youth

Why Now Is The Time To Overhaul K-12 Education — from forbes.com by Phyllis Lockett and Michael Horn

Excerpts:

If you take a team approach, then one adult works with students on their social-emotional learning and how they connect to their learning. And another leverages data to create small group opportunities based on the learning objective. And another connects learning to real world projects and helps students build social capital in the community, which also creates a more permeable classroom that’s open to the outside world. Or there could be other ways the teams are structured to best support the student.

For all the plans in the past to “reinvent” K-12 education, none have questioned the fundamentals of time-based instruction. It’s no surprise then that the system produces the outcomes it does. Not every child needs exactly 180 days to master the knowledge and skills required for a third grader. Conversely, some kids need more time. It’s an arbitrary system that cuts off learning for children based on a calendar, yet doesn’t provide a different pathway forward for them that’s productive. In our current system, time is fixed and learning is variable, then students are labeled and sorted accordingly.

Michael Horn

From DSC:
This quote…

The answer is for district leaders to create independent teams of educators in which they are shielded from traditional day to day pressures and have the explicit license to do things differently. They can give these new “schools within schools” the resources they need without encumbering them by the old ways of doing things.

…makes me think of a graphic I did a while back about the need for more Trim Tabs within our learning ecosystems:

“Using Virtual Reality for Career Training” + “AI interviews in VR prepare students for real jobseeking”

On 11/03/2022, in 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, animation, Canada, career development, communications, education, education technology, Europe, human-computer interaction (HCI), immersion, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interaction design, interactivity, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, multimedia, participation, pedagogy, platforms, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, real-world assignments, simulations, skills, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, tools, United States, user experience (UX), vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, vision/possibilities, vocational / trades, workplace, XR - extended reality, youth, by Daniel Christian

Using Virtual Reality for Career Training — from techlearning.com by Erik Ofgang
The Boys & Girls Clubs of Indiana have had success using virtual reality simulations to teach students about career opportunities.

a Woman with a virtual reality set on occupies one half of the screen. The other shows virtual tools that she is controlling.

Excerpts:

Virtual reality can help boost CTE programs and teach students about potential careers in fields they may know nothing about, says Lana Taylor from the Indiana Alliance of Boys & Girls Clubs of America.
…
One of those other resources has been a partnership with Transfer VR to provide students access to headsets to participate in career simulations that can give them a tactile sense of what working in certain careers might be like.

“Not all kids are meant to go to college, not all kids want to do it,” Taylor says. “So it’s important to give them some exposure to different careers and workforce paths that maybe they hadn’t thought of before.”

AI interviews in VR prepare students for real jobseeking — from inavateonthenet.net

Innova: A Revolution in Education? — from gettingsmart.com by Chris Terrill

Key Points

Innova Schools is designed to rapidly cut through the vast inequities that exist and be a lever for change in Latin America.
Innova has the potential to revolutionize education around the globe.

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

The initial school start-up was funded by Carlos Rodriguez Pastor, a Peruvian businessman. He saw an opportunity to provide high-quality schools in areas where the government struggled to supply essential education services (Peru and Colombia consistently rank near the bottom on the global education survey). He enlisted the famed US design firm IDEO to develop a comprehensive program that would eventually be utilized in multiple countries.

From DSC:
Stop the presses. I love that idea of using IDEO to be involved here. It seems like that is a positive step towards implementing Design Thinking within our learning ecosystems.

In the original model, the founders designed a rigorous, engaging, personalized curriculum, with a heavy emphasis on Project-Based Learning. I wanted to know if and how that is actualized, and how that is enacted across multiple countries in schools thousands of miles apart.

Finally, IDEO’s work included a design for the physical structure of schools to be quickly and economically replicated at each location; how was that design working? The vision for Innova may be one of the most ambitious educational undertakings today. What lessons can I, as an individual educational leader, and we, as a global education community, learn from their work?

The Maker Space and the Gaming Lab demonstrate clearly how digital competency is a central element of their curriculum. I saw highly engaging lessons that were perfectly synced with classroom projects, pursuing a bigger goal of equipping Colombian students to fill the digital labor gap.

Using questions to generate thinking, innovations, ideas, inquiry

On 11/02/2022, in education, Emotion, engagement / engaging students, ideas, innovation, instructional design, K-12 related, learning, Learning Experience Design, more voice more choice more control, participation, passions, pedagogy, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, youth, by Daniel Christian

We pose all of our Learning Intentions as questions to further the #InquiryMindset at #CVLittleLynx. This allows our students to recognize that learning is investigating. @Amy_Andersen_ pic.twitter.com/YFJHqf4sSQ

— Melissa Taylor (@mtaylor422) October 11, 2022

nbsp;

This week’s sketch: the Four Pillars of Inquiry.

A helpful guide to plan for student agency over time.

IB friends, quite helpful for Exhibition and Personal Project.#inquirymindset pic.twitter.com/l3SBD6hDlE

— Trevor MacKenzie (@trev_mackenzie) September 26, 2022

What does the ‘metaverse’ mean for education? — from hechingerreport.org by Javeria Salman
Experts warn educators to think twice before jumping on new technologies

Excerpt:

Sometime in the past year or two, you’ve likely heard the word “metaverse.” It’s the future, the next big frontier of the internet, if you ask technology CEOs or researchers.

While the term has become the latest buzzword in education circles, what it means for teaching and learning largely remains to be seen. Experts say much of what we see marketed as the metaverse from education technology companies isn’t actually the metaverse.
…
In a true metaverse experience, your digital identity travels between the physical and virtual worlds, Platt said. With the help of blockchain technology, that identity — your preferences, your achievements, your educational records, other elements of who you are — is maintained across platforms and applications.

Digest #166: Perfectionism in Education — from learningscientists.org by Carolina Kuepper-Tetzel

THE LEARNING SCIENTISTS

“Perfection is the opposite of done!” I came across this statement recently and it made me think about how perfectionism really affects one’s work and studying. Growing up, I always thought of perfectionism as a good thing, as something to aspire to. However, more recently I am questioning this thought. It adds unnecessary pressure that it difficult to live up to and sustain. I see that many issues that my students are experiencing can be traced back to perfectionism. To incredibly high goals and standards that are impossible to achieve and that makes your work not being “good enough” – when it actually is. The consequences of high perfectionism can be manifold and in today’s digest, I’d like to offer an overview of resources on perfectionism in education.

From DSC:
Somewhere along the lines, I heard that if an interviewer asks you to state a negative characteristic, choose something like perfectionism — to turn something that could be a negative into a positive. And back in my earlier days, I thought that made sense.

But I have to agree with Carolina here. The older I get, the more my empathy levels would rise if someone gave me that answer today. I’m a perfectionist and I can truly say that perfectionism is a joy-robber! It can destroy a good day. It can destroy a good mood. It can destroy joy. I don’t recommend it.

Great leaders ask great questions: Here are 3 steps to up your questioning game. — from bigthink.com by Christopher J. Frank, Oded Netzer, and Paul F. Magnone; with thanks to Roberto Ferraro for this resource
Questioning isn’t just a way to get the right answer — it’s also a means for sustaining relationships and creative thinking.

Excerpt:

Building an inquisitive team
One of the best LinkedIn profiles starts with “I am insatiably curious.” What would it take to build a team of insatiably curious, truly inquisitive people? Building an inquisitive culture involves a combination of what and how. The what is a combination of the types of questions previously outlined, and the how is the environment you create. Great leaders create great cultures. There are three basic steps to building an inquisitive culture:

Start with an open-ended question.
Respond, don’t react. Embrace silence.
Ask a stream of questions.

Also relevant/see:

We pose all of our Learning Intentions as questions to further the #InquiryMindset at #CVLittleLynx. This allows our students to recognize that learning is investigating. @Amy_Andersen_ pic.twitter.com/YFJHqf4sSQ

— Melissa Taylor (@mtaylor422) October 11, 2022

This week’s sketch: the 1o Characteristics of the Inquiry Classroom.

Reflect on your own practice.

Which of these are strengths?

Which of these are stretches?

What are your next steps?#inquirymindset pic.twitter.com/jHu4gqlbGz

— Trevor MacKenzie (@trev_mackenzie) October 17, 2022

For some time I’ve been researching this: what are the conditions in which learning thrives?

My observations…

?Agency
?Curiosity
?Play
?Guidance
?Self-regulation
?Exploration
?Empathy
?Time
?Compassion
?Voice#InquiryMindset #DiveintoInquiry #inquiry #aussieED pic.twitter.com/XVYCFLTje3

— Trevor MacKenzie (@trev_mackenzie) November 20, 2019

Addendum on 10/29/22:

Innovation starts with the quality of your questions — from edte.ch by Tom Barrett
In the final publication of the October throughline we explore how to build a culture of innovation one question at a time.

Snapshot
A quick synthesis of this issue to share

Innovation starts with the quality of your questions. Asking the right questions leads to new possibilities and innovative solutions.
We are often drawn to ideas because we want to fix problems; starting with an idea feels safe and more fun than starting with a problem.
If we want an innovative culture in our teams, we need to start with questions instead of ideas.
Trust and psychological safety create the culture for collective negative capability, which John Keats coined as “the ability to live with ambiguity and uncertainty.”
Commit to action by being aware of your need for certainty, make space for ambiguity and uncertainty in development work, and build trust by encouraging questions.

Returning Joy to Teaching & Learning — from gettingsmart.com by Trace Pickering

Key Points

Too many school-based reform efforts continue to have educators implicitly standing with the standards against the students.
Pivot your perspective for a moment to the opposite.
What does a school where its educators stand with the students against the standards look like?

From DSC:
My hunch is that we need to cut — or significantly weaken the ties — between the state legislative bodies out there and our public school systems. We shouldn’t let people who know little to nothing about teaching and learning make decisions about how and what to teach students. Let those on the front lines — ie., the teachers and local school system leaders/staff — collaborate with the community on those items.

The arts truly matter! [TeacherGoals]

On 10/21/2022, in art, creativity, curriculum, drama/theater, Emotion, engagement / engaging students, health, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, K-12 related, media/film, music, student-related, teachers, United States, youth, by Daniel Christian

The arts truly matter! ? pic.twitter.com/JKawmiAxNz

— TeacherGoals (@teachergoals) October 18, 2022

If We’re Serious About Student Well-Being, We Must Change the Systems Students Learn In [Klein & Liang]

On 10/18/2022, in change, Design Thinking, education, education reform, health, hearts -- matters of the heart, K-12 related, leadership, learning ecosystem, student-related, teachers, United States, youth, by Daniel Christian

If We’re Serious About Student Well-Being, We Must Change the Systems Students Learn In — from highereddive.com by Tim Klein and Belle Liang
Here are five steps high schools can take to support students’ mental health.

Excerpt:

The truth is, the best school systems in the world succeed without homework, standardized test scores or an obsession with rigorous courses. And many U.S. schools have found creative and empowering ways to showcase student merit beyond rankings and test scores.

If we aren’t willing to change policies and practices that have been shown to harm students’ well-being, we have to ask ourselves: Do we really value mental health?

Thankfully, it doesn’t have to be an either/or scenario: We can design school systems that help students thrive academically and psychologically.

The Most STOP-Enabled Innovators of 2022 — from yassprize.org
MEET THE 32

Excerpt:

This year’s 32 semifinalists come from 23 different states and really prove that innovation is alive and well in education. Micro schools, pods and hybrid learning environments almost unheard of two years ago are now being utilized by parents and educators across the nation. Traditional public schools that operate more like a charter and charters that continue to flourish outside of traditional systems, private schools serving specialized populations that are often overlooked and leaders in the ed tech space who provide remarkable tools that can be integrated into any of the other full service models we are celebrating today. Truly a remarkable group of visionaries that are transformational exemplars for all in this tumultuous 2022!

Also relevant/see:

Semifinalists for the $1 Million Yass Prize Announced — from yassprize.org

Basically, kids can take pictures of anything they encounter, like a dog, and make that still image look like it’s talking using the ChatterPix software, which is great for classroom multimedia projects and ideal for kids who enjoy creating content. #STEAM https://t.co/NhEWi8BcWK

— Eduporium (@Eduporium) October 12, 2022

Assistive Technology for Kids with Multiple Disabilities — from equalentry.com

Lego Owner to Acquire Education-Technology Firm Brainpop — from nytimes.com by Trefor Moss
Kirkbi, the family-run company behind the world’s largest toy maker, plans to establish an education business

Excerpt:

Lego owner Kirkbi A/S is buying U.S. video-learning firm Brainpop for $875 million, according to the companies, as the family behind the world’s largest toy maker expands into the education business.

The Danish company said the purchase of Brainpop, which produces short animations used in schools to help children learn everything from math to music, was part of a plan to build a new business pillar. The deal—through which Kirkbi is acquiring Brainpop’s owner FWD Media Inc.—is expected to close Tuesday, the companies said.

“We are definitely on the path to establishing the Lego idea of learning through play in the formal education space,” said Jørgen Vig Knudstorp, executive chairman of the Lego Brand Group, the Kirkbi entity that oversees the toy brand.

What Ails Our Labor Market Is Evident in College [Busteed]

On 10/12/2022, in business, business side of he, career development, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, corporate / business world, future of higher education, higher education, United States, universities, workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

What Ails Our Labor Market Is Evident in College — from insidehighered.com by Brandon Busteed
Both colleges and employers must fix work-readiness failures and inequitable work-readiness practices, writes Brandon Busteed.

Excerpts:

The price tag for college continues to rise, while doubts about the work readiness of college graduates are rampant. This is very bad news for higher education, given the No. 1 reason Americans value a college degree is to get a good or better job.
…
Higher education isn’t alone in needing to fix what ails us. Employers of all shapes and sizes need to step up. After all, what they want most from a college graduate is one with relevant job or internship experience. State and federal governments can and should provide more incentives (whether matching funds or tax subsidies) to encourage more paid internships offered by employers. And why not an addition to the Pell program to provide stipends for unpaid or low-paid internships?

Unfortunately, only 14 percent of current college students received academic credit for their internship.

Isaiah 55:6 & Micah:8 6

On 10/09/2022, in faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, parents/guardians, relationships, religion, society, youth, by Daniel Christian

Isaiah 55:6 — from biblegateway.com

Seek the Lord while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.

Micah 6:8 — from biblegateway.com

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Learning Ecosystems

What Ails Our Labor Market Is Evident in College [Busteed]

Isaiah 55:6 & Micah:8 6

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