From DSC:
I appreciated hearing the perspectives from Bruce Dixon and Will Richardson this morning, as I listed to a webinar that they recently offered. A few key takeaways for me from that webinar — and with a document that they shared — were:
- The world has fundamentally changed. (Bruce and Will also mentioned the new pace of change; i.e., that it’s much faster.)
- We need to have more urgency about the need to reimagine school, not to try to improve the existing model.
- “Because of the advent of the Web and the technologies we use to access it, learning is, in a phrase, leaving the (school) building.”
- There is a newfound capacity to take full control of one’s own learning; self-determined learning should be at the center of students’ and teachers’ work; co-constructed curriculum
- And today, at a moment when learners of all ages have never had more agency over their own learning, schools must unlearn centuries old mindsets and practices and relearn them in ways that truly will serve every child living in the modern, connected world.
- Will and Bruce believe that every educator — and district for that matter — should articulate their own “principles of learning”
- Beliefs about how kids learn (powerfully and deeply) need to be articulated and consistently communicated and lived out
- Everything we do as educators, administrators, etc. tells a story. What stories are we telling? (For example, what does the signage around your school building say? Is it about compliance? Is is about a love of learning? Wonder? What does the 20′ jumbo tron say about priorities? Etc.)
- Bruce and Will covered a “story audit” and how to do one
“Learning is, in a phrase, leaving the (school) building.”
Richardson & Dixon
Also see:
These educators have decades worth of experience. They are pulse-checking their environments. They want to see students thrive both now and into the future. For these reasons, at least for me, their perspectives are highly worth reflecting upon.