reinvent - Learning Ecosystems

Reflections on “Policy by Waivers Won’t Boost School Innovation” [Horn]

On 03/18/2023, in change, Daniel S. Christian, education, education reform, ideas, innovation, K-12 related, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, legislatures / government / legal, reinvent, society, staying relevant, strategy, teachers, United States, by Daniel Christian

Policy by Waivers Won’t Boost School Innovation — by Michael B. Horn
“Permissionless” beats having to ask for an okay

Excerpt:

In recent conversations, educators and state policymakers have expressed shock to me that district schools aren’t innovating more. With microschools growing and test scores floundering, why aren’t districts seeking permission to reinvent themselves?

As evidence of the opportunities to innovate, many bureaucrats and think tanks point to the vast number of waivers that states offer. The opportunities to move beyond traditional structures and processes do exist, the argument goes.

Yet waivers help far less than most policymakers believe. Until regulators create frameworks where innovation in pursuit of student outcomes is the default and doesn’t require permission, don’t expect a sea change.

From DSC:
TrimTab Groups. That’s what we need more of within K-12 and higher education.

Research shows the only way an organization can truly reinvent itself is to launch a separate organization that has the autonomy to rethink its value proposition, resources, processes, and financial formula.

Below is a graphic I created a while back, but with traditional institutions of higher education in mind.

We need more Trim Tab Groups within K-12 and Higher Education.

“The teacher shortage, and the profession itself, are finally getting the attention it needs.” [Green]

On 03/16/2023, in career development, change, education, education reform, future, K-12 related, leadership, legislatures / government / legal, reinvent, society, student-related, teachers, youth, by Daniel Christian

What would higher ed (or even K-12) look like if you could completely scrap it and start over? [Carty]

On 03/11/2023, in business side of he, colleges, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Design Thinking, higher education, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, liberal arts, reinvent, United States, universities, vision/possibilities, vocational / trades, writing, by Daniel Christian

Transfers From Community College Continue to Fall — from insidehighered.com by Sara Weissman
Despite the decline in transfers, a new report also says six-year college completion rates among transfer students improved.

Excerpt:

Transfers between community colleges and four-year institutions continued to drop last fall, an ongoing trend since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. But the report also contains some good news, including that six-year college completion rates among transfer students improved, despite the disruptive nature of the pandemic.
…
“Upward transfer has continued to decline pretty steadily at this point in every year since the pandemic,” Shapiro said during a media briefing Wednesday. “This suggests that baccalaureate attainment is beginning to appear increasingly out of reach for community college students,” particularly for students enrolled in urban and suburban community colleges, which saw steeper declines in transfers to universities than community colleges in towns or rural areas.

Teaching in an Age of ‘Militant Apathy’ — from chronicle.com by Beth McMurtrie
Immersive education offers a way to reach students. But can it ever become the norm?

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

But as many students continue to exhibit debilitating levels of anxiety, hopelessness, and disconnection — what one professor termed “militant apathy” — colleges are struggling to come up with a response beyond short-term solutions. The standard curricula in higher ed — and the way it’s discussed as primarily a path to economic success — can exacerbate those feelings. Students are told the main point of college is to move up the economic ladder, so no wonder it feels transactional. And the threat of failure must seem paralyzing given the high cost of a degree.
…
Colleges try to counter that by telling students that critical-thinking and communication skills are important as well. “But that’s a pretty vague argument that isn’t obvious for students to internalize and motivate their behavior. So what you see then is widespread disengagement from the curriculum,” says Arum. “For educators like me, what’s missing is what education is about. It’s about psychological well-being and flourishing and growth and human development and encouraging a set of dispositions, attitudes and behaviors that lead to fulfilling lives.”

“In every context, the student needs to feel like they are driving, they are the ones managing their own learning,” says Immordino-Yang. Instead, students have come to expect “‘you tell me what to do and I’ll do it,’” she says. “We need to take that away. That is a crutch. That is not real learning. That is compliance.”

From DSC:
The liberal arts are so important. But at what cost? What are people willing to pay for a more rounded education? The market is speaking — and the liberal arts are dying. I think that less expensive forms of online-based learning may turn out to be the best chance of the liberal arts surviving in the 21st century. The price must come waaaay down.

And speaking of the cost of getting a degree, this item is relevant as well:

Colleges Fear Cost of Doing Business Will Become Much Costlier — from chronicle.com by Lee Gardner
Inflation, enrollment woes, and increasing intolerance of tuition increases have made this budget season especially difficult.

Excerpts:

In decades past, colleges might have mitigated precarious budgets by raising tuition, but that’s a hard row to hoe in 2023.
…
The public colleges most feeling the financial squeeze from lowered enrollments are regional universities and community colleges, which typically receive less state support per student than public flagship universities.
…
Inflation remains high, at around 6 percent, and the biggest worry that it presents for college leaders comes from upward pressure on wages, says Staisloff.

While the sky may not be falling for higher education, Staisloff says “the cloud ceiling keeps dropping and dropping and dropping and dropping, and that’s getting harder to ignore.”

Speaking of the cost of getting a degree as well as higher education’s need to reinvent itself, also see:

College Doesn’t Need to Take Four Years — an opinion piece from the Wall Street Journal by Scott L. Wyatt and Allen C. Guelzo
For many students, the standard bachelor’s degree program has become a costly straitjacket.

From DSC:
It seems to me that the idea of a Trim Tab Group goes waaaaay back. And from an excellent teacher — the LORD.

Mark 2:21 — from bible.com

“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse.”

So the idea of starting a small, different group that will grow into an amazingly large group of people may turn out to be the route that the invention of a new lifelong learning ecosystem will need to go through.

The Broken Higher Education System: Addressing Stakeholder Needs for a More Adaptive Model — from educationoneducation.substack.com

Excerpt:

Higher education Chief Academic Officers (CAOs) must shift their perspective and strive to increase customer satisfaction to ensure the highest quality of educational products. A recent survey by Higher Education found that only 25% of customers were satisfied with the results higher education provided, contradicting the satisfaction differences of 99% of CAOs. Clearly, a disconnect exists between what higher education leaders deliver and what students, employers, and the changing labor market requirements are. To bridge this gap, higher education must develop products focusing on stakeholder feedback in product design, job requirements, and practical skills development.

From DSC:
So in terms of Design Thinking for reinventing lifelong learning, it seems to me that we need much more collaboration between the existing siloes. That is, we need students, educators, administrators, employers, and other stakeholders at the (re)design table. More experiments and what I call TrimTab Groups are needed.

But I think that the culture of many institutions of traditional higher education will prevent this from occurring. Many in academia shy away from (to put it politely) the world of business (even though they themselves ARE a business). I know, it’s not fair nor does it make sense. But many faculty members lean towards much more noble purposes, while never seeing the mounting gorillas of debt that they’ve heaped upon their students’/graduates’ backs. Those in academia shouldn’t be so quick to see themselves as being so incredibly different from those working in the corporate/business world.

The following quote seems appropriate to place here:

Along the lines of other items in the higher education space, see:

New Data Shows Emergency Pandemic Aid Helped Keep 18 Million Students Enrolled — from forbes.com by Edward Conroy

Excerpt:

The Department of Education (ED) has released new data showing that 18 million students were helped by emergency aid for colleges and universities throughout the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than half of which was used to provide emergency grants to students. These funds were provided through three rounds of Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds (HEERF) In total, $76.2 billion was provided, with half of those funds going to support students directly. Unusually for funding in higher education, the money was not heavily means-tested, and was distributed very quickly.

The report indicates that the funds were used for several essential purposes, including student basic needs, keeping staff employed, and helping keep students enrolled. For example, students used funds to cover things like food and housing at a time when employment was drying up for many students, ensuring that the Pandemic did not plunge students who already had limited funds deeper into basic needs insecurity.

Flagships prosper, while regionals suffer — from chronicle.com by Lee Gardner
Competition is getting fierce, and the gap is widening

Excerpts:

Some key numbers are moving in the right direction at the University of Oregon. The flagship institution enrolled 5,338 freshmen in the fall of 2022, its largest entering class ever. First-year enrollment increased 16 percent over 2021, which was also a record year. Meanwhile, Western Oregon University, a regional public institution an hour’s drive north, just outside Salem, lost nearly 7 percent of its enrollment over the same period.
…
In 28 states, flagships have seen enrollment rise between 2010 to 2021, while regionals have trended down, according to a Chronicle analysis of U.S. Education Department data. Across all states, enrollment at 78 public flagships rose 12.3 percent from 2010 to 2021, the most recent year for which data is available. Enrollment at 396 public regional universities slumped more than 4 percent during the same period.

A Chronicle analysis of federal data showed, for example, that in Michigan, a state being hit hard by demographic shifts and with no central higher-ed authority, the flagship University of Michigan at Ann Arbor saw undergraduate enrollment rise 16 percent between 2010 and 2020. Over the same period, it fell at 11 of the state’s 12 other four-year public campuses.

Making Change: How America’s Workforce is Responding to Rising Costs [guildeducation.com]

On 02/21/2023, in adult learning, business, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, economics, funding / grants, future, reinvent, society, staying relevant, surviving, United States, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Making Change: How America’s Workforce is Responding to Rising Costs — from insights.guildeducation.com

Taken together, the results show an American workforce focused on the long-term. Workers are managing to costs, but more than that, they’re making down payments on their future. This is a workforce motivated more than ever by a path to career growth and economic stability.

What the workforce wants in 2023 -- looking for more education, training, and long-term stability

The future of computer programming in prison – College Inside [West]

On 02/21/2023, in 21st century, adult learning, Amazon, career development, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, computer science, participation, programming, reinvent, society, sociology, staying relevant, surviving, workplace, by Daniel Christian

The future of computer programming in prison – College Inside; written by Open Campus national reporter Charlotte West.
A biweekly newsletter about the future of postsecondary education in prisons.

Excerpt:

Participant Leonard Bishop hadn’t touched technology in the 17 years he served in the federal system prior to transferring to the D.C. Jail in 2018. When he first got a tablet, he said it took him a few days to figure out how to navigate through it, but then “I couldn’t put it down.”

Bishop said he was surprised by how easy it was to learn the skills he needed to earn the AWS certification. “It helps you transition back into society, especially for someone who has been gone so long,” he said.

Also relevant/see:

This AWS Cloud certification program opens new paths for inmates — from amazon.com; with thanks to Paul Fain for this resource
A jail-based program aims to expand career opportunities through cloud-skills training.

Excerpt:

Julian Blair knew nothing about cloud computing when he became incarcerated in a Washington, D.C. jail more than two years ago.

“I’d never done anything with a computer besides video games, typing papers in college, and downloading music on an iPad,” said Blair.

Now, after three months of work with an educational program led by APDS and Amazon Web Services (AWS) inside the jail, Blair and 10 other residents at the facility have successfully passed the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam.

Preparing Today’s Students for the Future Workforce — from rdene915.com by Rachelle Dené Poth

Excerpt:

Today’s high school students are the future of our workforce. Before long they will be in college or starting full-time jobs of their own. But how are today’s students preparing for their futures? What will the workforce look like when these students move on to the next stage of their lives?

Schools, districts, and even state education departments provide various programs for students to gain relevant work experience and gain necessary skills outside of the classroom.

What Are These Programs?
There are a number of school-based programs that support student growth through work such as…

Also relevant/see:

One Foot in the Future — from the BIG questions institute

As an excerpt from an email describing this new/free ebook, Homa Tavangar and Will Richardson write:

We need a fresh set of tools, frameworks, and lenses if we are to meet the future effectively.

With this new ebook, “One Foot in the Future,” we’re charting a different path forward, introducing readers to things like:

Design Fiction – A tool to help us become “archeologists of the future” and help us
Regenerative Learning – A lens that helps us see our work as it impacts all living things
Schoolpunk – A movement and a community to help imagine the future of education together.

And much more.

Our sense is that there is growing appetite to get out of the traditional school box and to design a more aspirational future. This new ebook is a great starting point for anyone who wants to do just that.

Brandon Busteed (emphasis DSC):

This is a Titanic moment. The iceberg is right in front of us and there just isn’t enough time to turn the massive U.S. education/higher education/employer training ship. Unless… We all go to work on work.

From DSC:
My comment on that string from Brandon was:

And I can’t help but think that part of that work involves Design Thinking…reinventing what lifelong learning looks/acts like.

What can work colleges teach the rest of higher ed? [Spitalniak]

On 02/07/2023, in adjunct faculty, career development, colleges, cost of getting a degree, experimentation, faculty, funding / grants, higher education, passions, real-world assignments, reinvent, skills, strategy, student-related, by Daniel Christian

What can work colleges teach the rest of higher ed? — from highereddive.com by Laura Spitalniak
Amid high worries about higher ed’s value in the job market, work colleges offer lessons on integrating classroom learning with employment opportunities.

Excerpt:

To qualify as a work college, an institution must be nonprofit, offer four-year degrees and provide students with employment through a work-learning-service program that will contribute to their education.
…
It found work colleges’ strengths — reduced or free tuition, job experience and mentorship from college faculty and staff — address student concerns over the cost and real-world applicability of a college degree. Work colleges can also make adult learners’ lives logistically easier by combining academics and work, the report found.

The intentional connection of learning, work and service is the most compelling part of the model, according to Louis Soares, chief learning and innovation officer at ACE and one of the report’s authors.

Unbundled: Designing Personalized Pathways for Every Learner [Nate McClennen & Co.]

On 01/31/2023, in assessment, Blockchain, change, changing business models, competency-based learning/education, content development, aggregation, repositories, credentialing, Design Thinking, education, education reform, engagement / engaging students, ideas, innovation, instructional design, K-12 related, leadership, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, love of learning, marketplaces, microlearning, more voice more choice more control, motivation, new business models, online learning, participation, passions, personalized/customized learning, platforms, reinvent, society, streams of content, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, technology (general), ubiquitous learning, United States, user experience (UX), vendors, vision/possibilities, vocational / trades, youth, by Daniel Christian

Unbundled: Designing Personalized Pathways for Every Learner — from gettingsmart.com by Nate McClennen “with contributions from the Getting Smart team and numerous friends and partners in the field”

Excerpts:

In this publication, we articulate the critical steps needed to unbundle the learning ecosystem, build core competencies, design learning experiences, curate new opportunities, and rebundle these experiences into coherent pathways.
.

Vision

Every learner deserves an unlimited number of unbundled opportunities to explore, engage, and define experiences that advance their progress along a co-designed educational pathway. Each pathway provides equitable and personalized access to stacked learning experiences leading to post-secondary credentials and secure family-sustaining employment. Throughout the journey, supportive coaches focus on helping learners build skills to navigate with agency. In parallel, learners develop foundational skills (literacy, math), technical skills, and durable skills and connect these to challenging co-designed experiences. The breadth and depth of experiences increase over time, and, in partnership, learners and coaches map progress towards reaching community-defined goals. This vision is only enabled by an unbundled learning ecosystem.
…

Recommendations

Solutions already exist in the ecosystem and need to be combined and scaled. Funding models (like My Tech High), badging/credentialing at the competency level (like VLACS), coaching models (like Big Thought), and open ecosystems (like NH Learn Everywhere) provide an excellent foundation. Thus, building unbundled systems has already begun but needs systemic changes to become widely available and accepted.

1. 1. Build a robust competency-based system.
  2. Create a two-way marketplace for unbundled learning.
  3. Implement policy to support credit for out-of-system experiences.
  4. Invest in technology infrastructure for Learning and Employment Records.
  5. Design interoperable badging systems that connect to credentials.

What is college for? Gov. Shapiro raises the question. Higher ed leaders are listening. — from The Philadelphia Inquirer by Will Bunch; with thanks to Ray Schroeder out on LinkedIn for the resource
Pa.’s new governor Josh Shapiro’s first move was to question the need of a college diploma as a job credential. U.S. universities, pay attention.

Excerpt:

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — What is college actually for?

No one expected this to be the initial question raised by Pennsylvania’s new governor, Josh Shapiro, in his first full day on the job. While he may not have stated it explicitly, this was the essence of the Democrat’s very first executive order, which opened up some 92% of job listings in state government — about 65,000 in all — to applicants who don’t have a four-year college degree.

In branding degree requirements for many jobs as “arbitrary” and declaring “there are many different pathways to success,” the Keystone State’s new chief executive was tugging at the shaky Jenga block that has undergirded the appalling rise of a $1.75 trillion student debt bomb in the U.S. and led, arguably, to a college/non-college divide driving our nation’s bitter politics. The notion is this: You can’t make it in 21st-century America without that most expensive piece of sheepskin: the college diploma.

So the $64,000 question (OK, $80,000 … for one year on some elite private campuses) is this: If you don’t need the credential, do you actually need college?

Something is clearly gained by giving America’s young people more career options that won’t contribute to that $1.75 trillion college debt bomb. But are we talking enough about what could be lost in a new system that not only devalues the university but also seems to ratify a dubious idea — that higher education is almost solely about careerism, and not the wider knowledge and critical-thinking skills that come from liberal arts learning?

From DSC:
To me — and to many other parents and families — it all boils down to the price tag of obtaining a liberal arts education. It’s one thing to get a liberal arts education at $5K per year. It’s another thing when the pricetag runs at $40K and above (per year)! Most people ARE FORCED to question the ROI of a liberal arts education. They simply have to.

On a relevant tangent here…many inside the academy have traditionally looked with disdain at the corporate world. The thinking went something like this:

Business! Ha! We are not a business! Students are not customers. Don’t ever compare us to the corporate world.

Having spent half of my career in the corporate world, I do not subscribe to that perspective. In fact, I’d like to ask those who still hold this point of view:

Where else can you pay tens of thousands of dollars for something and not be treated as a customer?! Don’t you typically expect value on your own purchases and positive returns on your investments?
How will you collaborate with the corporate world if you look upon them with disdain?!

But now that colleges and universities enrollments are not doing so well, perhaps there will be more openness to change and towards developing more impactful collaborations.

Some resources for those looking to get into Instruction Design [#careers #reinvent #change #learningecosystems]

On 01/16/2023, in career development, instructional design, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, reinvent, teachers, by Daniel Christian

Instructional Designer: Tools of the Trade Webinar 3/8 (from Teaching: A Path to L&D) and tools of the trade

Teaching: A Path to L&D aims to provide free guidance to teachers looking to move into the world of Learning and Development, specifically Instructional Design. Check out our website at www.teachlearndev.org for free coaching, webinars, and resources to help you on your journey!

And if you want to freelance to begin making the shift, see:

Freelance Income Projection: Free Template— from christytuckerlearning.com by Christy Tucker
As a freelancer or consultant, your income can vary widely from month to month. Use this free template to project your freelance income.

How to Become an Instructional Designer – The Grind is not Glamorous — from linkedin.com by Taruna Goel

Excerpt:

A few weeks ago, I stumbled across a powerful 4-minute lesson on filmmaking where, Casey Neistat, a YouTube personality, filmmaker, and co-founder of the multimedia company, Beme, said: “The grind is not glamorous.”

It isn’t anything new or something others haven’t said before. But these five words say more than their worth when it comes to understanding and managing expectations around building expertise.

Job Titles: It’s Not Only Instructional Design — from idolcourses.com by Ivett Csordas

Excerpt:

When I first came across the title “Instructional Designer” while looking for alternative career options, I was just as confused as anybody would be hearing about our job for the first time. I remember asking questions like: What does an Instructional Designer do? Why is it called Instructional Design? Wouldn’t a title such as Learning Experience Designer or Training Content Developer suit them better? How are their skill sets different from curriculum developers like teachers’? etc.

On a somewhat related note, see:

7 middle school career exploration tips — from edcircuit.com

Table of Contents

Introducing Careers to Middle Schoolers

Career Exploration Tip #1: Invite guest speakers
Career Exploration Tip #2: Create career-themed projects
Career Exploration Tip #3: Host A Career Fair
Career Exploration Tip #4: Offer Job Shadowing
Career Exploration Tip #5: Encourage Students to Explore Subjects
Career Exploration Tip #6: Provide Resources and Guidance
Career Exploration Tip #7: Encourage Parent Participation

“A resume is NOT a CV. They are completely different documents.”

On 01/07/2023, in adjunct faculty, business, career development, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, faculty, higher education, productivity / tips and tricks, reinvent, skills, surviving, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Learning Ecosystems

Making Change: How America’s Workforce is Responding to Rising Costs [guildeducation.com]

The future of computer programming in prison – College Inside [West]

Reflections on “What is college for? Gov. Shapiro raises the question. Higher ed leaders are listening.” [Bunch]

“A resume is NOT a CV. They are completely different documents.”

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