Education needs to work by pull, not push. – Charles Leadbeater
If you are interested in educational innovation, school reform, or learning enhancement, WATCH THIS! With all of the TED talks that I view, I have never seen this one – “Charles Leadbeater: Education innovation in the slums” [18:58]. It was captured over two years ago. Charles Leadbeater makes a compelling case for pull vs. push education.*
[To me, the story of how I found this is fascinating. After re-reading the first 16 sections of Seth Godin’s “Stop Stealing Dreams” for about an hour, as part of continuing research, I was exploring possible TEDx speakers. Within search engines and tools, I was grabbing combinations of “innovation” and other words. I stumbled upon Leadbeater’s April 2010 TED talk, and I was intrigued by the sidebar because of a recent podcast I has listened to about the Future of Cities and what we can learn from slum evolution. As I started listening to Leadbeater, I was blown away by the connections among Leadbeater’s stories and the way in which Godin begins “Stop Stealing Dreams” with the Harlem Village Academies.]
Four years ago, FedEx identified Access—the idea that greater connections between people, businesses and nations create a virtuous cycle. “The ability to make wider connections spurs innovation and entrepreneurialism, and enables gains in productivity,” said the first issue of this magazine. “Businesses are born and expand, communities and nations reap the benefits, and a thirst for still greater Access results.” http://about.fedex.designcdt.com/access/WhyAccessMattersNow
E.M. Forster wrote in Howard’s End, “Only connect.”
Seventh/eighth grade teacher Clarence Fisher has an interesting way of describing his classroom up in Snow Lake, Manitoba. As he tells it, it has “thin walls,” meaning that despite being eight hours north of the nearest metropolitan airport, his students are getting out into the world on a regular basis, using the Web to connect and collaborate with students in far flung places from around the globe. The name of Clarence’s blog, “Remote Access,” sums up nicely the opportunities that his students have in their networked classroom. http://weblogg-ed.com/2011/personal-learning-networks-an-excerpt/
I read many blogs and follow many tweets that suggest we should all connect, share, and collaborate more often. I agree. However, many times we say it and it sounds good, but we never get to see examples while trying to keep up with the real time tweet deck. It quickly turns into platitude chat. So I decided to welcome you, the reader, into my classroom and showcase what a typical, connected class looks like. http://www.edutopia.org/blog/connected-classroom-information-literacy
Frankly, if you are not a connected educator at this point, you may not have an awareness that we are at a critical juncture in education. These driving questions must be answered. If you are not a connected educator, how can you support your own professional growth and the success of your children if you are not constantly questioning, re-evaluating, and striving for improvement? http://lynhilt.com/getconnectedmakeadifference/
[Disclaimer: This post may not make any sense to anyone but me. I am researching 21st C education trends, project-based learning, social and civic responsibility, school transformation, and Common Core State Standards. All through the lens of strategic re-design of school of the future. What follows below is some of the thought-board I am developing, and I felt compelled to share at least some of what I am discovering and thinking about…]
Today, during a Skype conversation with a trusted and highly respected educational colleague, I heard a couple of interesting threads of commentary that have led me on a fascinating research exploration for much of the day.
One of the folks here says PBL is dead. I don’t agree, but there is some strong movement against it.
We call him Pele because he knows where the ball is going, and the ball is currently going to the Common Core State Standards.
You breathe rarified air, and there are tremendous hurdles to implementing PBL in an environment overrun with standardized testing and the Common Core.
While I think that significant, meaningful PBL (capital P) has been largely non-existent in the heavily industrial-age influenced school system of the 20th century, I think PBL has thrived as a human learning paradigm for millennia, and I think PBL is alive and well as a learning methodology. In fact, I think PBL dominates learning before formal schooling, and I believe that PBL dominates the workplace of almost all jobs (if not, ALL jobs). I believe that school transformation and enhancement will necessarily include and integrate PBL. Furthermore, I think the Common Core State Standards not only support PBL, but I believe they demand it! [And I continue to mean capital-P PBL!]
Intriguing videos from Hunt Institute YouTube channel regarding the CCSS:
The English Language Arts Standards: Key Changes and their Evidence
At the end of the video, David Coleman speaks of “reading like a detective and writing like an investigative journalist.” From my own studying and implementation of capital-P project-based learning, I can think of few other methodologies that create the space and opportunity for student learners to be detectives and investigative journalists who are wrestling with real-life issues that need addressing and innovating.
Literary Non-Fiction in the Classroom: Opening New Worlds for Students
Watching this piece was fascinating! I was both inspired and frightened stiff. On the frightening end, I pictured teachers who take David Coleman’s analysis literally as the recommended pedagogy for deconstructing Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birmingham letter and removing many possibilities for self-motivated discovery and heart-touching. At the inspiring end, I was moved by MLK’s language and by thinking about a group of students searching for this letter after engaging with a community issue about fairness, justice, equality, and rights. I imagined this letter as a digestible resource for students who created a need-to-know about the letter because of the context with which they approached the letter. [Interestingly, I never experienced this letter as part of my formal, school-based education. In fact, I am embarrassed to admit that this video viewing may have been the first time I read the entire letter. The content reminded me of many of the reasons that I am working for school reform and transformational enhancement.]
Quotes from the CCSS website that point to PBL:
Research—both short, focused projects (such as those commonly required in the workplace) and longer term in depth research —is emphasized throughout the standards but most prominently in the writing strand since a written analysis and presentation of findings is so often critical.
– Writing: http://www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards/key-points-in-english-language-arts
An important focus of the speaking and listening standards is academic discussion in one-on-one, small-group, and whole-class settings. Formal presentations are one important way such talk occurs, but so is the more informal discussion that takes place as students collaborate to answer questions, build understanding, and solve problems.
– Speaking and Listening: http://www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards/key-points-in-english-language-arts
The standards help prepare students for real life experience at college and in 21st century careers.
– Language: http://www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards/key-points-in-english-language-arts
The standards stress not only procedural skill but also conceptual understanding, to make sure students are learning and absorbing the critical information they need to succeed at higher levels – rather than the current practices by which many students learn enough to get by on the next test, but forget it shortly thereafter, only to review again the following year.
– Math: http://www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards/key-points-in-mathematics
The high school standards call on students to practice applying mathematical ways of thinking to real world issues and challenges; they prepare students to think and reason mathematically.
The high school standards set a rigorous definition of college and career readiness, by helping students develop a depth of understanding and ability to apply mathematics to novel situations, as college students and employees regularly do.
The high school standards emphasize mathematical modeling, the use of mathematics and statistics to analyze empirical situations, understand them better, and improve decisions. For example, the draft standards state: “Modeling links classroom mathematics and statistics to everyday life, work, and decision-making. It is the process of choosing and using appropriate mathematics and statistics to analyze empirical situations, to understand them better, and to improve decisions. Quantities and their relationships in physical, economic, public policy, social and everyday situations can be modeled using mathematical and statistical methods. When making mathematical models, technology is valuable for varying assumptions, exploring consequences, and comparing predictions with data.”
– Math: http://www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards/key-points-in-mathematics
Literacy equals mastery across academic disciplines.
– Callout in Hunt Institute video about CCSS
At the intersection and confluence of 21st century education and project-based learning, we would have:
Victorian schools were designed to meet the particular needs of the Victorian era. They were created to turn out “obedient specialists”: adults who could work in factories, assembling components, or as domestic servants, not people who needed to think for themselves.
– Sean McDougall, educational thinker and designer
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Education must shift from instruction to discovery – to probing and exploration…
– Marshall McLuhan, educator and communications theorist
While I have been reading with the social bookmarking tool Diigo for a couple of years, I have just learned how to auto-post from Diigo to WordPress – thanks to @Philip_Cummings! This post is my first iterative prototype, and I made a few errors to tweak in my experiment. I like the idea that a portion of my weekly online reading (that portion marked with the “#MustRead” tag) will circulate to a weekly post uploaded to my blog on Sundays (once I get the time stamp correct).
First-level bullets mark the articles read and tagged with #MustRead in Diigo;
tags appear unbulleted, below article, indented
Second-level bullets share my highlighting with the highlighter tool in Diigo
Third-level bullets share my annotations if I add a sticky note in Diigo
Thanks, Philip. I have a good starting place, thanks to you.
The question becomes, how do we translate our students’ understanding of past actors into action by young people today? Whitney and I decided in March to chuck the traditional exam format and craft a project to help students make this connection.
We wanted students to act on their growing knowledge and to connect with others beyond our school walls. With this objective in mind we focused the project on three components: student interest, sustained research, and engagement with peers in school and elsewhere who shared their interests or were leaders in one way or another.
This is a key way that I think Unboundary can interact with, influence, and enhance education. I think Unboundary is uniquely positioned to synergize its work with significance/CSR and educational transformation.
already a 1:1 laptop district that integrates technology effectively. Two years ago, teachers took part in professional development to learn more about PBL. Except for some isolated classroom projects, however, the shift away from more traditional instruction has been slow to happen.
Reinforces Aran Levasseur’s points in “Does our current education system support innovation?” in MindShift 7-18-12.
planned it as a team, we could all go down the road together, moving forward with our understanding of PBL,
teachers had two hours for collaborative professional development every other week to devote to planning.
For a school with aggressive approach to PLCs, there could be even more time – if school is serious about systemic change more quickly
Using flip cameras that the school provided or their own mobile devices, students captured still shots and video, which they uploaded to a Posterous site.
Like Synergy Observation Journals.
make it even better?
Brightspot challenge
mix of students from grades 9-12.
He wanted everything to be right.
When work is intended for “beyond the classroom,” students want to do their best work (and not just because of a grade!)
Mentors provided students with additional feedback, encouragement, and ideas from beyond their small community. “Our kids took to heart what their mentors had to say,” Parks adds, and students used technology in authentic ways to connect with them.
When schools are not scared of online policy, but instead embrace the educational possibilities, great coalitions of learning and doing form!
experts wonder whether some colleges will find it harder to attract students willing to pay $20,000, $40,000 or even $60,000 a year for the traditional on-campus experience.
Increasing power and ability of online to capture relational aspect will help determine where price points make difference.
Residential colleges already attract far less than half of the higher education market
I did not know that!
Most enrollment and nearly all growth in higher education is in less costly options that let students balance classes with work and family: commuter colleges, night schools, online universities.
standard class will be a hybrid of in-person and online elements
Hybrid makes a lot of sense. Combining parts of residential and in-person with virtual and anytime/anywhere. How many learn now! Just not integrated “officially” yet.
