On Connected, Community/Interest Based Learning

Wednesday Interview - Breaking the Cycle of Students' Disengagement by Having Them Leave, to Learn

Join me Wednesday, April 17th, for a live and interactive FutureofEducation.com conversation with Elliot Washor and Charles Mojkowski on their new book, Leaving to Learn: How Out-of-School Learning Increases Student Engagement and Reduces Dropout Rates.

The first step to addressing the nation's dropout rate, Elliot and Charlie argue, is letting students "leave, to learn."  (From the book's description:) "It's an alarming fact: in the U.S., one student drops out of school every 12 seconds. Elliot Washor and Charles Mojkowski, both of Big Picture Learning, have a proven, innovative solution for stemming the flow of drop-outs and breaking the cycle of disengagement that leads up to it. It's called leaving to learn. Leaving to Learn helps us deeply understand the real reasons kids drop out and the essential conditions for productive learning that today's adolescents require. The authors then make a compelling argument: in order to retain students through to graduation, schools must offer experiences where students do some of their learning outside of school. With common sense 'rules of the road,' the authors offer nuts and bolts guidelines for implementing a high-quality Leaving to Learn program, including:examples of the many forms of out-of-school learning: internships, travel, community service, independent projects, and more seamlessly integrating students' outside learning with in-school curriculum assigning academic credit for out-of-school accomplishments."

Date: Wednesday, April 17th, 2013
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). Log in at http://www.futureofed.info. The Blackboard Collaborate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Blackboard Collaborate, please visit the support and configuration page.
Recording:  A full Blackboard Collaborate recording is athttps://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2013-04-17.0748.M.9E9FE58134BE68C3B413F24B3586CF.vcr&sid=2008350 and an audio mp3 recording is athttp://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/leavingtolearn.mp3 and at http://www.futureofeducation.com.
Mightybell:  A Mightybell space with interview resources and to continue the conversation is at https://mightybell.com/spaces/44050.

Elliot Washor, Ed.D. is the co-founder and co-director of Big Picture Learning. He is also the co-founder of The Met Center in Providence, RI.

Elliot has been involved in school reform for more than 30 years as a teacher, principal, administrator, video producer, and writer. He has taught and is interested in all levels of school from kindergarten through college, in urban and rural settings, across all disciplines. His work has spanned across school design, pedagogy, learning environments, and education reform and is supporting others doing similar work throughout the world. Elliot’s interests lie in the field of how schools can connect with communities to understand tacit and disciplinary learning both in and outside of school. Elliot is deeply committed to imagining Big Picture Learning as a ‘do-think-do’ organization, and persistently pushes the boundaries of its design in order to continually innovate practice and influence in the world of education.

At Thayer High School in Winchester, N.H., Elliot’s professional development programs won an “Innovations in State and Local Government Award” from the Ford Foundation and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He has been selected as an educator to watch in Rhode Island and has recently been selected as one of the Daring Dozen – the Twelve Most Daring Educators in the World by the George Lucas Educational Foundation. His dissertation on Innovative Pedagogy and New Facilities won the merit award from DesignShare, the international forum for innovative schools.

Elliot lives in sunny San Diego with his wife and five dogs.

Charlie Mojkowski worked with Elliot Washor and Dennis Littky in creating Big Picture Learning and The Met School in Providence. He currently works with Elliot on developing new initiatives that refine and extend the Big Picture Learning design. Charlie has served as an independent consultant to education and business since 1976. He works primarily in the areas of school and curriculum improvement, leadership and organizational development, program evaluation, and applications of technology that support that work. Charlie designed, administered, and taught in a doctoral program in educational leadership; directed the Rhode Island Educational Leadership Academy; and served as Executive Director of the Rhode Island Association of School Principals.

On Student-Centered/Created, Exploratory Learning Experiments (Submitted by Jim Ross)

At the Speed of Learning Posted: 20 Mar 2013 03:21 PM PDT My third graders have been studying the Iditarod race and tracking musher data online during the past few weeks.  Take a look at the data available on the mushers, like first place winner Mitch  Seavey.   Graphing, data analysis, addition, subtraction, addition, averages, and so much more become real as students follow the race online, tracking their own selected musher.  As a part of the study, we built our own sleds.  I cleaned out the art supplies and covered an entire table with random stuff. Popsicle sticks. Cardboard. Cotton. Yarn. Bubble Wrap. Recycled items.  The goal?  To build a sled that would carry a small bag of musher supplies (bingo chips) down the hill (a table leaned down on two legs) at the fastest speed possible.  The class dove into the supplies, building, researching sled designs, and recreating their own little sleds in small teams. When we raced? The sleds with cotton on the bottom hesitated to start.  The sleds with wood bottoms? Zoomed to the bottom.  Friction. Force. Motion. Energy. Collaboration. Data. The reflections afterward? They not only understood friction, but they applied it to their own experiences.  All of this from a pile of craft supplies, a real-life race, and morning spent creating and exploring.   Even better? They applied what they learned to the real sleds on snow, ice, and rock mushing  through Alaska. I could have given them a pattern to follow. I could have just asked them to just read a chapter about force and motion and write some defintions.  I could have even made a sled and demonstrated for them. Instead? I got out of their way.  A pile of materials engaged them, and our race at the end allowed them to make comparisons, draw conclusions, and keep it real.  They were solving problems, working as a team, and creating.  They were learning.

Classic on Student Interests & Digital Learning - Sugata Mitra "Hole in the Wall" experiment

Student Driven Design - Personalized Learning (Submitted by Jim Ross)

If students designed their own school… it would look like this

Posted by Valerie Strauss on February 20, 2013 at 4:00 am

Student Peter Boyce
(By Charles Tsai)

“It’s crazy that in a system that is meant to teach and help the youth there is no voice from the youth at all.” That’s the opening line in a video called “If students designed their own schools,” about The Independent Project, a high school semester designed and implemented entirely by students.

What did it look like? No quizzes. No tests. No grades. Students created their own learning materials and taught themselves and each other.

The Independent Project started in 2011 at Monument Mountain Regional High School, a public school in Massachusetts, after a student named Sam Levin advanced an idea about students creating their own learning environment in order to find the engagement and mastery he felt were lacking in many teacher-designed classes. Principal Marianne Young agreed to a pilot.

In this model, teachers serve as mentors and coaches, not as direct instructors, while students pose questions and find ways to answer them.

The pilot semester — in which eight students participated (one 10th grader, five 11th graders and two seniors) — was broken down into four parts: orientation, the sciences, the arts, and the collective endeavor, which all of the students would agree on a serious world issue and work together to find a solution or a piece of a solution. Students would come up with their own questions in each subject, research it and then teach it to the other students.

After the first semester, an evaluation was undertaken and changes were made to the model. Now several schools in the country have their own Independent Project.

The video was done by Charles Tsai, director of Learning Networks for Ashoka Canada, a global association of social entrepreneurs. He also  works in the area of self-directed education through his organization, Social Creatives.

Here’s Tsai’s video:

Afterschool Alliance - STEM and Meaningful Partnership/Funding Opportunities - (Submitted by Jim Ross to Boy Scouts of America/D-BAR-A initiative)

Empowering Youth Civic Engagement in 21st Century (Webinar 7PM Thursday (previously wrong day, sorry!): MacArthur Digital Media & Learning Initiative

This Week on ConnectedLearning.tv

How To Participate 1. Join the Hangout with Nicole & Charlene 2. Watch, submit questions, and connect with others on Livestream 3. Watch live on ConnectedLearning.tv 4. Watch live on Google Plus 5. #connectedlearning on Twitter Watch and Share the Previous Session Kris Gutierrez & Bill Penuel - Assessing Connected Learning Outcomes Connected Learning Report Comprehensive report full of useful case studies on connected learning. [PDF] Join the Google Plus 'Community' Connect with others, share examples of connected learning experiences, and collaborate on a new "Connected Learning FAQ". Next Webinar: Thursday, Feb 21, 4-5pm PT Nicole Mirra & Charlene Ortuno - Empowering Youth Civic Engagement in the 21st Century How can parents, teachers, and mentors support innovative youth civic endeavors, both in- and out-of-school? NOTE: This webinar starts at 4:00pm PT (7:00pm ET) Nicole Mirra is a high school English teacher at Animo Watts College Preparatory Academy in Los Angeles, CA, and the coordinator of the UCLA Council of Youth Research. She is also Chair of the "Envisioning 21st Century Education" track at DML2013. Charlene Ortuno is an English teacher at iPrep Academy, a magnet high school in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. She also serves as a curriculum consultant for "Teen Thoughts on Democracy," a project at Florida International University's museum, library, and research center called "The Wolfsonian."

Out of School Time/Learning - recognized! (Badges, Digital Learning & Competency-Based Models - gaining traction)

Published in Print: February 6, 2013, as R.I. Students Gaining 'Badges' and Credits Outside of School

R.I. Students Gaining 'Badges,' Credits Outside School

Juan Batista, 16, a student at William B. Cooley Sr. High School, practices using a steadying device to shoot video on the streets of Providence, R.I. He is participating in the city school district's expanded-learning program.

—Gretchen Ertl for Education Week

By Nora Fleming

Many schools encourage students to get real-world experience outside school walls. But very few offer course credit and digital "badges"—virtual records of skills and achievements—for those experiences.

Now, the Providence, R.I., school district is in the middle of an initiative that appears to be breaking new ground in giving academic credit and recognizing skills and achievements out of school.

A collaborative project between a nonprofit organization, theProvidence After School Alliance, or PASA, and the 23,500-student Providence district is allowing students to engage in for-credit, badge-earning learning experiences outside school. Examples range from developing and pitching business plans to local venture capital firms to learning how to make Android phone applications at Brown University.

While Providence's approach—to encourage connections between in- and out-of-school learning and get students more engaged in school—is gaining steam both at the state and district levels throughout the country. The district stands out as one of the first to bridge the two goals by having students receive badges and academic credit for out-of-school experiences.

"Districts are challenged in balancing the need to meet fiscal realities and policy regulations, while addressing the academic needs of students and making certain they have access to the types of courses they need to be prepared for college and a career," said Paula Shannon, the district's chief academic officer.

"But good learning is learning that is relevant and rigorous that takes place in and outside of school," she said. "Expanded learning opportunities provide real potential to move the needle forward in education by blending the line between the two worlds."

TESTING THE MODEL

Last school year, 30 students from one Providence high school, Juanita Sanchez High School, participated in a pilot project to test the model. Independent evaluations found promising results, and student and teacher responses were favorable, encouraging the district to expand the program.

Providence Programs

A Providence, R.I., school district initiative offers students the opportunity to gain credits and digital badges for activities outside school in the following programs:

ART AND DESIGN LAB
Students create, collaborate, present, and study works of art at the Rhode Island Museum of Art.

CVS BIOTECHNOLOGY CERTIFICATION PROGRAM
Students participate in science internships in the community to enrich the study of biotechnology, supported by CVS Pharmacy.

ECO YOUTH-GREEN DRIVE
Students learn about environmental issues, challenges, and policies with the Environmental Justice League of Rhode Island.

ENGLISH-LANGUAGE LEARNERS
Students improve English skills participating in hands-on language-skill exercises with a local organization, Inspiring Minds.

JSEC DEBATE TEAM
Students work on public speaking and debate skills in a debate league, assisted by college mentors from Brown University.

JUSTICE TALKS
Students participate in a discussion group on civic engagement and service with Serve Rhode Island, a community-service organization.

MULTIMEDIA
Students create articles, photos, and videos about their community and schools, while working with Inspiring Minds.

PHOTOGRAPHY, VISUALS, PERFORMANCE, COMMUNICATIONS 
Students learn video-editing, photography, and Google-sketch skills in an arts education program called AS220.

PRINCIPALS’ LEADERSHIP PROGRAM 
Students receive training from Young Voices, a youth-advocacy organization, on leadership and communication skills.

PROGRAMMING FOR ANDROID PHONES
Students learn how to create Android phone applications in a computer science program at Brown University.

ProviDance
Students participate in a dance-technique class with a local dance company, Fusionworks, including potential rehearsals with local dance companies.

ROCK & REEL 
Students learn video production and editing skills at the Rhode Island Film Collaborative.

YOUNG SOCIAL INNOVATORS
Students work with Social Venture Partners of Rhode Island to develop business plans and pitch ideas to investors for seed funding.

WING IT: EVERYTHING CAN FLY ONCE
Students learn engineering skills while designing projects related to flight, at Brown University.

SOURCE: Providence After School Alliance

Fifty-five students enrolled this past fall, and about 55 more are expected this spring, now from two high schools.

Next school year, the program will expand to four high schools and serve 150 students. The goal is to eventually expand the program to all eight high schools in the district, said Ms. Shannon, though the district will need to find additional community partners and work out a number of technical and logistical details.

PASA, an organization that also supports after-school programming for middle school students, among other expanded-learning work, collaborated with community partners to create out-of-school courses for students. The organization worked with district teachers to ensure the classes had academic relevance and were aligned with the Common Core State Standards.

While the courses have differing schedules, students attend their out-of-school courses a minimum of once a week for two hours, over a span of 10 weeks, and all student learning is assessed through collaboration by the community partners, PASA staff members, and district teachers.

Students are also required to participate in an online forum, located at www.hubprov.com, where they discuss what they are learning, bolstered through blogging and multimedia projects, such as the production of online photos or videos.

The new use of digital badges, recognized both in and out of school, really sets Providence apart from other efforts undertaken by schools and organizations to recognize out-of-school learning, said Damian Ewens, the director of high school initiatives at PASA.

To launch the badging project, PASA won $75,000 in funding through a digital-badging grant competition sponsored by the Mozilla Foundation, a nonprofit based in Mountain View, Calif., that supports open-source Web content and the Firefox Web browser, and the Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which has spent more than $80 million so far to support innovative digital-learning initiatives.

COMPETENCY VS. 'SEAT TIME'

In addition to having their badges displayed on the PASA website and recognized by the school system, students are able to post them on social-media sites such as Facebook, and use them wherever else they see fit, such as with college applications.

Rhode Island College, in Providence, has agreed to accept badges on college applications as a testament to the value of learning experiences and skill acquisition.

"Digital badges are designed to recognize learning that happens anytime, anywhere," said Mr. Ewens, adding that badges can have a powerful impact on students themselves, helping them take greater "ownership" of their learning.

"Academic credits sit on a transcript with an abbreviated title and a letter grade," he said. "Whoever sees a digital badge can also learn [through a full description] what a student did to get that badge; it supplies a tremendous amount of information that adds more value to the student."

The district hopes eventually to use the badges to help students gain credit within classes for relevant work outside the classroom that reflects mastery of academic content.

For example, a student could take part in a robotics club on weekends and gain a badge that he or she could use to show mastery of an algebra concept that would fulfill the requirements for a traditional assignment or test on a unit, according to Ms. Shannon.

The Providence district's work on the digital-badge program would not have been possible without changes in state education policies, which have made it easier for districts to recognize out-of-school learning and link it to classroom instruction.

Rhode Island, like some other states, has high school students gain credits for showing proficiency in academic courses needed for graduation, rather than by the amount of time they take to complete a course, known as "seat time." Increasing numbers of states are moving to such "competency-based education" models, in which schools want students to demonstrate knowledge of subject material in new ways to show they have mastered it to move forward, according to Jennifer Dounay Zinth, a senior policy analyst at the Denver-based Education Commission of the States.

RELATED BLOG

Visit this blog.

About 40 states now have policies that allow high school students to gain academic credit through competency-based assessment systems that run the gamut state to state. Some of the most progressive credit-gaining opportunities are found in states such as New Hampshire and New Jersey.

The motivation behind the efforts comes from the acknowledgment that today's students learn in many new and different ways that aren't connected to how much time they spend in a classroom, said Betsy Brand, the director of the American Youth Policy Forum, a Washington-based advocacy organization that supports college and career readiness and expanded learning.

"The competency-based education model can be for anyone that feels hampered by the time- and seat-based system we have," Ms. Brand said.

"But everything you learn outside of high school is not going to get you credit," she said. "Schools have to determine what is rigorous enough and what meets the requirements they deem important."

Coverage of leadership, expanded learning time, and arts learning is supported in part by a grant from The Wallace Foundation, at www.wallacefoundation.org.

Primer on Digital Media & Learning with Youth Civic Participation (MacArthur Foundation - theme for the year)

Examining Technology Use, Diversity & Equity at the Digital Edge

A Few Moments with S. Craig Watkins

As a leading ethnographer, lecturer, and author, S. Craig Watkins is working at the forefront of the digital media and learning initiative. At the core of his studies is an interest in how young people navigate social change around them, particularly the innovative ways youth are adapting to new media and mobile media platforms. For more than a year, Craig and his connected learning research team have been working with Texas City High School (TCHS), a public school with an enrollment of 1,650 students, the majority of whom are minorities, in an effort to implement several ‘connected learning’ design pilot projects. He also serves as conference chair for the 2013 Digital Media and Learning Conference, which is themed “Democratic Futures” and will take place March 14-16 in Chicago. Craig spent a few moments with us talking about how his perspectives on civic education and issues of digital equity have evolved as a result of working at the majority-minority school.

How has being in the trenches shaped the work you do?

The principal hat I wear, in all of the work I do, is that of a learner. The opportunity to meet young people has certainly been a part of my own lifelong learning. Over the years, I have met a number of young people who have exuded a creative energy and ambition, which has been really inspirational for me. I’m in a unique position because my job allows me the opportunity to meet young people both as a researcher and also as a speaker, as I travel across the country to talk with school districts, youth organizations, and after-school programs. A lot of the students we have met this past year come from homes and attend schools where the resources aren’t substantial. Yet they develop this sense of optimism and this sense that their voices matter. The ways they struggle to achieve that voice is what I find really fascinating.

One young student I have had the chance to befriend is someone who comes from an immigrant household. His mom works at a cafeteria and doesn't speak English well. His dad has a similar background. There are all kinds of reasons why this young student shouldn't be very optimistic. He has had some ups and downs in school, and when talking to him, I learned about how that history had framed who he was as a learner. Yet he was able to demonstrate a kind of integrity and intelligence that eventually forced his parents and teachers to realize he was capable of so much more than people expected. I was really struck by the fact that even in a space that would otherwise be devastating odds, he’s optimistic about his future. There are definitely some challenges he will face, but seeing the ways he leverages his interest in games and technology to become both a star pupil in his classes and also a star citizen in the after school space is inspiring to me. It’s nothing I could have pictured or put together if I hadn’t had an opportunity to meet someone like him.

After working at Texas City High School for the past year and a half, do you have a better understanding of the challenges students attending majority-minority schools face?

Part of the reason we wanted to roll up our sleeves and get into this classroom setting was to build a sense of trust and build a connection with these students. That allowed us to explore their life history both in school and outside of school. One of the things you learn is that over the course of their lives as students, the expectations have been consistently low for them. The achievement environment and the standards are so low for these students, and increasingly, these are the students who are beginning to represent the majority of students in our public schools. It really does create some serious challenges in terms of how we begin to create curriculum that demands more in terms of innovation, creativity and autonomy. As learners, these students have never been expected to do that, so how do we begin to create an environment, or opportunities, or classrooms that enable them to start doing that type of work?

What I found really interesting was that we didn't meet a single student who had an oppositional culture to learning. We never saw any evidence of that at TCHS. What we saw were many instances of kids trying to do well in school or attempting to take on a leadership role in the projects we were working on. It’s not that these students do not want to achieve, but the low set of expectations that have been cultivated over a set of years have established a set of norms and behaviors that makes success and achievement at a high level very difficult for them.

Is this a major cause for concern considering recent demographic shifts in the US?

As we look at an increasing number of metropolitan areas that are becoming majority-minority--where the majority of the population is Latino, Asian American, African American, and multi-racial--this has severe implications for not only the future of learning, but also for the future of who our young learners are. One of the things I find most striking about the demographic trend–-more than 50% percent of our nation's population younger than age 1 are now minorities--is that if you look at the public school districts in the major metropolitan areas, those are now above the participant threshold in terms of minorities of the population. Much of our future will in many respects be defined by the kind of education these students receive and the kind of skills and knowledge and competencies they develop. The implications are enormous. The very students we are largely failing are the students that we need to be supporting by creating pathways for them to succeed. But this is not about merely preparing young people for good jobs but rather equipping them with the knowledge and skills to thrive in future classrooms, workplaces, and civic spheres. Their success will be our success. This is something we think about constantly in our work.

The struggles that students, teachers, and families face every day at TCHS are always on our minds. If we look at the demographic trends in this country, we will realize we are at a critical juncture. Someone on our research team made a powerful observation about TCHS and that is the persistent anxiety among students and their families associated with living on the edge--the social, economic, and political edge. That's why we call our project the Digital Edge. It's in the context of urgency and uncertainty that we wanted to not only understand their adoption of social, digital, and mobile media but how these practices relate to larger issues of social, academic, and economic inequality.

How can we get it right and start to construct innovative curricula if the almost universal decision to block digital media, such as social media platforms, continues to be upheld in schools?

The blocking of social media was something we saw from the very beginning of our time in TCHS, and the most frustrating part about it all is that, in addition to the students not liking it, the teachers don't like it, and even the administration doesn’t like it. But the fact of the matter is that it is a district mandate. I have become more and more aware of how important a platform like YouTube is for young students as a result of my time spent at TCHS. From the perspective of the school district, YouTube is seen as a waste of time and having no educational value at all. But when you observe kids using YouTube you get a completely different perspective. For them, it's a node in their learning ecology, an example of how "connected learning" happens in a very real way. When kids want to learn how to do something today, they are just as likely to go to YouTube as they are to Google or Wikipedia, especially kids intrigued by designing and making things. Doing so allows them to expand their learning network and tap the rich stream of distributed expertise made possible by networked media. Google learned this about young people a few years ago and, consequently, began to redesign how they do search by making video more prominent.

In five or ten years, I believe this will be something we will look back on and think, how did we ever reach the conclusion that it’s appropriate and an intelligent decision to block kids’ access to the networked world? Rather than teaching them how to navigate that world and teaching them how to be citizens in that world, we instead just pretended it didn't exist. We couldn't imagine doing our TCHS summer project without students having access to online information and having the ability to communicate with each other via social networks. It was absolutely crucial to the program. We lobbied the school district to open up the network. The school listened.

Our hope now is for the district to begin to see how youth use social media in very productive ways and how social media can expand their learning. A lot of kids are participating in these networked publics as learners, storytellers, and information seekers. As researchers, we can begin to document and demonstrate how learning can and does happen as a result of engaging with these platforms. If we can make compelling cases, it really does force schools to rethink some of these broader policies.

The digital media and learning field is at defining moment because we are in a position to not only be thought leaders in terms of this work, but we can also help with intervention, policy, and curriculum design as more schools begin to rethink the role of technology in the learning environment.

What impact has your experience at TCHS had on your agenda for DML2013?

In my own experience growing up, there were internship opportunities and classes that provided pathways to bridge learning both in and out of classroom, which allowed me to see myself as part of the greater community. For me, it was always important and certainly was part of my own trajectory towards college and beyond in terms of the disposition one develops and how one begins to see himself/herself in the world.

I did have those opportunities in middle school and high school, and my time spent at TCHS has left me wondering, to what extent can we create those experiences for all students? What we know now is that there is what Joseph Kahne and others call the civic opportunity gap, which is this notion that not all students have access to opportunities where schools can support students in understanding the importance of civics. TCHS is so focused on meeting the bare minimum--getting bodies in the seats, keeping attendance up, and performing well on tests--that the school does not have a chance to expand the curriculum and create these opportunities for students, which are so powerful and so important to their civic identity. These opportunities are beginning to fade away entirely from schools like TCHS. 

Our work at TCHS has largely focused on bridging those pathways between the classroom and the community. It’s a much more robust way of thinking about civic education and learning in general. Part of my vision for DML2013 is to find teachers, students and schools who are already doing this type of work. They are out there, and if we can bring their personal experiences to the conference, they can serve as models for others who are attending. It provides for a really fascinating set of conversations around what it means to think about democratic futures and what role teachers and students will play in making those futures more compelling.

In the video interview above, Craig explains the conference's thematic focus on civic participation - "Democratic Futures: Mobilizing Voices, and Remixing Youth Participation."

On STEM, Parent/Community Involvement & the Maker Movement

Q&A with Generation YES President Sylvia Martinez on STEM and ways for parents to be involved

Posted: 14 Jan 2013 07:46 AM PST

Check this out! I’m interviewed in the current issue of Washington Exec. Here’s the interview.

Sylvia Martinez is President of Generation YES. Prior to joining this non-profit, she was VP of Development at Encore Software, a publisher of game and educational software on PC, Internet, and console platforms. For seven years, she was also the executive producer at Davidson & Associates/Knowledge Adventure, an educational software developer.

Martinez has an M.A. in Educational Technology from Pepperdine University, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles.

WashingtonExec got the chance to speak with Martinez about her role at Generation Yes, how to get involved, the future STEM holds, and more.

WashingtonExec: What is your background and how did you get involved in STEM?

Sylvia Martinez: I have an electrical engineering degree and worked in aerospace on the GPS satellite navigation system development right out of college. After I had children, I became interested in using computers in education. I got a masters in education, then worked as an executive producer for Davidson & Associates, of MathBlaster software fame and other software and console game publishers.

WashingtonExec: Please describe your day to day responsibilities at Generation Yes.

Sylvia Martinez: Generation YES is a non-profit with a mission to empower young people to make a difference by using technology in education. We have curriculum and online tools that help teachers and students collaborate to use technology in the classroom. As president, I speak, write, and evangelize about our mission. It encompasses product development, PR, marketing, development, grant writing, and working with educators all across the US.

WashingtonExec: The U.S. is not turning out the engineering students that we need to in order to compete as an innovative country. Why is this issue so important to you?

Sylvia Martinez: For me personally, becoming an engineer was the intellectual turning point in my life. I was always good at math and science in school, but learning to solve real problems that could make the world a better place meant that I could make a difference. I want everyone to have that feeling.


Children need to have those powerful experiences at all ages, to prove to themselves that their ideas are valuable and can turn into positive action. Those experiences are key to innovation.

WashingtonExec: What’s your view to get more parents involved in STEM?

Sylvia Martinez: I think schools need to be more open to the whole community, not only parents. We need children and parents to see that science is around them everyday. STEM isn’t worksheet problems or vocabulary words.

WashingtonExec: What are some simple ways to get their kids more involved in STEM at an early age?

Sylvia Martinez: Parents can seek out experiences where their kids get to make and do things. The Maker movement has exploded recently. Get a copy of Geek Dad or Geek Mom and make something with your kids–anything from cooking and sewing to building a fort. Sometimes moms do not realize that the crafts they do have terrific STEM connections. The act of making something reinforces learning, and also teaches habits of persistence, willingness to “have a go”, and mindfulness. Parents should not accept schools where science and math only happen on paper and are only measured with multiple-choice tests.

WashingtonExec: What’s the best STEM success case study/project that you have been personally involved in?

Sylvia Martinez: For the past 5 years I’ve been on the faculty of Constructing Modern Knowledge, a summer institute for teachers. Every year we bring amazing resources like Legos, robotics, wearable computers, and more for teachers to play with and learn to use. Many teachers are a bit unsure of themselves as scientists and it’s crucial that they have experiences just like ones that are good for kids. Every year, teachers amaze themselves with the projects they do in a few short days. Our graduates report this changes the way they teach and that to me is a huge success.

WashingtonExec: What’s the future of STEM? How can other like-minded people get involved?

Sylvia Martinez: I am hopeful that students will get more hands on, experiential learning, with modern materials and more engaging projects. I also hope that we can empower younger students to experiment with the digital world. So much is possible these days with very inexpensive microcomputers, 3D printing, robots, and other fascinating technology.

However, I worry that the US is too focused on test scores and simple standardized assessment. The future will be about who can be creative and innovative, not who gets the best test scores.


People need to speak out about what’s important for education. We need all kids to have access to engaging, experiential learning opportunities, not just test prep.

WashingtonExec: What blogs/resources are useful to check out?

Sylvia Martinez: I post a lot of resources on our Generation YES blog http://blog.genyes.org and there is more information about the Constructing Modern Knowledge summer institute athttp://www.constructingmodernknowledge.com. Our website http://www.genyes.org has many free resources such as how to start a student-run “Genius Bar” at your school. We hope that people take these ideas and work with students to make them happen. It’s only by working collaboratively with young people that education will improve and move forward.

Student-Centered Design Example - In Practice

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Towards the Second Build: Consultation and conversations

http://openlearningspaces.blogspot.com/2012/12/towards-second-build-consultation-and.html?showComment=1357224420764#c5305788718051364437

Our consultation process and living our norm of ‘Value the Voices’ has continued with our year 2, 3 and 4 students. A team of teachers in Learning Hub Two worked alongside children in a number of different ways. Some students focused on existing spaces and how they felt about them, others on potential new spaces and what they would like to see. Data was gathered using drawings, photographs, models and conversations.

How do you sincerely listen to a large group of students and for it not to become token consultation? Working with a group of close to seventy students produces a staggering mass of data- some great learning for us around student voice and how to get the most from it, and personally as well, just about to launch into a research project.

The important thing seemed to us to extract key themes that were raised by a number of children, whilst still hanging onto the individuality and creativity that individuals brought along. So a number of students were interviewed afterwards either individually or in small groups. In general these interviews were carried out with children who contributed elements that in essence added something new, without being unrealistic (more about this soon!).

Existing spaces

Initial learning was done with Hub Two students gathering data about like and dislikes in the existing spaces. Armed with cameras, small groups of children took a series of photos of places they liked and disliked around our hub, glued these to a plan, added ‘Like’ or “Dislike’ symbols, and were then invited to comment and justify their decisions. In general students focused on the positive aspects of their spaces and were quite pragmatic about furniture, layout and facilities such as sinks, bathrooms and Comments often referred to elements within the space such as computers or furniture rather than the space itself.

One group commented that:

I like it because the table is mobile (picture of the back of the X4 teaching station).

I like this space because I can concentrate when I’m learning (picture of beanbags in the breakout room).

I like this space because it’s quiet most of the time (picture of the shield table at the end of the hub).

I like this space because it can shut its doors and it will be quiet (picture of breakout room).

I like this space because I can get supplies from here, that are organized in tote-trays (picture of tote-trays).

I don’t like this place because it is not tidy (book shelves)

Another group commented that:

I like this because it tells you what you are doing (picture of Literacy Tumble on the wall).

I like this because it tells you what stage you are in (picture of Reading progressions on the wall).

I like this because it tells the teacher who’s here (picture of guardian group roll).

I like seeing our pictures (picture of wall mounted TV).

I like this because it shows our clay and you can look at it (picture of clay artwork display on table).

Other common features that children commented on and liked were:

·      Coloured ‘welcome couch’

·      Large space where the entire hub could meet

·      That there was lots of space- easy to find somewhere to learn

·      Spaces behind furniture where children could sit

·      Wall mounted TV

·      Corners where they could sit and learn

·      Coloured glass

Possible Spaces

Students were invited to put together designs for possible hubs. These were completed either individually or collaboratively. Some chose to draw and others built possible spaces using construction materials. Both of these were used as a basis for conversation, much of which was captured on video. A number of students participated in collecting video data, where they explained in greater detail what was involved in their design. They were also able to respond to questions about why they had included certain elements and what their thinking was.

Interestingly the learning spaces that children drew were mainly rectangular and often with small rooms coming off the main area. Children have really adopted the concept of working alongside teachers in a more central space and then moving out to learn more independently. Children often drew multiple small rooms as components of the larger space, often with designated purposes. One students design for example includes a larger space and then a number of smaller spaces to be used for: science, private learning and music. Another’s included a designated maths room, a reading space and a teacher’s room. Did teachers need their own room we asked “they might need their own space but would have to keep it tidy!” came the response.

There was a strong sense of purposeful spaces resonating with this group of children, for example science or specific facilities for cooking. When asked if this space would be exclusively for the use by their learning hub children commented that it would be ok for another hub to use the space too, and for them to have an alternatively purposed shared area.

The pragmatism continues into bathrooms. A number of children drew what they described as ‘private toilets’ accessible only by students in that particular hub. When questioned further about these they described wanting the toilets close so that ‘if I got really into my learning and was busting to go to the toilet, I could get there quickly’. In general the point was that proximity not exclusivity was the key. The toilets would be ok outside, as long as they were close (It is possible that children considered that the new hubs would have to utilise existing toilets).

Children commented on the small breakout rooms being quiet places where they could concentrate. They were able to close the doors and work undisturbed. This raises the question of how many breakout spaces a hub might need and how many need to be closeable.

Sinks and wet space areas were a common theme in the drawings, frequently appearing in the corners or ends of the hub. It was felt that the wet space certainly needed to be larger than existing lino areas and positioned away from the main thoroughfare.

A number of children commented on the desirability for more that one level within the space, with either a drop down or a rise up. One commented on the ‘Staircase to nowhere’ idea of a set of stairs with a small landing on them, one on a mezzanine level, another on a sunken area.

Bag storage was initially an issue at school and was solved with the aid of a project involving a team of students and a design expert. Some children commented that it would be better to have the bags indoors, out of the wind and rain.

Emerging Themes: The main themes to emerge from Hub Two students were:

·      A space large enough for the entire hub to meet.

·      Toilets in close proximity

·      Internal bag storage

·      Sinks and wet spaces away from the centre of the room

·      Inclusion of ‘quiet spaces’

·      Purposeful spaces that could be shared with other hubs

·      More than one level

·      Corners and spaces behind furniture- idea of ‘secret spaces’

The consultation continues…