education reform

Providing foster children with better educational outcomes [Lynch]

On 07/26/2022, in Alternatives, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), education, education reform, K-12 related, legislatures / government / legal, neurodivergent/special needs, parents/guardians, society, student-related, United States, youth, by Daniel Christian

Providing foster children with better educational outcomes — from thetechedvocate.org by Matthew Lynch

Excerpt:

Foster children have a difficult life ahead of them. They have a higher chance of having a bad life than the rest of the population. Adults who were in foster care as children are more likely to be homeless, jobless, and on welfare than the general population. They also have higher chances of being jailed, consuming drugs and alcohol, and having physical or psychological problems.

We owe it to them to help children grow up to be productive, well-adjusted people, and none of this is their mistake. Lawmakers and educational activists should work diligently to improve foster care children’s educational possibilities by broadening their alternatives. Foster children in the United States will benefit from higher educational attainment that will prepare them for a healthy transition to adulthood.

Aurora Institute: Create Learning Ecosystems & Competency-Based Pathways Aligned Across K-12, Higher Education, Career & Technical Education, & the Workforce

On 07/25/2022, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, active learning, adult learning, Alternatives, assessment, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), budgets, career development, change, changing business models, collaboration, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, competency-based learning/education, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Design Thinking, education, education reform, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, ideas, innovation, instructional design, K-12 related, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, legislatures / government / legal, lifelong learning, love of learning, more voice more choice more control, motivation, participation, passions, personalized/customized learning, policy, real-world assignments, reinvent, skills, society, staying relevant, strategy, student-related, surviving, teachers, teaching & learning, training / L&D, United States, user experience (UX), vision/possibilities, vocational / trades, workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

“We must invest in building the new policies, practices, and infrastructure that drive transformational
change toward aligned, lifelong learning ecosystems w/personalized + #CBE pathways. In learning ecosystems, learning is organized around individuals…” https://t.co/xWCIngcEV5

— Emily Liebtag, Ed.D. (@EmilyLiebtag) July 21, 2022

Aurora Institute: Federal Policy Priorities and Recommendations 2022 — from aurora-institute.org

Introduction:

It is critically important for our country to reimagine education and focus on investing in our future, not our past. The current K-12 education system has not produced equitable outcomes for all students. We must change policies and invest in innovation to transform our education systems. Student-centered policies are needed for true systems change and innovations for equity. We must challenge frames and investments that perpetuate tinkering with the existing system, rather than reimagining it. The time is ripe to redesign education to align with future needs and purposes to achieve human flourishing.

To ensure all learners are prepared for life’s uncertainties, as well as a more knowledge-driven workforce and economy, we must restructure the education system to universally recognize anytime, anywhere learning. Many states and districts have taken steps to move in new and improved directions, but more work must be done to meet students where they are and accelerate them to successful futures and prosperity. We must question the fundamental purposes of our education system, align our goals to that purpose, and expand learning to anytime and anyplace, with greater opportunities for next generation learning.

Aurora Institute’s latest Federal Policy Priorities represent an equity-oriented and future-focused set of recommendations designed to ensure that the nation’s education system moves from its current state to a system capable of preparing all learners with the knowledge and skills necessary to achieve lifelong success.

From DSC:
I post this because I like the design thinking exhibited herein. I love the idea of greater collaboration between K-12, higher education, vocational training, and the workforce/workplace. We should consider eliminating — or at least building much better bridges between the — existing silos. These silos seem to be easier to put up than they are to take down.

Reflections on “Why my school is putting music education front and centre” [Garrick]

On 07/24/2022, in Australia, curriculum, Daniel S. Christian, education, education reform, Emotion, ideas, K-12 related, music, by Daniel Christian

Why my school is putting music education front and centre — from educationhq.com by Justin Garrick

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Music education must not be only for those already with the background or the early talent or the pre-existing motivation to access it.

Music education must be for all, because music itself is for all.

Just like language and literature, which are at the compulsory core of the curriculum, music is the expression of culture and is pervasive to our daily experience. It surrounds us on the airwaves of radio, television and streaming in all the glory and diversity of its genres.

It influences our thoughts and moods and choices. We exercise, drive, shop, eat and celebrate with music. It’s intrinsic to our wellbeing, our social interaction, our spiritual and sensual experience, and to our religious, national and cultural rites.

From DSC:
I’m very grateful for the choir-related classes and experiences that I’ve had throughout my lifetime. I’m grateful for learning the basics of playing the piano and the drums. Although I didn’t stick with either instrument, I’m glad that I can read some (basic) music. But beyond that, music hosts so many memories for me. I’m instantly taken back to various times, places, people, and emotions — depending on the song(s) that I’m listening to.

Summer Learning Programs Struggle — and Devise Solutions — as Staff Shortages Persist [Tate Sullivan]

On 07/20/2022, in career development, change, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, education, education reform, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, teachers, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Summer Learning Programs Struggle — and Devise Solutions — as Staff Shortages Persist — from edsurge.com by Emily Tate Sullivan

Excerpt:

It’s summer time, and the learning is not easy.

That’s in large part because the widespread staffing shortages that plagued the 2021-22 school year have stretched into summer programming, which, in many cases, relies on licensed school teachers to sign up to continue working with students.

But teachers are exhausted. They may want—even need—the extra income from summer jobs, but many are also desperate for a break after the last two-and-a-half years and trying to prioritize their mental health.

From DSC:
In futurism speech, this is a strong signal of what could be a tough year ahead. If that turns out to the case, what are some possible scenarios and what are some possible solutions to those scenarios?

Several things that we can do to improve our learning ecosystems [Christian]

On 07/14/2022, in adjunct faculty, adult learning, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, corporate universities / corporate training, culture, Daniel S. Christian, education, education reform, face-to-face, faculty, higher education, ideas, instructional design, K-12 related, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, learning theories, library / librarians, lifelong learning, love of learning, metacognition / metacognitive skills, more voice more choice more control, motivation, online learning, parents/guardians, pedagogy, research, social media, society, strategy, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, traditional / tradition, training / L&D, United States, universities, using teams, vision/possibilities, youth, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Below are several observations re: our learning ecosystems — and some ideas on how we can continue to improve them.

It takes years to build up the knowledge and skills in order to be a solid teacher, faculty member, instructional designer, and/or trainer. It takes a lot of studying to effectively research how the brain works and how we learn. Then we retire…and the knowledge is often lost or not passed along. And the wheel gets reinvented all over again. And again. And again.

Along these lines — and though we’re making progress in this area — too often we separate the research from the practical application of that research. So we have folks working primarily in learning science, neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and related fields. But their research doesn’t always get practically applied within our learning spaces. We have researchers…and then we have practitioners. So I greatly appreciate the likes of Pooja Agarwal and Patrice Bain out at RetrievalPractice.org, Daniel Willingham, Eva Keiffenheim, The Learning Scientists, James Lang, and several others who bridge this gap.

Perhaps more researchers, faculty members, teachers, trainers, instructional designers, principals, provosts, etc. could blog or be active out on social media.

***

Along these lines, we need to spend more time helping people know how best to study and to learn.
If that type of thing is ever to be learned, it seems like it’s often learned or discussed in the mid- to later years of one’s life…often after one’s primary and secondary days are long gone.

Instead, we should consider putting these easy-to-understand posters from the Learning Scientists in every K-12 school, college, and university in the nation — or something like them.

***

To provide the most effective engaging learning experiences, we should consider using more team-based approaches. As appropriate, that could include the students themselves.

***

We put way too much emphasis on grades — which produces gameplayers who seek only to do the minimum amount of work necessary to get the A’s. Doing so creates systems whereby learning is not the goal — getting a 4.0+ is.

***
As we are now required to be lifelong learners, our quality of life as a whole goes waaaay up if we actually enjoy learning. Many people discover later in life that they like to learn…they just didn’t like school. Perhaps we could place greater emphasis within K-16 on whether students enjoyed their learning experiences or not. And if not, what might have made that topic more enjoyable to them? Or what other topics would they like to dive into (that weren’t’ on the original learning menu)?

This could also apply in the corporate training/L&D space as well. Such efforts could go a long way in helping establish stronger learning cultures.

***

We don’t provide enough choice to our students. We need to do a better job of turning over more control to them in their learning journey. We turn students off to learning because we try to cram information that they don’t care about down their throats. So then we have to use the currency of grades to force them into doing the work that they could care less about doing. Their experience with learning/school can easily get soured.

We need to be more responsive with our curricula. And we need to explain how the information we’re trying to relay is relevant in the real world and will be relevant in their futures.

***

So those are some ideas that I wanted to relay. Thanks for your time and for your shared interests here!

Several items from EducationWeek that show how serious the situation is becoming in K12

On 07/09/2022, in career development, change, dangers of the status quo, education, education reform, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, teachers, United States, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Education Week -- The Top 7

Excerpt:

The struggle to keep classrooms fully staffed is getting increasingly desperate and it shows in this week’s top stories. A dozen states are amending—or considering amending—their teacher certification rules to expand their teacher pipelines. Districts are using 4-day school weeks as a carrot to draw job applicants. And then there’s emergency certification. In some states, the last-resort practice is becoming business as usual. Some educators wonder if that’s a good idea.

Across the country, policymakers are taking steps to relax their states’ certification requirements to get more teachers in the classroom and circumvent shortages.

Reviews by Education Week and the Education Commission of the States found about a dozen states that have recently amended—or are considering amending—teacher certification rules. Some are changing the criteria for licensure, others are expanding the qualifying score on state licensing tests, and some are dropping licensure tests altogether.

Those changes reflect a teacher pipeline in flux.

Source

Also relevant/see:

Principals Are on the Brink of a Breakdown — from edsurge.com by Emily Tate Sullivan
A recent survey found 85 percent of school principals are experiencing job-related stress and 48 percent are dealing with burnout. What can be done to keep them in their roles?

Teaching Financial Literacy — from techlearning.com by Erik Ofgang
More states are adopting financial literacy requirements for students. Here are tips for teaching the topic.

Excerpt:

Teaching students about this financial misinformation is vital, Pelletier says. As is giving students the tools to understand cryptocurrency, NFTs, intense inflation, and student debt, along with more traditional lessons in financial literacy.

Financial Literacy: Teaching and Engagement Resources
There are free online resources with ready-to-go financial lesson plans, videos, and classroom exercises.

While not much time is spent in K-12 educating students about money, once they graduate, it will be an important topic for them. “Not a day will go by that they’re not thinking about money. How to make it, how to spend it, how to save it,” Pelletier says. “And yet it’s like the least thing you’re taught in school.”

From DSC:
I appreciated Erik’s article/topic here and I would add that I wish that we would teach high schoolers about legal-related items such as wills, trusts, power of attorney for health care and for finances, finding legal assistance, etc.

But even as I write this, I recall that my neighbor is leaving our local school district to move to another school district for her kids’ sake (her and her husband’s words, not mine). I get it. Teachers have sooooo much on their plate already. So I don’t mean to throw another item on their jammed-full job plates.

But I hope that we will look at how to redesign our lifelong learning ecosystems to make them even more relevant, helpful, practical, useful, and up-to-date/responsive. We would probably find that the youth would be more attentive if they sensed that the information they are being taught will definitely come in handy in their futures. Better yet, bring former students in via digital video to relay practical examples of things that they — or their parents, grandparents, friends, etc. — are experiencing to the current students.

Also relevant/see:

High School Students Say They Learn The Most Important Skills Outside of School — from edsurge.com by Jeffrey R. Young

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

The trend that could have a huge impact on education, at the K-12 and college level, Evans argues. For one thing, it’s a challenge to teachers—that they should do more to tap into the intrinsic motivation of students, that students can learn so much more if they’re excited about what they’re doing.

From DSC:
This item from EdSurge mentioned “free agent learning” — so I put a Google Alert out there for this phrase this morning, as I want to learn more about that topic/item.

The Metaverse in 2040 [Anderson & Rainie]

On 07/03/2022, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, 3D, A/V -- audio/visual, Augmented Reality (AR), business, collaboration, communications, content development, aggregation, repositories, copyright/ownership/NFTs, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cryptocurrencies, education reform, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, future, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, immersion, innovation, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, Metaverse, Mixed Reality (MR), the downsides of how people use tech, tools, trends, vendors, Virtual courts and law firms, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, visualizing information, web-based collaboration, Web3, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

The Metaverse in 2040 — from pewresearch.org by Janna Anderson and Lee Rainie
Hype? Hope? Hell? Maybe all three. Experts are split about the likely evolution of a truly immersive ‘metaverse.’ They expect that augmented- and mixed-reality enhancements will become more useful in people’s daily lives. Many worry that current online problems may be magnified if Web3 development is led by those who built today’s dominant web platforms

The metaverse will, at its core, be a collection of new and extended technologies. It is easy to imagine that both the best and the worst aspects of our online lives will be extended by being able to tap into a more-complete immersive experience, by being inside a digital space instead of looking at one from the outside.

Laurence Lannom, vice president at the Corporation for National Research Initiatives

“Virtual, augmented and mixed reality are the gateway to phenomenal applications in medicine, education, manufacturing, retail, workforce training and more, and it is the gateway to deeply social and immersive interactions – the metaverse.

Elizabeth Hyman, CEO for the XR Association

Blurring the lines between education and workforce — from hechingerreport.org by Javeria Salman
A proposition to ‘blur’ the boundaries between K-12, higher ed, and the workforce industry

Excerpts:

One idea that’s been gaining steam since last year is to break down barriers between high school, college and career to create a system that bridges all three.

The concept is called the “Big Blur.”

“What would it look like to change the typical, or what we think of as the conventional high school experience and instead design something that was built for the modern economy?” said Vargas.

Vargas said that JFF is arguing for new programs or institutions that serve students in grades 11 through 14 (grades 13 and 14 being the first two years of college, under our current configuration). The institutions would be co-designed with regional employers so that all students get work-based learning experiences and graduate — without tuition costs — with a post-secondary credential that has labor market value.

The state of teaching and learning in K12 — from Instructure

What began as an unplanned shift to remote learning two years ago has grown into a movement—a transformation, really—that has given way to a more measured approach to intentionally designed digital learning. The adoption of new educational technologies and instructional strategies has evolved teaching and learning as we know it at an unprecedented pace.

The Future of Education | By Futurist Gerd Leonhard | A Video for EduCanada

On 06/23/2022, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, Canada, career development, change, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, creativity, credentialing, dangers of the status quo, Design Thinking, economics, education, education reform, education technology, emerging technologies, ethics, Europe, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, global / globalization, health, higher education, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, legislatures / government / legal, lifelong learning, morals/values, Natural Language Processing (NLP), pace of change, reinvent, skills, society, sociology, staying relevant, surviving, technology (general), training / L&D, trends, universities, vision/possibilities, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, workplace, by Daniel Christian

The Future of Education | By Futurist Gerd Leonhard | A Video for EduCanada — from futuristgerd.com

Per Gerd:

Recently, I was invited by the Embassy of Canada in Switzerland to create this special presentation and promotional video discussing the Future of Education and to explore how Canada might be leading the way. Here are some of the key points I spoke about in the video. Watch the whole thing here: the Future of Education.

…because by 2030, I believe, the traditional way of learning — just in case — you know storing, downloading information will be replaced by learning just in time, on-demand, learning to learn, unlearning, relearning, and the importance of being the right person. Character skills, personality skills, traits, they may very well rival the value of having the right degree.

…

If you learn like a robot…you’ll never have a job to begin with.

Gerd Leonhard

Also relevant/see:

The Next 10 Years: Rethinking Work and Revolutionising Education (Gerd Leonhard’s keynote in Riga) — from futuristgerd.com

Demarginalizing Design: 3 powerful ways to get started — from ditchthattextbook.com by Dee Lanier

Excerpt:

Get proximate to the pain

Gather the people that are most affected by the problem.
Listen for pain. Emotions such as outrage and frustration are insights into the source of the problem.
Design with them, not for them. Your job is to facilitate the discussion that allows them to come up with their own solutions that affect their community.

From DSC:
You will notice some more postings regarding “Design Thinking” on this Learning Ecosystems blog from time to time. I’m continuing to do this because as we move more toward a reality of lifelong learning, we should probably rethink the entire cradle-to-grave design of our learning ecosystems.

New Pathways: Experiencing Success In What’s Next — from Getting Smart

Excerpt:

Some of you were able to attend our official kick-off event yesterday (on 6/21/22), but for those who weren’t able to make it we wanted to let you know that our new campaign, New Pathways, has officially begun!. Over the next few years, and in partnership with ASA, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Stand Together and the Walton Foundation, we will be dedicated to tracking innovations in the following six pillars:

We believe that when combined, these pillars enable learners to find success in what’s next in their professional lives, their personal lives and in their communities.

Learning Ecosystems

The Metaverse in 2040 [Anderson & Rainie]

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