participation

Thriving education systems, thriving youth [Economist Impact]

On 12/14/2022, in Africa, Asia, Australia, Canada, change, changing business models, curriculum, dangers of the status quo, Design Thinking, education, education reform, Europe, experimentation, future, health, hearts -- matters of the heart, heutagogy, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, India, innovation, instructional design, K-12 related, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning spaces, legislatures / government / legal, lifelong learning, love of learning, parents/guardians, participation, passions, policy, political science, reinvent, skills, society, strategy, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, trends, UK, United States, vendors, vision/possibilities, youth, by Daniel Christian

Thriving education systems, thriving youth — from events.economist.com by Economist Impact

Some of the key topics to be discussed include:

What are the challenges in how we measure learning outcomes today, and how does this need to transform?
What is a learning ecosystem? What does a successful learning ecosystem look like?
What factors enable the development of thriving learning ecosystems?
Who are the key stakeholders that make up the learning ecosystem? How do different stakeholders see their role in the learning ecosystem?
Which national policies need to be in place to support effective education ecosystems?
What information and data do we need to assess how well learning ecosystems are performing?
What data do we need to collect so that we don’t perpetuate traditional approaches to defining and measuring success?

How to Receive Feedback With a Growth Mindset [NeuroLeadership Institute ]

On 12/10/2022, in career development, communications, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, education, higher education, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, motivation, parents/guardians, participation, productivity / tips and tricks, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, training / L&D, workplace, by Daniel Christian

How to Receive Feedback With a Growth Mindset — from neuroleadership.com by the NeuroLeadership Institute

Excerpt:

A growth mindset can help us view feedback as a good thing, which ultimately makes performance reviews more effective. After all, we want to learn, grow, and improve our skills. People with a fixed mindset view criticism as an attack on their self-worth. Growth mindset, by contrast, leaves room for the possibility that we all have blind spots — and that your manager may have valuable insights on how you can hone your skills. Feedback, in other words, isn’t personal. A manager may critique our performance, but a growth mindset helps keep us from tying our performance to our identity.
…
The beauty of growth mindset is that it’s self-reinforcing. As you gain more confidence in your own ability to learn and grow, each feedback conversation becomes easier than the last. You become more capable of discussing high-stakes issues with honesty and transparency because neither side feels threatened.

Michigan flags 112 low-performing schools for intensive intervention — from mlive.com by Matthew Miller

Excerpt:

“These are the urban high minority districts, right? So they were the ones that had the highest death rates, the highest case rates, the highest income and economic hits because of the pandemic,” she said. “We know that all of this goes into what we label as school quality even though it’s about so much more than the school or the district.”

The full list is here >>

From DSC:
I surely hope that what’s going on in the image below isn’t what’s going on within the state of Michigan (as well as other states) — but I have my fears/concerns in that regard. Though admittedly, my focus here isn’t so much about the financial pictures, but rather it has to do with the straight-jacketing of the teachers and students by legislators in Lansing (and other state capitals). If I were to redraw this image, I would have legislators in (far-away) Lansing seated in comfortable chairs and offices while frazzled/overworked educators are straight-jacketed in the classrooms.

We have too many standardized tests and too many one-size-fits-all methods of “doing school” that aren’t coming from the people on the front lines. Those same people, given the right environment, could unleash a far greater amount of joy, wonder, relevance, creativity, and counsel — for themselves as well as for their students.
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The ‘Digital Equity’ Students Need to Learn May Not Come Without Community Outreach — from edsurge.com by Daniel Mollenkamp

Excerpt:

And that means, more than ever, getting an education requires access to fast, reliable internet. But while the infrastructure to make sure that everyone can use the internet has improved in the last couple of years, the process isn’t complete.

If we want to keep the digital divide from growing, experts say, it’ll mean districts thinking about themselves as just one part of the larger community composed of families, nonprofits, businesses—all of them potential partners in expanding internet access for students.

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Missing an Opportunity: Ed Dept. Criticized by GAO for Teacher Shortage Strategy — from the74million.org by Marianna McMurdock
In recent report, GAO finds key recruitment, retention challenges impacting the profession, and why current federal strategy lacks teeth to succeed

Excerpt:

The challenge of cost of entry into the profession and concerns of return on investment, the GAO report found, is also significantly straining the country’s supply of teachers. Compounding the financial reality, many candidates fear being overworked and mistreated.

“The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare teachers’ discontent with aspects of their jobs, including a lack of support for their safety and value as professionals and an increasingly disrespectful and demanding workplace culture—and exacerbated teacher shortages nationwide,” the GAO stated, pulling data from focus groups held throughout the pandemic.

Addendum on 12/10/22:

What is Snopes and How Can It Be Used to Teach? Tips & Tricks — from techlearning.com by Luke Edwards
Snopes is a fact-checking website that can help students in education to better navigate online media

Homeschooling high school with interest-led learning — from raisinglifelonglearners.com by Colleen Kessler

Excerpt:

There is a misconception that interest-led learning is not appropriate for a high school education in your homeschool. The good news is that all the same benefits of interest-led learning still apply in the middle and high school years.
…
Think of an interest-led homeschool as one that functions more as a college than a high school. Just as a college student declares a major and the bulk of their study is in that topic area with supplemental general education, your interest-led high school can function the same way.

Allowing interests to guide the educational path you take in your high school has tremendous benefits including:

- Less resistance
- Less learner anxiety
- Increased self-confidence in learning
- More in-depth studies in topics of interest
- Self-motivated learning that can be applied in later college and career settings

TL;DR: Women prefer text contributions over talk in remote classes — from highereddive.com by Laura Spitalniak (BTW, TL;DR: is short for “too long; didn’t read”)

Dive Brief (emphasis DSC):

Female students show a stronger preference for contributing to remote classes via text chat than their male counterparts, according to peer-reviewed research published in PLOS One, an open-access journal.
Researchers also found all students were more likely to use the chat function to support or amplify their peers’ comments than to diminish them.
Given these findings, the researchers suggested incorporating text chats into class discussions could boost female participation in large introductory science classrooms, where women are less likely to participate than men.

Homeschooling High School With Interest-Led Learning — from raisinglifelonglearners.com by Colleen Kessler

Excerpt:

Think of an interest-led homeschool as one that functions more as a college than a high school. Just as a college student declares a major and the bulk of their study is in that topic area with supplemental general education, your interest-led high school can function the same way.

Also relevant/see:

Interest-Led Learning in the Early Years: Preschool and Beyond — from raisinglifelonglearners.com by Colleen Kessler
Interest-Led Homeschooling: Helping Your Child Find Their Interests — from raisinglifelonglearners.com by Colleen Kessler

This approach allows you to help them develop their interests, communicate that you see their interests as valuable, and it gives your child the chance to follow their own paths of interest. It’s an outstanding way to facilitate a self-motivated, self-directed learner and thinker.

Hidden toll: Thousands of schools fail to count homeless students [DiPierro & Mitchell]

On 11/20/2022, in education, education reform, K-12 related, parents/guardians, participation, society, sociology, student-related, United States, youth, by Daniel Christian

Hidden toll: Thousands of schools fail to count homeless students — from by Amy DiPierro and Corey Mitchell
Federal law promises homeless children an equal shot at education. Many fall through the cracks

Excerpt:

A Center for Public Integrity analysis of district-level federal education data suggests roughly 300,000 students entitled to essential rights reserved for homeless students have slipped through the cracks, unidentified by the school districts mandated to help them.

Some 2,400 districts — from regions synonymous with economic hardship to big cities and prosperous suburbs — did not report having even one homeless student despite levels of financial need that make those figures improbable.

And many more districts are likely undercounting the number of homeless students they do identify. In nearly half of states, tallies of student homelessness bear no relationship with poverty, a sign of just how inconsistent the identification of kids with unstable housing can be.

A student debt study unravels the American Dream ideal that college will propel you to the middle class [Williams]

On 11/13/2022, in 21st century, Alternatives, colleges, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, parents/guardians, participation, society, sociology, trends, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

A student debt study unravels the American Dream ideal that college will propel you to the middle class — from fortune.com by Bytrey Williams with thanks to Ray Schroeder for this resource out on LinkedIn

Excerpts:

Looking at a cohort of borrowers from 2009, the report highlights that 50% of undergraduate debtors hadn’t repaid their loans. Across different types of loans, borrowers owed between 50% to 110% of their original loan 10 years after repayment began.

A college degree is undoing the American Dream
Getting a college degree has long been heralded as a staple to the American Dream, viewed as the path to wealth that will eventually buy a house in suburbs with a white picket fence. But the Jain Institute report shows that’s no longer the case.

In case this site is helpful to you or someone you know: allaccesslife.org

On 11/11/2022, in accessibility / UDL, assistive technologies, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), IT in HE, parents/guardians, participation, platforms, special needs, tools, vendors, youth, by Daniel Christian

Addendum on 11/14/22:

clusiv.io — as mentioned at The Accelerator at WGU Labs Invests in Platform for the Blind or Visually Impaired

Clusiv is an online learning platform for the blind and visually impaired that teaches occupational training, technology skills, and educational courses to empower employment. We help remove barriers to successful employment by teaching the skills you need to be equipped for the modern workforce.

“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

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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

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.

Students Are Calling BS on High School and Opportunity Knocks — from gettingsmart.com by Trace Pickering

Excerpts:

Let’s be clear. These students are not wrong. The pandemic showed students that much of what they were required to do and endure during pre-pandemic high school was a lot of busywork and tasks that held little relevance or interest to them, and apparently didn’t really matter since they were able to be successful without all that extra work. When schools lost their ability to command and control a student’s time, it forced a different economy for schools and educators. It required the curriculum to be pared down to only the essential standards and information. It now had a very real and powerful competitor for the student’s time – a job, a hobby, sports, music, sleep…

Students are no longer a captive audience. They have more options and choices. To avoid obsolescence, perhaps schools should focus on making school a place where kids see value and want to come to each day.

This is a wonderful opportunity to put in place the things that really drive 21st-century skills and give students the keys to their own learning and growth. To truly personalize learning for students, and unlock teacher professionalism and creativity in the process. That extra time could allow students to pursue areas of passion and interest, to dive deep into a subject that interests them, pursue job shadows and internships, and earn and learn on a job.

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

Learning Ecosystems

A student debt study unravels the American Dream ideal that college will propel you to the middle class [Williams]

In case this site is helpful to you or someone you know: allaccesslife.org

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