{"id":51774,"date":"2015-09-17T09:20:50","date_gmt":"2015-09-17T13:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/?p=51774"},"modified":"2015-09-17T14:55:43","modified_gmt":"2015-09-17T18:55:43","slug":"couldshould-some-of-these-things-be-leveraged-in-the-public-schools-as-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/2015\/09\/17\/couldshould-some-of-these-things-be-leveraged-in-the-public-schools-as-well\/","title":{"rendered":"Could\/should some of these things be leveraged in the public schools as well?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #800000;\">From DSC:<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800000;\">I don&#8217;t care for the title here, but there are some valuable items that can be found by digging around in this article entitled, &#8220;<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/silicon-valley-new-school-2015-8\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Silicon Valley billionaires are appalled by normal schools \u2014 so they&#8217;ve created this new one<\/strong><\/a>&#8221; &#8212; from businessinsider.com by Melia Robinson<\/p>\n<p><em>Excerpts:<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">A typical day at Altschool, the Bay Area-based school system that raised $100 million in venture capital in May, is anything but typical.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Kids take attendance on an iPad, complete a &#8220;playlist&#8221; of activities, and learn 3D modeling software to design a playhouse for the class pet.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Founder and CEO Max Ventilla previously helmed the personalization team at Google, where he helped build Google+ and other products that make the internet feel more personal.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">His latest venture aims to transform the outdated, early-1900s model of elementary education for the digital age.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">In May, we spent the day at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.altschool.com\/\">AltSchool<\/a>&#8216;s Fort Mason location in San Francisco to see its revolutionary teaching style in action.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800000;\">From DSC:<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800000;\">Is there anything here that public schools would find attractive and\/or could implement?<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>AltSchool divides students between the ages of 4 and 14\u00a0into three groups: lower elementary, upper elementary, and middle school. There are no traditional grade levels.<\/li>\n<li>A typical day at AltSchool begins with attendance. As kids arrive, they sign in to the school&#8217;s attendance app on a dedicated iPad.<\/li>\n<li>The attendance app is one of a dozen or so tech tools developed by the school&#8217;s <span style=\"color: #800000;\">50-person product team,<\/span> which includes former employees of\u00a0Apple, Uber, Zynga, and Ventilla&#8217;s\u00a0alma mater, Google.<\/li>\n<li><strong><span style=\"color: #800000;\">The PLP is the foundation of\u00a0the AltSchool experience. Teachers collaborate\u00a0with families\u00a0and students to design a set of goals for the\u00a0learner\u00a0based on the student&#8217;s interests, passions, strengths, and weaknesses.<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Each child\u00a0receives a weekly\u00a0&#8220;playlist&#8221; of individual and group activities that are aimed at achieving those goals.<\/span> <\/strong>This student\u00a0is writing an entry for his blog on coin collecting.<\/li>\n<li>Teachers pick activities for their students by creating items in their playlists or searching the My.AltSchool library to find items that other teachers have made.<\/li>\n<li>This 8-year-old demonstrates a game of Pac-Man using MaKey MaKey \u2014 a simple circuit board that transforms everyday objects into touchable user interfaces &#8230;he attaches alligator clips to four mounds of clay and\u00a0tapes one clip to himself. When he\u00a0taps the clay and completes the circuit, the computer\u00a0interprets the input as arrow key actions.<\/li>\n<li>This streamlined instruction time\u00a0frees up the teacher to walk around the classroom and interact face-to-face with students.<\/li>\n<li>The lower elementary students spend the morning knocking a shared item\u00a0off their playlists: &#8220;writing the news.&#8221; These guys are chronicling a\u00a0recent trip to the park.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/silicon-valley-new-school-2015-8\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-51777\" src=\"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/trip-to-the-park.jpg\" alt=\"trip-to-the-park\" width=\"100%\" height=\"100%\" border=\"0\" srcset=\"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/trip-to-the-park.jpg 1200w, http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/trip-to-the-park-150x100.jpg 150w, http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/trip-to-the-park-1024x683.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Many\u00a0of the younger kids <span style=\"color: #800000;\">wear headphones during playlist time to drown out\u00a0distractions.<\/span><\/li>\n<li>Technology isn&#8217;t necessary\u00a0to complete all\u00a0activities, but it is used to document\u00a0students&#8217; work. This student takes a picture of her news clipping using\u00a0an iPad and uploads the image to\u00a0her playlist.<\/li>\n<li>The classroom, like the tech, fosters AltSchool&#8217;s individualized learning approach.<span style=\"color: #800000;\"> Students sprawl across the room\u00a0on carpets, beanbags, and even lofts of their own construction.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/silicon-valley-new-school-2015-8\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-51778\" src=\"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/own-construction.jpg\" alt=\"own-construction\" width=\"100%\" height=\"100%\" border=\"0\" srcset=\"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/own-construction.jpg 1200w, http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/own-construction-150x100.jpg 150w, http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/own-construction-1024x683.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Classrooms are treated like stations, rather than designated areas for particular grade levels, and students move from room to room throughout the day. It&#8217;s especially important for micro-schools to\u00a0maximize space\u00a0so that a\u00a0four-room schoolhouse doesn&#8217;t feel cramped<\/li>\n<li>Craft and cleaning supplies are stored where the smaller kids can reach them, giving them <span style=\"color: #800000;\">a sense of agency.<\/span><\/li>\n<li>After lunch and PE in the nearby park, students put aside their playlists and work on more <span style=\"color: #800000;\">integrated group projects.<\/span><\/li>\n<li>The middle-school students were <span style=\"color: #800000;\">tasked with\u00a0a classroom redesign.<\/span> This 11-year-old,\u00a0who was wearing an Iron Man T-shirt, built a parkour course. He&#8217;s writing a parent permission slip on his Google Chromebook now.<\/li>\n<li>His classmate learned from online tutorials how to use the 3D-modeling software SketchUp, and she designed\u00a0an\u00a0urban-garden-inspired seating area for the\u00a0unused deck on the second floor.\u00a0There&#8217;s an obstacle course inside the benches for a\u00a0class rabbit to tunnel through.<\/li>\n<li>Another student, who wants to be a veterinarian, lawyer, writer, and manga comic-book writer, <span style=\"color: #800000;\">grew an indoor tea garden.<\/span> She says she loves how the assignments &#8220;bend to your ability.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>If Silicon Valley&#8217;s favorite elementary school has its way, <span style=\"color: #800000;\">personalization will remain\u00a0king.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From DSC: I don&#8217;t care for the title here, but there are some valuable items that can be found by digging around in this article entitled, &#8220;Silicon Valley billionaires are appalled by normal schools \u2014 so they&#8217;ve created this new one&#8221; &#8212; from businessinsider.com by Melia Robinson Excerpts: A typical day at Altschool, the Bay [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[394,286,343,347,32,141,533,46,102,7,559,87,393,66,89,50,13,445],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-attention","category-digital-learning","category-education","category-education-reform","category-education-technology","category-engagement-engaging-students","category-experimentation","category-k-12-related","category-learning","category-learning-ecosystem","category-learning-hubs","category-learning-spaces","category-student-teachingteacher-education","category-student-related","category-teachers","category-teaching-learning","category-using-teams","category-youth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51774"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51782,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51774\/revisions\/51782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}