Category Archives: 21st C Learning

Digital Learning Environments

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This week I felt very blessed to explore a few “digital learning environments.” First, on Tuesday, November 9, I attended an event at Greater Atlanta Christian School hosted by Apple, Inc. While I participated in the three-hour, morning session, I gathered some artifacts of my learning. Then, I spent an hour producing this 3.5 minute video.

Next, I enjoyed the encouragement, modeling, and instruction of a colleague as three of us teachers explored graphical blogging, or glogging. In preparation for a devotional that I am presenting next week, I experimented with a glog myself…

1-Buttock School

Finally, in an English PLC (professional learning community) meeting, I was fortunate to be part of a thought-provoking discussion about the possibilities of 21st century learning and the potential dangers of fetishizing technology. From the rich and thoughtful comments of my friends and teachers, I was reminded of the advice that digital learning environments are NOT about the technology. The technology should be like air – virtually taken for granted. The technology is merely a means to the learning – learning about mitosis, Romeo and Juliet, Spanish, writing, graphing, letting the learning move us to one buttock, looking for the ways we can help others’ eyes shine, thinking about how to start a movement. It’s not about the technology. It’s about learning.

21st C. Learning Summit – And End and a Beginning

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On Thursday, October 14, 2010, Solution Tree’s 21st C. Learning Summit closed with provocateur Will Richardson. For the first time that week, rather ironically, the speaker established a backchannel for behind-the-scenes conversations and questions. For the first time that week, rather ironically, the speaker used a share-able presentation tool that required no paper.

https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=ah8n38hnwpnq_765gr5sjmd9

With a similar message to that of Chris Dede, Will Richardson compelled the audience to realize that learning is a 24-hour-a-day possibility with the advantages of countless learning networks. Education is distributed now, and it is no longer essentially confined to the time and space called school. In fact, school sometimes gets in the way of deep, efficient learning, because it often is the slowest institution to change and adapt. Students utilize smart phones rather effortlessly to stay connected and to learn, but schools often ask students to check their phones at the door. Cheryl Lemke had said it the day before – school is now but one of many nodes on a stident’s primary learning carrosel, and we need to accept that we no longer occupy the most important or central position…not while we lag behind this generations normal modalities of learning and growing. Doug Fisher, too, practically scolded us for banning cell phones from students in school. If we don’t teach students to use their networks and tools wisely, who will? Schools, let’s make sure we stay relevant and provide the coaching and immersive education that students deserve.

21st C. Learning Summit – in progress report

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During this week, I am attending Solution Tree’s “21st C. Learning Summit” in Chicago. So far, we have heard from Ken Kay of P21, Rick DuFour (one of my main heroes)of PLCs, and Chris Dede of Harvard and “immersive learning.”

Ken Kay’s message, in my own words, is that we need to blend the 3Rs (reading, writing, and arithmetic) with the 4 Cs (critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity) to facilitate interconnected content and skill development for students in the 21st C.

Rick Dufour made the case that we can only get to Ken Kay’s vision if we have a plan for teacher learning – professional learning communities that provide workplace learning everyday instead of workshop learning a few times a year. The evidence of PLC effectiveness is convincing and compelling. We just need to do what we know works! Learning must be the focus, collaboration must be the culture, and results must direct our course. Four Qs should guide us…1) what should students learn? 2) How will we now that they have learned? 3) What will we do when they don’t learn? 4) What will we do when they already know it. We teachers should model the four Cs in the way we work…modeling is a powerful teacher for students.

Chris Dede spoke of distributed education – a system that extends beyond the school in space, time, and people. And learning should happen through collaborative problem resolution via mediated interaction. We should help students with real life by making learning less segmented and more integrated through projects, situated learning, and immersive learning. Furthermore, good formative and diagnostic assessment could replace summative assessment as we scale effective assessment of skills and content in context.

Daniel Coyle’s Opening-of-School Letter

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Thanks to Leslie Ann Little for sending me this from Daniel Coyle’s blog. I am pasting the content below. http://thetalentcode.com/2010/08/24/letter-to-students-cliffs-notes-for-a-faster-brain/

“Dear Kids,

Happy first day of school! I’ve got good news and bad news.

First the bad news: You are about to spend hundreds of hours learning a bunch of small, interconnected facts, most of which you will never, ever, ever use again. (Proof: ask your parents how to calculate the area of a rhombus. I rest my case.)

Now the good news: school is hugely, amazingly, life-changingly worthwhile. Here’s why: learning bunches of interconnected facts makes your brain faster and stronger. School is like a machine for improving your brain. But in order to improve it the most, it helps to know the basic rules of how that sucker works.

(Why don’t more schools spend time — a half-day, say — teaching kids the how their brains work? This state of affairs seems utterly crazy to me. Would you try to teach someone to drive a car without showing them the accelerator and steering wheel?)

So before you get started filling your brains with facts, here is a (very) brief user’s manual for your brain.

Rule 1: Feel the Burn

If you want strong, fast muscles, do you:

• A) do nothing and wait for your muscles to get strong

• B) Go to the store, buy bags of marshmallows and lift them over and over

• C) Go to the gym and work out until your muscles burn

Congratulations for picking C) – because here’s the deal: your brain works exactly like your muscles. To get stronger and faster, you have to push yourself right to the edge of your ability, until you feel the burn — which in this case is that spot where you make mistakes.

This is not easy. It feels uncomfortable – sort of like lifting a heavy weight. But it’s how you’re built. Struggle is not optional – it’s a requirement.

• Do: Be willing to make mistakes, fix them, reach again. Mistakes aren’t verdicts – they’re navigation points for the next try.

• Don’t: Sit back and let information flow over you like a warm, comfortable bath. This feels good, and it’s an absolutely terrible way to learn.

Rule 2: Repetition is Underrated. (Repetition is Underrated.) Also, Repetition is Underrated.

When it comes to learning, there is nothing (repeat: nothing!) you can do that is more powerful than repetition when you are pushing yourself to the limits of your abilities, practicing, making mistakes, evaluating, making corrections and practicing again. Practice makes permanent! The reasons are complicated, but boil down to this: intense repetition makes the wires of your brain work faster. A LOT faster.

• Do: Picture the wires of your brain working faster and faster with each rep.

• Don’t: Think of repetition as drudgery. It’s not like doing boring chores. It’s a lot closer to installing high-speed broadband.

Rule 3: Steal From the Best

Look, I know your teacher and parents tell you that you are special and unique, but the truth is, you aren’t the first person in the history of the world to do math, music, art, or sports. In short, it’s not about you. When you encounter a problem, look to others. Find the people who do it well, and copy how they study, how they listen, how they take notes. Rip them off. Steal their habits, figure out the way they think, break into their vault. Your brain is built to mimic.

• Do: Keep a list of useful habits you’d like to steal.

• Don’t: Take defeat too personally. (Same with success, for that matter.)

In sum, making your brain fast and strong is all about doing the three R’s: Reach, Repeat, and Rob the Banks.

Good luck!”

From (with minor editing):

http://thetalentcode.com/2010/08/24/letter-to-students-cliffs-notes-for-a-faster-brain/

9-03-10 Adopt a Stream

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On Friday, September 3, I participated in a short workshop about “Adopt a Stream.”

[From the Adopt a Stream website, http://www.adopt-a-stream.org/  “This workshop is designed to teach you about basic stream water chemistry (some aspects of larger water bodies will also be included). The chemical tests are collected with hand-held field equipment. Accuracy and precision of collecting field data will be discussed. We ask that you conduct at least the following parameters: pH, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, turbidity, and temperature.”]

How could our school become involved in Adopt a Stream with Nancy Creek? How could Synergy 8 play a role in studying the creek and improving the quality of this natural resource?

Also, a related way to get involved…an essay contest on the Georgia Clean Water Campaign
http://www.cleanwatercampaign.com/files/Essay_Contest_Entry_Form_and_Flyer.pdf
For background and other resources: http://www.cleanwatercampaign.com/html/573.htm