Profiles, contacts and references are provided at the end of the publication. As the conference name, Innovative Alternatives in Learning Environments, suggests this event focused on schools that are outside the box. Most of these schools did not exist 10 years ago. For example, in 1990 the US did not have a single charter school. Now we have over 2000.
Home schooling is one of the fastest growing educational industries.
That is to say the next 10 years are critical in forming the future. Because the event in Amsterdam disclosed the aspects of this cultural change as it impacts the world of learning, it seemed appropriate to extend that title to the event itself, Amsterdam Watershed. As Bruce has alluded, this watershed period may have started 10 years ago and is continuing into the first decade of the 21 st century. Just to name a few, during the past ten years we have experienced the demise of communism, economic globalization, embracing the information age, the revolution of the communications industries and unprecedented economic expansion. At the same time we are experiencing significant demographic shifts and a wide recognition of the need to update the aging infrastructures of school facilities.