Creating a National Collective Voice of Young People « Cooperative Catalyst
How to Turn Your Classroom into an Idea Factory | MindShift
Infographic: Highlights from the GOOD Company Project – Business – GOOD
Corporate Social Responsibility vs. True Sustainability – DAL – November 2011 – Dallas Metroplex
Empathy.
In studying design-thinking in education, I have been seriously educated in the incredible importance of empathy. In embracing PBL, I have been humbled by the essential nature of empathy. Through such endeavors as “student for a day,” I have been reminded to practice empathy as a teacher. As an aspiring change agent for educational leadership and school transformation, I have been taught many lessons about empathy.
Empathy.
I’m embarrassed how little empathy I have shown to current students about possible changes and enhancements in schooling and education. Why haven’t I asked them more about what they think, feel, want, and desire? Am I too busy? Do I think I already know? Do I think “father knows best?” Why haven’t I asked…and listened?
On too many occasions to recall, I have read from Dan and Chip Heath’s book, Switch. The passage I gravitate to most is the chapter about Dr. Jerry Sternin, who was charged years ago to improve the nutrition issue in Vietnam. Does he swoop in and save the day with expert solutions? No, he asks the people of the villages what they do to care for their children – especially if the children are above average in health criteria. He trains a small army of ethnographers and interviewers to go into the villages and seek the wisdom and knowhow of the communal inhabitants. And, then, Dr. Sternin “merely” amplifies what the healthy-child mothers do to enhance the nutrition and wellness of their children.
I’ve read these pages, maybe, over 100 times to audiences, classes, faculties.
I can count on one hand (doesn’t even take me all the fingers of one hand) the number of times that I have emulated Dr. Sternin and asked a collective of students, “How would you design education to fulfill the needs of learners who are growing up in today’s world?”
That’s embarrassing.
I strive to be better than that.
Thanks to a former student of mine (from whom I learn more than she has probably learned from me), I have found Imagining Learning by way of a Cooperative Catalyst post by Charles Kouns.
Imagining Learning is an invitation to participate in a heart-centered exploration of the question, “How do we educate young people to thrive in a world of possibility?”
Our purpose is to work with individuals and communities to co-create a new education system for all children – a new seed if you will – that sees the healthy, internal world of a child as vital to the future of humanity and the planet. Our anchoring question also recognizes that our children’s ability to thrive is directly related to accessing possibility. Possibility here means every child having access to opportunities for learning that are as diverse and dynamic as the world around them, and having access to inner capacities that enable them to activate these opportunities.
As the primary step, we have invited young people’s voices into the co-creating process. We have designed a creative process we name Listening Sessions that give young people the opportunity to share, in a safe and nurturing environment, their aspirations and insights on education. Listening Sessions are designed to tap into the inner wisdom that young people (ages 13 – 19) implicitly hold through a series of appreciative questions, sharing stories and collaborative painting. The Listening Sessions are short (3 hours) and allow us to repeat the process easily. We are currently conducting Listening Sessions with groups across America. The Listening Sessions are welcomed whole-heartedly by young people, who consistently express their gratitude for the opportunity to be heard.
– from http://www.imagininglearning.us/#!about/c2308, accessed 8-23-12
I hope you’ll find 5-10 minutes to explore the site. It’s beautiful in design and content, purpose and character. I hope you’ll spread the word and even consider hosting a Listening Session. I hope you’ll ask more students for their thoughts and ideas about schooling and education.
I know I need to. I plan to. Imagine what I could learn! It’s about learning.
I owe a huge debt to TS. Thanks for being my teacher and for reflecting back to me how to be a Dr. Sternin…how to listen…how to practice empathy.
On Saturday morning, while walking Lucy, I had an interesting experience. I listened to a TED-talk podcast for a TED talk that turned out to be very visually oriented – “Rob Legato: The art of creating awe.” I so enjoyed imagining what was happening that I could not yet see. Because I was familiar with the histories and the films being shared, I am certain that I could see in my mind’s eye what was happening on that TED-stage screen.
When I got home, I could not wait to watch the TED talk, so that I could compare my pre-visualization with the reality. In some cases, I was pretty close. In other cases, Legato shows slides that he does not explain in words, so I had completely missed some screen jokes and key lines that I had guessed completely wrong. The auditory experience and the visual experience were both important and fun, and I am glad that I was able to have both.
Of course, I thought of some other things as well…
I learned so much from this TED talk – “Rodney Mullen: Pop an ollie and innovate!” – and I have no intention to literally pop an ollie. But I can think of 1,000 ways that Mullen’s lessons apply to schools and school change. Here’s just one…
Context informs content.
Mullen also provided incredible wisdom about creating for the sake of creating and contributing to one’s peers and to one’s community…not for earning the championship (read – highest grade, as I was listening). In fact, after winning 35 of 36 competitions that he entered in his 11-year pro career, he shared that the loss at the end really allowed him to create most joyfully.
Out of the grind and out to grind.
It’s about the intrinsic. It’s about learning.
Innovation Excellence | Can Innovation Be a Structured Repeatable Process?
Innovation Excellence | To Understand Is To Perceive Patterns
Timothy Prestero: Design for people, not awards | Video on TED.com
What Difficult Questions about Learning Must We Ask Ourselves? | CurtisUES.info
How Can We Invite the Voice of Young Students into the Design of Their Learning? | CurtisUES.info
Important Power Players Assemble To Discuss How Social Media Can Be Used For Good | Fast Company
I just had an idea. Each one of our companies has some link buried somewhere with best practices for nonprofits. What if we all made a new website that had everyone’s stuff in one place? If there were one site that says, Here’s how you work with Adobe and YouTube and Twitter and how you combine them–that would be amazing.
10 Rules for Students and Teachers (and Life) by John Cage and Sister Corita Kent | Brain Pickings
Usable Knowledge: Education at bat: Seven principles for educators
4 Lessons The Classroom Can Learn From The Design Studio | Co.Design: business + innovation + design
Architect and K-12 thought leader from Perkins + Will explains what education can learn from the architecture studio: 1) a culture of critical collaboration, 2) interdisciplinary problem solving, everyday, 3) tinkering with solutions and reclaiming failure, and 4) the shared power of the pencil and pixel. Includes stung videos from John Seely Brown, and IDEO’s Design Thinking for Educators.
Bridging the Reasearch-Practice Divide
Making a call for school-centered research, Jennifer de Forest advocates for independent schools to leverage their traits and culture in order to combine practice with experimental research. The positive outcomes that result: 1) improving their own practice, 2) contributing to the professionalization of teaching, and 3) promoting the greater educational good.
Exciting, Essential Next Steps: Thoughts on the NMC K-12 Horizon Project Short List « 21k12
The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age – The MIT Press
The Creativity Crisis – Newsweek and The Daily Beast
.@jennzia here’s a report on decrease in creativity among US children over recent decades http://t.co/jdeekkI1
