The George Lucas Educational Foundation announced today that it will discontinue the print version of its Edutopia magazine this spring to focus more aggressively on building free multimedia content for its Web site, Edutopia.org.
Edutopia.org was launched in 1994 as an online venue for spreading the word about innovative approaches to teaching and learning, from charter schools to teacher preparation to educational technology. Those stories have appeared in regular print issues of Edutopia, the subscription-based magazine. The April/May issue will be the last print edition.
“With the steady expansion of our online audience, we believe the time is right to shift our strategy to focus on Edutopia.org as the main, multimedia channel for all our content,” says a statement from George Lucas, the famed Hollywood director who started the foundation. “The future of Edutopia is now on the Internet.”
Milton Chen, who has led the organization for 12 years, is now a a senior fellow and executive director emeritus. Chen previously served as the research director for the Children’s Television Workshop, now known as the Sesame Workshop. Cindy Johanson, the foundation’s chief operating officer and a former executive with Public Broadcasting Service, is the new executive director.
