[Disclaimer: No one but I may want to read this post. Essentially, I am using this space to organize some past posts that I have written – to organize them in relation to Tony Wagner’s recent article about graduating innovation-ready students. The following is like a form of sticky-noting on my blog. But, as I have come to believe, why do this only for myself in a physical notebook…when I could share and possibly help another educational thinker/doer.]

Earlier today, I read a very powerful article about education and innovation – Graduating All Students Innovation-Ready, By Tony Wagner, September 12, 2012 Education Week. The article resonated with me in a way that only a few articles do. Even though I read voraciously, and even though I mark several articles a week “#MustRead,” I only occasionally discover and read one of those top 0.001% pieces of wonder.

In part, I think Wagner’s piece resonated so profoundly with me because I am doing some ongoing work that is providing mental velcro for such a piece of thinking-stimulant. Wagner’s four main implementation recommendations rung in my ears and everywhere else. I myself believe in:

1. digital portfolio and authentic assessment over traditional, siloed marking and grading;
2. teacher assessment based on professional learning and growth and evidence of student learning beyond mere “test scores.” Also, I believe admin should do what we expect of teachers and students! [related – Folio]
3. schools collaborating together, and with business and non-profits, to create R&D for education…and to impact the world more positively now;
4. learning built on play, passion, and purpose…learning infused with choice and global relevance…learning contextualized with real life. [related – #PBL, #FSBL]

This blog is one of my own R&D spaces…one of my own digital portfolios…one of my own passion and purpose-based play spaces. I have been writing for months on the four topics above. In particular, I engaged in a 60-day experiment about how we might transform school and education (CHANGEd: What if…60-60-60). Tony Wagner’s piece made me recall much of that thinking.

Tony Wagner’s article also further contextualized the exact reason that I left Westminster to join Unboundary as Director of Educational Innovation.

So I am organizing, and I am making some annotations…

Our students want to become innovators. Our economy needs them to become innovators. The question is: As educators, do we have the courage to disrupt conventional wisdom and pursue the innovations that matter most?

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1. Digital Portfolios and Better Assessment:

4. Play, Passion, and Purpose:

“Finally, we need to incorporate a better understanding of how students are motivated to do their best work into our course and school designs. Google has a 20 percent rule, whereby all employees have the equivalent of one day a week to work on any project they choose. These projects have produced many of Google’s most important innovations. I would like to see this same rule applied to every classroom in America, as a way to create time for students to pursue their own interests and continue to develop their sense of play, passion, and purpose.” [emphasis from my highlighting in Diigo]

• Synergy, Kiran Bir Sethi teaches kids to take charge, etc.
• CHANGEd: What if we really reflected on what former students remember? 60-60-60 #58, May 5, 2012
• CHANGEd: What if we used reading and Google Earth as spingboards for interdisciplinary, global empathy? 60-60-60 #54, May 1, 2012
• CHANGEd: What if schools IGNITEd more Leonardo da Vincis? 60-60-60 #53, April 30, 2012
• CHANGEd: What if we connected students with city design projects? 60-60-60 #52, April 29, 2012
• CHANGEd: What if we scaled “playing school?” 60-60-60 #39, April 15, 2012
• CHANGEd: What if school could look more like Caine’s Arcade? 60-60-60 #38, April 14, 2012
• CHANGEd: What if we amplified the bright spots of lunch, recess, and PE? 60-60-60 #36, April 12, 2012
• CHANGEd: What if we ridiculously relegate playgrounds to “outside of school?” 60-60-60 #35, April 11, 2012