside groundbreaking new research into education reform. “Kids have strong opinions about school. We forget as adults how much time they sit there contemplating their situation.”

C.J. Huff : Resilience in the aftermath of the unthinkable

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C.J. Huff is the superintendent of Joplin, Mo. schools who led his district of thousands of employees and students through the recovery effort that followed the infamous Joplin tornado. “We had children in the rubble...and there is no worse feeling in the world,” he said about the moments after the storm. “I can tell you, at this time in my life, I had 7,747 kids that I was responsible for, and I could only account for my two children.”

Mohammed Rezwan: Floating schools

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Climate change is exacerbating flooding in waterlogged Bangladesh. Already, hundreds of schools get wiped out during the monsoon season. Mohammed Rezwan builds floating schools, healthcare facilities and libraries.  “If 20 percent of the land goes under water, which may happen in the next 10 to 20 years, where will these people go? We don’t have enough space, enough land. People have to live on the water in some way.”

Margrét Pála: Educating children differently

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Magret Pala

Margrét Pála is a preschool management specialist in Iceland who advocates sex-segregated classes, natural play material instead of conventional toys, and a long-forgotten belief in discipline to develop optimism, courage and resiliency in young children.

“Feel the cold! I even take them into the snow -- and then the lava. Scream a little bit! But continue! And enjoy it!”