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.

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."

Youth Civic Engagement for 21st Century - (MacArthur, Digital Media & Learning - Google + talk - February 19th, 1:00 PM)

LIVE

FEB

19

1:00 PM EST

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?

About This Speaker

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: a university-school partnership program that engages students and teachers from five Los Angeles public schools in research aimed at challenging educational inequalities and fostering transformative civic engagement. 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 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."

Resources

How to Participate

• Join the Google+ Hangout with Charlene and Nicole
• Watch, submit questions, and connect with others live on Livestream
• Watch live on the ConnectedLearning.tv home page
• Watch live on the Connected Learning Google+ Page
• Contribute to the #connectedlearning Twitter hashtag chat

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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…

Personalization in Education - The Big Picture Conversation - Now, how do we create the right conditions & supports for it to flourish?

by NPR/TED STAFF

June 17, 2012 1:23 PM

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TED Radio Hour

23 min 58 sec

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"There's a terrible tendency to confuse raising standards with standardizing." — Sir Ken Robinson

Robert Leslie/TED

More From This Episode

Building A Better Classroom

Part 1 of the TED Radio Hour episodeBuilding A Better Classroom. Watch Sir Ken Robinson's full Talks — Schools Kill Creativity and Bring On The Learning Revolution — on TED.com

About Sir Ken Robinson's Talks

In his first Talk, Schools Kill Creativity, education expert Sir Ken Robinson makes a moving case for creating an education system that nurtures, rather than undermines, creativity.

In the second Talk, Bring On The Learning Revolution, he makes the case for a radical shift from standardized schools to personalized learning — creating conditions where kids' natural talents can flourish.

About Sir Ken Robinson

Sir Ken Robinson is a creativity expert who challenges the way we're educating our children. He is a champion for a radical rethink of our school systems, aimed at cultivating creativity and acknowledging various types of intelligence.

Why don't we get the best out of people? Robinson argues that it's because we've been educated to become good workers rather than creative thinkers. Instead of cultivating their energy and curiosity, he says students with restless minds and bodies are ignored — or even stigmatized — with terrible consequences. "We are educating people out of their creativity," Robinson says.

A visionary cultural leader, Robinson led the British government's 1998 advisory committee on creative and cultural education. As a result of that massive inquiry into the significance of creativity in the educational system and the economy, he was knighted in 2003. His book, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything, takes a deep look at human creativity and education. He's also the author of Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative, which explores why adults see themselves as less creative than they were as children, and how this loss of creativity and innovation impacts us globally.