As the year kicks off in earnest, maybe you are one of the many who have made great resolutions about your physical health, but have you given any thought to the health of your learning? Seriously, how focused are you on your learning? Have you done your professional learning checkup? It’s one thing to be getting yourself in great physical shape, but surely it’s just as important for you to be confident about making well-informed decisions in the year ahead? Just as physical well-being allows you to lead a better life, knowing you are on top of the key decisions in your life lowers your stress levels, gives you more time for the things that matter most in your life, and, above all, allows you to make better choices. Learning is one of those things that most people take for granted, almost like breathing. We’re conscious of it when we learn formally, as in school or on a required course or workshop, but for the most part we barely pay any attention to what is possibly one of … [Read more...]
2019 – Time to Choose
Here's my burning question for you in 2019: What are you going to do to change the experience that your students have in school to reflect more compellingly what you believe is the right thing to be doing for kids and learning? It's a loaded question, I know. It suggests that as an educator, you're currently employing practices that you don't really believe in. It suggests, also, that you are choosing to do that. Are you? I figure the beginning of the year is as good a time as any to lay this conversation around change squarely on the line. (At least it'll be all downhill from here, right?) And while I'm obviously trying to provoke, I'm also summing up a lot of what I'm leaving 2018 with in my head and in my gut. It's a feeling borne out by conversations with thousands of educators across about 150K miles of air travel this year, conversations that helped paint a complex if yet unclear picture for me of a turning point of sorts. That turn is this: … [Read more...]
The Most Important Skill for the Future: Being Human
Given how much I read, I wish I was more like my friend Rob who has the insane ability to remember just about everything he reads down to where it's located on the paper or digital page he reads it on. Unfortunately for me, that's not the case. It takes much longer for the patterns and themes to congeal when the texts in my head are shadowy fragments of themselves as they appeared in the real world. The good news (for me at least) is that every now and again, I recognize the patterns, though it's a process that sometimes feels like completing a puzzle at a molecular level. One such theme that seems to be emerging for me is that for all of our flagellation over the skills that our kids will need to thrive in the future, we may be missing the most important yet eternal skill of all: knowing thyself. Christian Talbot over at Basecamp used that phrase in a short post this week about the "School of the Future." In it, he glosses the Yural Harari book "21 Lessons for the 21st Century," … [Read more...]
Designing for Learning
Turns out, we who live in western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic societies are actually as WEIRD as the acronym for that group spells out. According to research by University of British Columbia professor Joe Henrich (now of Harvard,) "Members of WEIRD societies, including young children, are among the least representative populations one could find for generalizing about humans." And therefore, Henrich argues, we have to be really careful to apply behavioral or psychological (or other) types of research done on WEIRD populations to humans in general, in short because we are not the norm in the world. In fact, we are at the far end of the outlier spectrum when it comes to our behavior. That point is raised at the beginning of a presentation by Carol Black that I came across this week. Black, the creator and early producer of the TV show "The Wonder Years," is also a powerful writer about learning and schools (and "unschooling"), and one of her blog posts … [Read more...]
The Unpleasant Truth About Equity
Equity is a topic that takes center stage in many education conversations, and rightly so. It’s about every child being given a “fair go." We often voice our concerns about the plight of the underserved in our communities, and as educators, we always strive to address their disadvantage within the resources we have available. At times, it can seem almost pointless when faced with the barriers and handicaps that society has placed in front of so many of our young people, yet as educators, our moral compasses guide us to try and give every child equal opportunity. It’s not easy. Whether you are dealing with disability, cultural or demographic limitations, or probably the most challenging, financial disadvantage, every day schools across the globe seek to offer a leg up to the less fortunate in our communities. It can be as minor as funding books or technology or lunches, or as major as comprehensive welfare support programs such as those that are now common place in many … [Read more...]
A response to Prince Ea’s viral video “What is School For?”
The "Let's Change School" conversation came to the forefront again this week after a video collaboration between Ted Dintersmith and the rapper Prince Ea went viral. As we write this, the video has been up for a little over 4 days, and between YouTube and Facebook, it has almost 10 million views and over 25,000 comments. We think that qualifies as viral. Why would a video about the need to change school go viral? Why is this particular video zooming around the Interwebs at warp speed? Is it the high production value? The captivating spoken poetry by a well followed You Tube talent? The cute kids? All of the above? While those may be the most obvious answers, we'd like to add another one: Because almost everyone can relate. Ask yourself... With the caveat that at moments the video is a bit hyperbolic, a little too self-serving, and tries too hard for that emotional response (a couple of my friends called it “icky”) - despite all that, which of the messages embedded in … [Read more...]
Connections and Community in a Modern Learning World
In our last Shifting Conversation post, the 250th in the series, Bruce shared the evolution of Modern Learners over the last five years, a few of the tools we use to thrive (and survive) as a team, and the pivots we made along the way. Since Bruce and Will have spent the past week traveling to facilitate Modern Learners’ Labs in Perth, Auckland, and Christchurch, Missy and I are eager to share more about who we are and what we have in store for you. It’s interesting, isn’t it, how we amplify lists of “Skills all Workers Will Need in 2040” and remark, “Did you know our students will be working in jobs that don’t even exist yet?” and with this certain amount of rhetoric comes the reality of living and working in a fluid, dynamic, primarily online learning environment. Occasionally we have to stop and consider what a different time and place this world of modern learning really is, and how it influences not only our work, learning, and connections with other educators, but also our … [Read more...]
How Long is the Long Run?
I recently reviewed a Seth Godin podcast called the Long Term. It was an interesting commentary by Seth on the significant benefits we see when we are committed to the long run...olive farmers and investors included. So given this week's post will be our 250th Shifting Conversation, I’m giving myself the luxury of reflecting on just how far we have come with Modern Learners over the past five years, which in the world of new media startups is undoubtedly a long time. It’s a journey, as many of you know, that actually started towards the end of 2010, when Will and I were sharing our observations about how the increasing rate of change in our lives was making schools less and less relevant. As you might expect, we were going hardcore on what we saw as the increasingly obvious, urgent and inevitable need for change in our schools, but at the same time we were both drawn to thinking about how we needed to also change how we were working if we were to have more impact and … [Read more...]
Choosing Progressive Education for Modern Learning
While it's hard to count the number of profound thoughts and insights that frequent Timeless Learning, the absolutely powerful new book from Ira Socol, Pam Moran, and Chad Ratliff that's coming out next week, this one particular passage had my inner and outer edu-activist pumping his fist: Adults may argue about this – they do argue about it – but despite the historical victories of industrial education, the fundamental utility of school has now firmly shifted to the progressive educational ideal, what John Dewey wanted” (97). Finally, some well-respected voices who categorically state that for this modern era, for the sake of today's kids living in today's world, we must choose Dewey over Thorndike, not the other way around. To be sure, I know many progressive educators in classrooms and schools right now. Heck, there are actually a smattering of fully functioning and fully committed progressive schools where absolutely amazing things are happening with kids and teachers who are … [Read more...]
Who Are These Modern Learners?
With all the talk around modern learners, it’s probably time we got up close and personal to understand a little more about their motivations, behaviors, and attitudes. First up, let’s be clear. Modern learners aren’t defined by an age group or demographic but rather by their habits, dispositions, and most importantly their ideas about the rapidly changing world in which they now live. They identify by how they function within that modern context. They’re motivated by unlimited access to the world around them and a freedom to learn, and consequently, their behavior is in stark contrast to learners of old. These are not young people who come to us tabla rasa, empty vessels to be filled with prescribed, testable lumps of knowledge. Rather they aspire to be designers of the changing world. They are producers and contributors, not just passive consumers. Ten years ago, at a small research and development operation at ideaslab in Broadmeadows, Australia we spent several years … [Read more...]