education reform

A Podpourri of Learning Options: Pods, Hubs, and Microschools in the Wake of the Pandemic [Vander Ark]

On 03/01/2022, in Alternatives, education, education reform, homeschooling/homeschoolers, innovation, instructional design, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, neurodivergent/special needs, parents/guardians, personalized/customized learning, by Daniel Christian

A Podpourri of Learning Options: Pods, Hubs, and Microschools in the Wake of the Pandemic — from gettingsmart.com by Tom Vander Ark

Excerpts:

The Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) recently published a report, Pandemic Pods and the Future of Education, based on a survey of families and educators who organized or participated in a pandemic pod. While it was challenging to collect representative data on pods, CRPE concluded that pods were an important pandemic response with long-term implications for education.
…
The CRPE defines pods as an in person or intensive virtual support that meets multiple times per week. While a broad definition, it is more narrowly defined than many of the previous attempts at categorizing small group learning experiences.
…
Despite the “moment” that pods had during the pandemic, once in-person learning became more available there was a snapback of about 85%, with the numbers of students shifting from pods to classroom attendance. Those students remaining in pods, typically counted as homeschooled, are part of what is likely to be a 1-2% long-term enrollment shift (perhaps 1 million students) away from traditional public schools.

Addendum on 3/2/22:

Along the lines of learning options, see:

The Changing Landscape: Opportunities for Independent School Transformation — from nais.org; with thanks to the Big Questions Institute for this resource

Hmmm…interesting ideas here: “Has Your School District Considered Creating A “Parent University”? [Bradbury]

On 02/17/2022, in communities of practice, education, education reform, education technology, experimentation, ideas, instructional design, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, parents/guardians, participation, student-related, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Hmmm….interesting ideas here.

Has Your School District Considered Creating A “Parent University”? — from teachercast.net by Jeffrey Bradbury

Excerpt:

Over the course of the Pandemic, teachers and students have been coping with a brand-new teaching and learning style that has required them to do things they have not ever needed to do before. However, that is just two parts of the triangle in the learning process. For many parents, the thought of having to be a co-teacher in a digital classroom became a reality.

How do you support both teachers, students, and parents? The answer for many school districts is to create a Parent University, or a virtual program that helps teach parents and community members how to support their students.

In this blog post, we will look at what exactly a Parent University is and how it can be successfully created to support both parents as well as other members of your global community through the help of local professionals, teachers in the district and most importantly, your Instructional Coaching staff.

What Is A Parent University?
To put it very succinctly, a Parent University is an opportunity for a community to come together and provide a service to itself. Parent Universities come in a variety of shapes and sizes depending on the needs of the community, but the basic idea is for the school district to be a conduit for community learning.

From DSC:
I hadn’t thought of a community of practice in this regard, but maybe I should.

How I use Minecraft to help kids with autism [Duncan]

On 02/14/2022, in 24x7x365 access, 3D, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, attention, communications, communities of practice, creativity, digital learning, digital storytelling, distance education, education, education reform, education technology, educational games / serious games, Emotion, engagement / engaging students, ethics, hearts -- matters of the heart, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, library / librarians, love of learning, Microsoft, morals/values, neurodivergent/special needs, online learning, online media, parents/guardians, participation, passions, platforms, play, productivity / tips and tricks, psychology, remote teaching and learning, social learning / networks, storytelling, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching online, technologies for your home, tools, UK, United States, vendors, web-based collaboration, youth, by Daniel Christian

How I use Minecraft to help kids with autism — from ted.com by Stuart Duncan; with thanks to Dr. Kate Christian for this resource

Description:

The internet can be an ugly place, but you won’t find bullies or trolls on Stuart Duncan’s Minecraft server, AutCraft. Designed for children with autism and their families, AutCraft creates a safe online environment for play and self-expression for kids who sometimes behave a bit differently than their peers (and who might be singled out elsewhere). Learn more about one of the best places on the internet with this heartwarming talk.

Below are two excerpted snapshots from Stuart’s presentation:

What It Takes to Recruit Future Teachers During the Pandemic [Koenig]

On 02/12/2022, in Alternatives, career development, education, education reform, experimentation, future, higher education, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, United States, by Daniel Christian

What It Takes to Recruit Future Teachers During the Pandemic — from edsurge.com by Rebecca Koenig

Excerpts:

“Efforts that seem to be working have had a common ingredient: close ties between colleges and local K-12 school districts.”

“Taking out loans to earn a college degree, then entering a profession where they can’t pay those loans off—that’s a challenge,” she explains.

So for the first time, this academic year education students are eligible to receive a stipend during their student-teaching internships. Based on a recommendation made in 2019 by a “teacher shortage task force” commissioned by the Oklahoma department of education, the state allocated some of its COVID-relief money to pay student-teachers a total of $3,250—half up front, and half after they’re hired into a teaching job by a school district.

#highereducation #K12 #education #studentteaching
#learningecosystems #teachingandlearning

The Future of Education | Gerd Leonhard

On 02/08/2022, in 21st century, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), Canada, career development, change, changing business models, creativity, education, education reform, emerging technologies, Emotion, ethics, Europe, future, future of higher education, heutagogy, higher education, India, instructional design, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, Natural Language Processing (NLP), pace of change, real-world assignments, reinvent, robotics, skills, society, staying relevant, STEAM-related, student-related, trends, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, vocational / trades, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, workplace, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

???

As seen/accessible from this page.

A brief insert from DSC:
Another futurist Thomas Frey has some thoughts along this same line.

#Canada #education #future #trends #careerdevelopment #change #paceofchange #automation #robotics #education #AI #learnhowtolearn #unlearn #learningecosystems #lifelonglearning #endofroutine #experientiallearning

Machines are for answers. Humans are for questions.

Also relevant/see:

Next-Gen Skills Essential To Fill In The Curriculum Gap For Modern World Education — from edtechreview.in by Ravi Bhushan
5 tips to avoid “foresight burnout” — from thefuturesschool.com

Rethinking the Faculty Role in Students’ Career Readiness — from insidehighered.com by Rachel Toor; with thanks to Ryan Craig for this solid, well-written resource
It’s time for all of us on campuses, not just the people in career services, to step up and help offer the competencies employers say they’re looking for, Rachel Toor writes.

Excerpts:

Career centers on campuses can offer students coaching, resources and connections. But, as Angle points out, they tend to be a just-in-time service. They are also, he says, “scary places for a lot of students.” Many young people don’t want to face the reality of life after graduation. Often, it’s a case of too little, too late.

Instead, they come to people they know—professors like me—for help with cover letters and résumés. And while I can comment on language, until recently I had no idea about how most résumés are read first by a version of R2-D2 and his little robot friends who make up automated tracking systems. If an applicant doesn’t include the right keywords in a résumé or cover letter, into the trash bin they go.

The truth is, I have not applied for a job in 15 years; for many of my colleagues it’s been even longer, and some of them have never worked outside academe. It’s not surprising that employers are seeing recent college grads—smart students, hard workers—who don’t know how to present themselves as potential employees.

From DSC:
I can relate to that part about R2-D2 reading the resumes first (i.e., trying to get by the Applicant Tracking Systems before one’s resume ever makes it in front of the eyes of a fellow human being). Many faculty/staff members and members of administrations haven’t been out interviewing in a long while. So it can be a rude awakening when they/we need to do that.

Also, I wanted to say that it’s not fair to assess the learners coming out of higher education using a different set of learning objectives:

That is, faculty members within higher ed have one set of learning objectives and their students work hard to learn and meet those learning objectives. Unfortunately, those students did what was asked of them, and then they…
…come to find out that the corporate/business/legal/etc. worlds have different ideas about what they should know and be able to do. That is, these other organizations and communities of practice are assessing them on different sets of learning objectives that these same students didn’t cover. Some (many?) of these graduates leave their interviews discouraged and think, “Well, it must be me.” Or they can leave frustrated and angry at their former institutions who didn’t prepare them for this new assessment.

As I’ve said on this blog before, this disconnect is not fair to the students/graduates. We need more mechanisms by which faculty and staff members within higher ed can work more collaboratively with those within the corporate world to better align the learning objectives and the curriculum being covered. If this doesn’t occur more frequently, the constant appearance and growth of new alternatives will likely continue to build further momentum (as they should, given the incredibly steep price of obtaining a degree these days!).

P.S. This disconnect of learning objectives can also be found in what happens with legal education — including having to pass today’s Bar Exams — and then these graduates get out into the real world to find employers who are frustrated that these graduates don’t have the “right”/necessary skills.

“The incentive structure is for law schools to teach students how to pass the bar exam, not necessarily to do the things that employers expect,” Gallini said.

A quote from this article, which I also
want to thank Ryan Craig for.

Turning Girls Loose to Build in STEM [Rieder]

On 02/04/2022, in education, education reform, engineering, experimentation, face-to-face, innovation, instructional design, K-12 related, Learning Experience Design, robotics, society, STEAM-related, by Daniel Christian

Turning Girls Loose to Build in STEM — from innotechtoday.com by Katherine Rieder

Excerpt:

To elementary-school science teachers and nostalgic postsecondary STEM students, it sounds like a dream. Yet the refrain resounding through the room is one of “this isn’t fair,” or “it’s too hard,” often accompanied by low grumbles and furrowed brows. This reaction to a relatively unstructured learning activity where the learning process takes priority over finding a concrete and “correct” answer is, in fact, typical with this age group and gender.

It results from the mutually reinforcing combination of girls’ decreasing confidence in their innate intellectual ability and the fixed mindset many develop as they move through the early years of their formal education. These same factors are incredibly detrimental to a young woman’s engagement with STEM and a future career in the field.

Early-childhood brain development and its long-term importance [Dr. Bruce D. Perry]

On 01/27/2022, in biology, change, communications, culture, education, education reform, Emotion, generational differences, ideas, languages and translation, learning, learning theories, lifelong learning, memory, psychology, reading, relationships, skills, society, youth, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
One of my sisters is a Professor of Psychology and she highly recommended that I check out the work of Dr. Bruce D. Perry. Below is an example video that was recorded on October 25, 2014 as part of the 25th Anniversary Chicago Humanities Festival, Journeys. I included some excerpted slides in this posting to give you a flavor of portions of this talk.

Description (emphasis DSC):

Each of us takes the same journey from birth to consciousness—but none of us recalls it. This early stage of life is crucial; Sigmund Freud famously obsessed over it, as do millions of parents every day. What goes on cognitively during that time, and what can parents—and other adults—do to further promote infant well-being? Join renowned psychiatrist Bruce D. Perry, recipient of the 2014 Dolores Kohl Education Prize, for this discussion of early-childhood brain development and its long-term importance.

Social & Emotional Development in Early Childhood [CC]

From Web3 to Ed3 – Reimagining Education in a Decentralized World — from mirror.xyz by Scott David Meyer; with thanks to Bryan Alexander for posting this resource out on LinkedIn

Excerpt:

Ed3 as a Source of Human Flourishing
Education is a right, and a cornerstone for human flourishing. The more we are able to teach our students, the better prepared they will be to enter the Knowledge Economy and leave their mark on the world.

We are at the beginning of the web3 wave. Entire industries are being re-imagined with a focus on participation and ownership. Education can, and should, follow suit.

By welcoming this new era of ed3, more students will be able to access, afford, and accredit a dynamic education that helps them flourish and leave their mark on the world.

Exemplar of successful implementation of tech in schools — from donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com by Donald Clark

Excerpts:

It was impressive to find a school network that took technology as seriously as Curro, in South Africa. They had invited me to give a keynote on AI for Learning, based on my book and experience but I hung around as the teacher sessions were so damn good. This is what I learnt, as I think it is a recipe for success.
…
This was the big surprise. There were glowing testimonials from teachers about the power of adaptive learning, using AI, to personalise learning for students. It was described as a ‘gamechanger’ by the teacher who presented, with clear targeting, so that efficient and relevant, individual interventions could be made for students. It was clear that they knew why they wanted this technology, had implemented it well and were using teacher feedback to spread the word internally.

I was giving a talk as part of that process. The day’s activities were under the banner of ‘Imagining 2022’. It’s hard enough to Imagine what any year will bring these days but it was clear that this was a learning organisation, willing to learn from their mistakes and make the effort to plan forward.

Also see:

Curro

14 Predictions for Higher Education in 2022 [Schaffhauser]

On 01/10/2022, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adult learning, Alternatives, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Augmented Reality (AR), blended learning, Blockchain, business side of he, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, copyright/ownership/NFTs, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, disruption, distance education, education, education reform, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, faculty/staff, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, ideas, immersion, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, law schools, leadership, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, learning spaces, more voice more choice more control, new business models, online learning, pace of change, personalized/customized learning, platforms, reinvent, social learning / networks, society, staying relevant, streams of content, surviving, teaching & learning, teaching online, tools, training / L&D, trends, United States, universities, vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, vision/possibilities, workplace, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

14 Predictions for Higher Education in 2022 — from campustechnology.com by Dian Schaffhauser

Excerpt:

Ask people working in higher education what they expect will happen in the new year, and the outlook is filled with visions that build on what we’ve been experiencing on college and university campuses for the last two years: a major focus on learning formats; continued exploitation of new technology; and the use of new digital models that move users “beyond Zoom.” Here we present the collective predictions of 14 IT leaders, instructional folks and a student about what they anticipate seeing in 2022. As one put it, “Let’s go, 2022! We have work to do!”

From DSC:
I’d like to thank Dian Schaffhauser, Rhea Kelly, and Mary Grush for letting me contribute some thoughts to the various conversations that Campus Technology Magazine hosts and/or initiates. I inserted some reflections into the above article and I hope that you’ll take a moment to read my and others’ thoughts out there.

Why school might look a little different these days — from dangerouslyirrelevant.org by Scott McLeod

How Design Thinking Transforms Communities, One Project at a Time [Wagner & Favretti]

On 12/13/2021, in change, curriculum, design, Design Thinking, education, education reform, ideas, innovation, instructional design, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, learning preferences, society, sociology, by Daniel Christian

How Design Thinking Transforms Communities, One Project at a Time — from gettingsmart.com by Kyle Wagner and Maggie Favretti

Key Points

For many, entrenched in an outdated system, what if’s are the stuff of science fiction.
Too many structures hold this kind of innovation back — from standardized tests, to grades, to unwavering curriculum.
Design Thinking can transform communities.

#Whatif

What if every course began with a single Essential Question?

What if people were rewarded for having ideas and not ownership of them?

What if every student experienced success in solving a community problem?

What if school buildings were leveraged as community centers?

What if success in school was measured based on contribution to your community, rather than rote knowledge?

What if every learner could co-author their learning journey?

What motivates students to learn? — from edte.ch by Tom Barrett
In this article, we explore the key factors that influence and predict student academic motivation.

Excerpt:

Here are the top three ranked, according to this meta-analysis, from l’Université Laval, Monash University and Curtin University.

1 — Competence (I can do this!)
2 — Autonomy (I get to choose)
3 — Belonging (I am not alone)

From DSC:
I’m once again reminded of the following graphic:

Tom’s posting also reminds me of the power of storytelling, as Tom makes a solid point:

A notable missing piece of the student motivation paper is the role of emotion in learning. When I search the document for reference to ‘emotion’, the only returns I get are from citations and other works.

Along these lines, see/listen to:

Antonio Sacre on the Power of Storytelling in Education — from spencerauthor.com by John Spencer

Got Teacher Burnout? Launch A Microschool — from forbes.com by Kerry McDonald

Rather than abandoning their passion for teaching, some educators are discovering that they can do what they love and avoid the bureaucracy and stress of a conventional classroom by starting their own microschools.

Microschools are modern twists on the quaint, one-room schoolhouse model, where small, multi-age groups of students learn together in more intimate educational settings, such as private homes, with individualized attention from adult educators and facilitators. Interest in microschools accelerated over the past year, as school shutdowns led parents to consider home-based “pandemic pods” to help their children learn in small, safe groups.

Learning Ecosystems

Reflections on “Rethinking the Faculty Role in Students’ Career Readiness” [Toor]

Early-childhood brain development and its long-term importance [Dr. Bruce D. Perry]

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