Category Archives: 21st C Learning

PROCESS POST: Organizing and Annotating – #MustRead from Tony Wagner: “Graduating All Students Innovation-Ready” #EdWeek

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[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?
.

1. Digital Portfolios and Better Assessment:

“First, I believe the U.S. Department of Education and state education departments need to develop ways to assess essential skills with digital portfolios that follow students through school, and encourage the use of better tests like the College and Work Readiness Assessment.” [emphasis from my highlighting in Diigo]
2. Teacher Effectiveness and Professional Learning:
“Second, we need to learn how to assess teachers’ effectiveness by analysis of their students’ work, rather than on the basis of a test score. Teachers and administrators should also build digital portfolios, which their principals and superintendents should assess periodically.” [emphasis from my highlighting in Diigo]
3. Research and Development Labs:
“Third, to push educational innovation, districts need to partner with one another, businesses, and nonprofits to establish true R&D labs—schools of choice that are developing 21st-century approaches to learning.” [emphasis from my highlighting in Diigo]

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]

#MustRead from Tony Wagner: “Graduating All Students Innovation-Ready” #EdWeek

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Graduating All Students Innovation-Ready

By Tony Wagner,

September 12, 2012

Education Week

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?
.
  1. “First, I believe the U.S. Department of Education and state education departments need to develop ways to assess essential skills with digital portfolios that follow students through school, and encourage the use of better tests like the College and Work Readiness Assessment.” [emphasis from my highlighting in Diigo]
  2. “Second, we need to learn how to assess teachers’ effectiveness by analysis of their students’ work, rather than on the basis of a test score. Teachers and administrators should also build digital portfolios, which their principals and superintendents should assess periodically.” [emphasis from my highlighting in Diigo]
  3. “Third, to push educational innovation, districts need to partner with one another, businesses, and nonprofits to establish true R&D labs—schools of choice that are developing 21st-century approaches to learning.” [emphasis from my highlighting in Diigo]
  4. “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]

#MustRead Shares (weekly)

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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Writing for an authentic audience – Duke U.’s “The Reader Project”

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Finding an “authentic audience” for our writing. Invaluable. When student learners write for an audience larger than just their immediate teachers, then the writing takes on an inherent value and becomes capable of making a real difference. It’s not just for a grade; it’s for a purpose.

I just received the following email from Duke. I am thrilled that my university is taking such a step to engage writers with authentic-audience readers.

From: “The Reader Project”
Subject: Duke Econ and Public Policy Alumni – Volunteers Needed
Date: September 6, 2012 1:15:00 PM EDT
To: BOADAMS
Reply-To: readerproject@duke.edu
Dear James,

I am Celia Mellinger, the Program Coordinator for the Duke Reader Project, an initiative of the Thompson Writing Program in collaboration with Alumni Affairs. The Reader Project offers Duke Students the opportunity to get feedback on a class writing project from someone outside the classroom setting who has professional experience relevant to their project. The readers get a chance to positively interact with current Duke Students, and the students get to hear how their writing sounds to a member of their target audience.

Working with the Duke Alumni Association, we thought you might be interested in volunteering for one of these courses this semester:

  • ECON 306 and POLSCI 351: Economic History and Modernization of the Islamic Middle East 
    Readers Needed: People with professional experience related to the Middle East or with professional experience in any aspect of world affairs, international economics, international politics, the global economy, or the comparative history of civilizations.
  • ECON 370: Global Capital Markets
    Readers Needed: Financial market professionals with 5 or more years of experience.
  • HISTORY 364D: American Business History
    Readers Needed: People with professional experience dealing with regulatory issues; business management in particular, also consulting, policy or legal work related to business-government relations. Please read the specific topics listed in Student Writing Assignment.
  • POLSCI 302S: Political Persuasion
    Readers Needed: Experts in fields such as political science, communications, and media studies.
  • POLSCI 664S: Leaders, Nations and War 
    Readers Needed: People with professional experience in areas such as international politics, international relations, and governmental work in foreign affairs, diplomatic work, or international journalism.

In each course, the student is working on a writing project involving multiple drafts. Giving feedback on their writing should be a simple response from your professional perspective: Does it include useful information? Is the analysis and argument compelling? Which parts are presented according to professional norms, and which not? Etc. We encourage most of the feedback to be “face-to-face,” using webcams if the reader is too far from campus for a meeting.

Volunteer commitment is around 5 hours total over the course of the semester, distributed between late Sept and early Dec. If you are interested in helping our current cohort of Duke students improve their scholarly writing skills, please reply, indicating which course(s) you are interested in, and include a short bio of your experience and relationship to Duke, to help us match you with the right student. You will receive more information about the course and a match, if possible, after the students sign up in late-September. Feel free to contact me with any questions and visit our website for more information about the project and the courses offered this semester.

Thank you so much for taking the time to engage with our students!

Sincerely,
Celia Mellinger
Coordinator, Duke Reader Project
Duke Alumni Association

An idea worth spreading – Grant Lichtman visiting with 50 schools re: future of schools & schools of the future #EdJourney @GrantLichtman

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This from Grant Lichtman (@GrantLichtman)…

Dear Colleagues,

As you know, over the next three months I will be meeting with hundreds of educators at more than 50 leading independent, charter, and public schools around the country, each with a unique story to tell about how they are evolving their organizations to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing world.

I hope you will help leverage this opportunity for professional connections with fellow educators around the country who share common interests.  How?  It is really simple.   Share this link to my blog, The Learning Pond, or #EdJourney on Twitter with a few colleagues or collaborators. My blog posts will have active links to people, places, and programs that might be of interest. Here are three examples before I even leave San Diego, of schools that are doing some really interesting work:

Groundbreaking New Pilot at Dallas Townview Magnet School

This is What School Innovation Looks Like

Middle School Hunger Game: Check It Out

I am fortunate to be visiting some of the most exciting schools in America, and I hope to widely distribute those seeds of knowledge. Thanks for helping to share, learn, and grow!

Regards,

—

Grant Lichtman

http://learningpond.wordpress.com

Twitter @GrantLichtman