Genius Hour is a student directed inquiry on a question of their choice. During the genius hour/20% time students would research a project of their choice and create a project with their information to then be presented to an audience. I see this being beneficial to creating lifelong learners and showing students that their interests matter. Students are given the freedom to become critical thinkers on something they are passionate about. It is also beneficial for exploring resources available to students today. There are so many great technologies for students to utilize by completing a genius hour project, that it would expand their knowledge of such technologies.
Some potential struggles with completing a genius hour is students who do not seem interested in a project of this nature. With this being more of an unstructured learning time, students may waste their time rather than completing what is needed. I can also see a struggle with teachers finding the time to implement this into their curriculum. I know that as a librarian and only seeing students once every 4 days for 40 minutes, I would not have the time to do this type of learning. I am sure that many classroom teachers would feel the same way.
Learning in the Library 
Lauren,
I think you’re right about lifelong learners. This is exactly what we want from our students, and it lets them guide and chose their interests. I would worry about doing it in my lower level (freshmen) general ed classrooms though for the reasons you stated. I think a lot of it could be simply wasted time, but sometimes failure and learning to manage time has to be learned that way.
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