This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. The educational reforms of the last 100 years are predicated on information scarcity. Today, not unlike the early 1900s, Children go to schools where they download facts that administrators then ask them to regurgitate, sometimes using computers. The world we children in now is information dense. We no longer need fact-distribution centers. We need spaces where children learn to identify, access, and utilize information from various knowledge systems in order to create change.

Dr. Kovacs earns a living asking difficult questions. What does it mean to be educated? Do we still need factory schools? Are we memorizing the past or imagining new futures? A high school English teacher turned university professor, his research focuses on higher order thinking and intelligent behavior. When not in his office at University of Alabama Huntsville he can be found at Appleton Learning, a Huntsville start-up that manages educational talent, or working in some capacity with regional school districts.