Attention in Belgravia

I watch almost no TV.  We cut the cable last year and haven’t looked back.  However, I occasionally watch a show on Netflix.  This weekend, I greatly enjoyed A Scandal in Belgravia from the BBC Sherlock series, and I noticed that Sherlock Holmes and I have something in common. (It is not arriving in Buckingham Palace covered only by a bed sheet).  In the series, Sherlock sometimes drifts off into thought and loses all track of time and place.  He may “come to” several hours later and claim that he was just talking to someone a minute ago.  Sometimes when I run, the same thing happens.  After five minutes of running, my mind becomes so engrossed in some topic that when I get back to the house I have little or no recollection of the physical world I just ran through.  I think it is because my brain starts working on something with such incredible focus and attention that I am totally oblivious to the world around me.

I have been paying closer attention to attention after starting Chade-Meng Tan’s book, Search Inside Yourself.  Chade-Meng Tan started his employment at Google as an engineer, but has shifted his focus to helping his colleagues and others gain emotional intelligence through mindfulness.  His current job title with Google is “Jolly Good Fellow.”  Tan writes a lot about attention in the book and how we can all grow our ability to attend.  One type of attention that he describes is where focus is intense on one thing, like a spotlight shining on one object.  I believe that this is the type of focus that Sherlock and I experience when lost in thought.  The other type of attention that he describes is one where the focus is everywhere, a light shining from one place to another, taking in everything.  Perhaps an example of this type of focus is when Sherlock Holmes observes a crime scene.  Tan believes that by practicing, anyone can refine and improve the ability to attend in both ways.  I’m interested to find out as I attempt to practice his techniques. After all, the more I can control my attention, the more I will learn.

Listen to Me

I spend ten or fifteen minutes nearly every day looking through my Twitter feed for interesting ideas.  As I wade through Diane Ravitch’s daily diatribe or scan Eric Sheninger’s hourly updates (honestly, when does the man work?), I sometimes come across an idea that is immediately accessible, implementable, and worthwhile.  This was the case with a video that explains how to use podcasts for feedback in writing that I was referred to by a tweet.
After I sent the link out to my colleagues, I started thinking about how I could use it to give meaningful feedback. I thought about all the times in my day when I'd like to offer positive feedback, but to give it on the spot would be impractical or impossible. I regularly observe situations like students listening intently to a partner’s idea on why they should use bigger wheels on an NXT robot, inviting a classmate to join a lunch table, or putting an arm around a buddy after the last shot did not go down.  Even if I could offer positive verbal feedback at these times, the feedback itself might detract from the action.  But, what if I could give a fifteen to thirty second affirmation of these acts at a later time?  Something like:


It takes almost no time for me to take out my phone, make a quick recording, and then email it. Of course, this type of audio feedback won't replace the hand-written notes, emails, or verbal affirmations that I give daily, but it does offer me another tool that I plan to implement.

Learning Math

I would bet that my middle school (junior high) math classes were quite similar to the way you were taught math.  I watched the teacher work problems on the board and then I was given problems to practice.  I frequently rushed through my homework in an attempt to get it done as fast as possible so I could head to the tennis courts or shoot baskets in the driveway.  After a couple of weeks, I was given a “unit test” which was supposed to assess whether or not I had learned the material.  Having some natural ability in math, I usually scored well on the tests.   

However, school is not where I really learned math.  I learned math on my summer car vacations adding up miles on creased, fold-up maps; and by figuring the amount of gasoline our lumbering Buick Estate Wagon gobbled up on trips to the Texas coast.  I got pretty good at predicting arrival times based on our average speed and distance left to travel.  I learned to compute with fractions by helping my dad and older brother refurbish a hulking wooden sailboat and build a two-story fort that protected our back yard from neighborhood rapscallions.  I learned probability by playing cards and dice games, which eventually led to me reading Scarnes New Complete Guide to Gambling when I was twelve-years-old.  It is a pretty heavy read for a seventh grader, but I made some pocket money in my teens because I knew the odds in blackjack.


So, where are our kids really learning math today?  At Carolina Day School, they are learning math in school.  Surprise.  They are learning math because they are using math.  

In eighth-grade, students play with motion by building and zooming balloon-jet cars across the floor.  They plot rates of change on graphs and understand that slope is more than just a line on a page in a book.  In seventh grade, students measure and cut popsicle sticks to form specific geometric shapes.  They create these from scale drawings, and, in addition to getting practice with angles, they learn that precision is sometimes critical.  Our sixth graders design and run their own experiments and determine what types of graphs and charts best display the generated data.  Analysis and use of data is crucial to our students’ understanding the world around them.

Learning has little use unless you can do something with the knowledge.  Doing something implies action, and CDS students do much more than sit in class absorbing facts and algorithms. They build, observe, compute, design, record, analyze, and judge -- and in doing these things, they actually learn math.

Making Yodas

I have a few notes written on the whiteboard in my office.  One contains Dave Perkins’ list of “lifeworthy skills:"  insight, action, ethics, and “comeupance.”  Another is a list of Daniel Pink’s drivers of motivation:  autonomy, mastery, and purpose.  At the upper right hand corner is something that I wrote this summer:  reflection is the key to change.

The work of reflection -- examination, thinking, and evaluation -- is what leads to learning.  Unfortunately, because many of us are poor reflectors, we continue to make the same mistakes throughout our lives leading to a Groundhog Day type of existence.  Many of us are not life-long learners because we never learned how to be reflective.

The key to reflection is that it involves the self, not an outside source.  While external motivation may be needed to poke and prod folks into reflection, it is the actual work of the  individual that makes it so valuable.  The fact is, we really don’t learn very well from instruction or watching others.  If we did, 7th graders would have the wisdom of Yoda and war would be a faint memory.

If we are trying to prepare our students to be adaptive, functional adults, we must teach them to be reflective.  It can be practiced and learned so that it becomes an active part of life, prompting introspection and growth.  Schools should institutionalize systems that require students to reflect on what they learn and how they learn.  There are many ways to do this:  self assessment on assignments, student-designed rubrics, reporting systems that require students to comment on their own progress,  portfolios (electronic or paper) that ask students to catalog and reflect on their work, and student blogs.  

As long as teachers and tests remain the primary judges of students, students will continue to look outside of themselves for guidance.  They need to learn to look inside to find their own way.

Who Will Win?

You may not be a Risk player, but my two sons and I love playing the game.  We’ve had this game up on the dining room table for two weeks now, playing a few moves whenever all three of us have enough time to sit down together.  The boy’s mother, my wife, was in the game for a while, but she lost all her armies last week following a failed offensive thrust.  Truthfully, she really wanted to lose so she could go back to watching Pride and Prejudice for the 35th time.  It’s probably good to have at least one member of our household who is not vying for world domination.

When I walked past the board this morning, it struck me that if I asked my son’s playmates who is going to win the game that most would quickly jump to the same conclusion.  The problem is that they don’t have enough information to make a reasonable guess.  Would it change their opinion if they knew that the next player would receive a bonus of 35 armies as he turns in his cards?  Would it change their opinion if they knew that a couple of days ago my sons made a pact to team up to bring down Papa for the first time?   Would it change their opinion to know that we had modified the rules to suit our family game?  Would it change their opinion if they knew that my goal in playing the game was to have fun, not win in the traditional sense?

As an educator, I could want nothing more for my students than for them to look at this board and know that they need more information -- then form and ask the right questions.  What if school was a place where students could practice solving problems rather than a place where someone told them all the answers?  Would there be less risk for its future if our next generation had the inclination to try to understand a situation before coming to a conclusion?  

Digital Portfolios

British School 18th century, A Man with a Portfolio, Taking Snuff.

Portfolios have long been associated with visual art.  The primary reason is that this type of art is made to be seen and no written description will serve the observer better than a glimpse at the real thing.  All educators face the problem of the visual art teacher in that much of what we should be teaching is not easily described or measured.  We teach students to think, create, solve problems, value others’ perspectives, persevere, be compassionate, lead, innovate, and question; yet, we don’t have a particularly good way to assess these attributes.  A portfolio provides a way for students to demonstrate their ability and competence in these areas.

According to Merriam Webster, the word portfolio dates back to the early 18th century and is derived from the Italian “portare” (to carry) and “foglio” (leaf,sheet).  The root of the word tells us that the portfolio must have served two primary purposes:  to archive and to share.  Teachers have long used portfolios for the purpose of archiving student work.  Alphabetized folders in hanging files are common place in classrooms around the world.  However, in the past decade digital portfolios are becoming more commonplace as they have many advantages over paper/folder portfolios.  Digital portfolios are dead simple to share with others and also offer a way for students to add personal reflections and for others to offer comments and support.

A portfolio gives students the ability to archive their work for future use or reflection.  It can be a powerful documentation of growth.  The archive can also be used as a credential for future schools and jobs.  It is a more authentic description of a student’s work than a report card or a standardized test, and the best universities and employers are beginning to recognize it as such.

Sharing is all about audience.  As an archive of academic work and reflection on that work, a student’s portfolio’s initial audience will be the school community:  classmates, faculty, and parents.  However, a wider audience for a portfolio can create greater authenticity, as the student demonstrates the relevance of his work to the world, not just at school.  Students must also consider future audiences in the creation of a portfolio, in particular, future schools and employers.  

Want to develop your own system of digital portfolios?  Find a platform and test it, give students some control to personalize their portfolio, provide students regular time in school to archive and reflect, require students to share it, and don’t grade it.

What is Lifeworthy?

Several months ago, when I was exploring graduate programs, I came across the following short interview of David Perkins who recently retired from the teaching faculty at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education after forty years.  He still works with Harvard on research.  It intrigued and shocked me to hear a powerful policy voice say that “90% of what we typically teach in school is a waste of time.”  The short clip gives a general overview of Perkin’s ideas about what should be learned, but it left me wanting a more elaborate and specific explanation.   A short time after watching this interview, I saw that David Perkins would be one of the plenary speakers at the Future of Learning Institute at Harvard.  Last week, I got to hear David Perkins explain his ideas over what should be learned in an hour and a half talk. 

I find the following summary of some of Perkins’s ideas a poor substitute for listening to his plenary session at the FOL Institute.  Harvard did make a recording of the talk, and I hope they will release it to the general public at some time.  

Perkins started with the idea that we are educating today’s youth for an unknown world.  Previous generations could count on their children’s world looking fairly similar to their own.  However, with the rapid changes in technology and globalization, we can no longer say this is true.  Students need to concentrate on learning “lifeworthy” content and skills -- tools and knowledge that will be useful in an unknown world.

Lifeworthy skills and content, according to Perkins, lead learners to insight, action, and ethics.  He also believes that schools should focus on “comeupance,” that is things that come up regularly in a person’s life.  He gave a few specific curricular examples. First, students should learn basics of statistics and probability instead of the quadratic formula.  In evidence of this, he asked the 200-plus member audience to raise their hands if anyone had used quadratic equations some time in the last ten years.  Only a ten or fifteen people responded.  He then refined the search by asking how many use quadratic equations in a way outside of teaching it to others.  Only three people were left with their hands up, with the conclusion that “the main purpose of teaching quadratic equations seems to be to enable the next generation of teachers to teach the quadratic equation.”  Perkins would describe the teaching of quadratic equations to be “niche learning” that may be important to a deep understanding of the field of mathematics but is not a lifeworthy topic.  Another example that he gave of niche learning that is taught in almost all biology classes is mitosis.  Instead of spending time teaching mitosis, he argues that schools should focus on topics like communicable diseases and how they spread in a global world.  The last of his example was the the teaching of the French Revolution.  If we are teaching the French Revolution as a stand alone piece of knowledge, then it does not meet the criteria of being lifeworthy.  But, we can investigate topics like social injustice through the lens of the French Revolution to make them relevant.

Perkins certainly does not want to abandon the traditional disciplines that are currently taught in most schools.  He begs us to examine what we teach and only teach what will provide insight, lead to action, or help develop ethics. We must incorporate the "lifeworthy" and dismiss the "lifewimpy."

The Knife

On our recent trip to Boston, my seven-year-old son, Charlie, was finally allowed to purchase a pocket knife.  One of the requirements of ownership was for him to get training from me once we returned home.  
We arrived back in Asheville at 6:00 on Saturday evening after a full day in the minivan, and among Charlie’s first words were, “Can I get my pocketknife training now?”

“No, you’ll have to wait until tomorrow.  We’ve got to unpack, do laundry, and get some rest.”  Moaning and disgruntled looks followed.
First thing on Sunday morning, “Can you train me now?”
“No, you’ll have to wait until we get back from church.”  More moaning and disgruntlement, but Charlie knew not to be too vocal proclaiming injustice because I still held all the cards.
Finally, the moment had arrived, and I had an internally motivated learner on my hands.  We sat on the back porch and I asked him to think about the difference between a tool and a toy.  He immediately answered that the knife was dangerous and toys weren’t dangerous.  So we talked about under what circumstances a knife could be dangerous.  I also talked about places where knives were not allowed and why they weren’t allowed.
Next we went through the process of actually using the knife.  How to open it safely, how and what to cut, and how to close it safely.  
The last thing I talked to him about was under what conditions he could show it to his friends and let them handle it.  (Owning a pocket knife has got to raise you a few levels in seven-year-old coolness factor.)  Then we were done, or so Charlie thought.
He was just about to run out the door to run down to Graham and Reed’s house when I told him that he would have to wait until later in the day to show them.
“WHAT?”
“Well, I want to see if you can actually remember all the stuff we went over.”
You can imagine the look I got.  Yes, I should have told him going into the lesson that there would be a quiz, but I didn’t think of it until I started imagining Charlie waving his knife around replicating some crazed street fighter because the learning did not stick.
So, after a few agonizing hours, I sat Charlie back down and asked him to tell me what he remembered about our talk.  He immediately said, “Knives are dangerous.”  
“Okay, what else do you remember.”
Charlie thought for a while.  “I don’t know.  I don’t remember what you said; I only remember what I said.”
I had just spent four days at the Future of Learning Institute at Harvard that was partly focused on trying to shift people’s thinking from a belief that learning is achieved through transference to a view that learning occurs through process.  Charlie’s response was the explanation point to this theme.

Charette - Learning Through Process

                                     -  video created by Julie Daughtry

As a part of the Future of Learning (FOL) Institute at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, a small number of the 200-plus institute participants volunteered and were selected to participate in a charette.  When asked to volunteer for this experience, we were told little about the process other than the fact that it would involve designing an artifact to represent the learner of the future.

While others may define a charette to fit their own needs, our experience in charette could be defined as a small group working together over multiple, intense sessions to design and construct a product through collaboration.  The process was valued equally, or perhaps more, than the product.

The success of the charette was achieved by the intentional and thoughtful planning of our facilitators, Justin Reich and Arzu Mistry, along with several FOL Fellows.  The sessions were an outstanding example of excellent teaching and reinforced my belief that great teaching occurs as a result of great planning.  While what happens in a classroom has been referred to as art, that art only occurs when the teacher is constantly engaged in the creation of the experience.

This charette experience focused on the process of creation.  Daily elements of scaffolding were put into place before we began our design work.  The intention of the scaffolding was to prepare us for the process that we would undertake during that specific class period.  The best example of this scaffolding was prior to the session when we were asked to develop our design elements.  We were asked to create something in five minutes given a concept and a medium.  We all randomly chose slips of paper from two piles; my medium was a sculpture and my concept was “tension between old and new.”  I had five minutes to think of an idea and make something.  The limited time forced me just to do something without thinking.  Most of the time this is the exact opposite of what teachers try to get students to do, but in this case the purpose was for us to generate ideas.  It was freeing not to have to think about whether the idea was good or bad and just do something with it.

The other effect of this small exercise was that it lowered tension and stress for me.  Justin told us that we didn’t have time for good ideas, we just needed to jump in and do it.  This removed the expectation of judgement by others.  We were all in the same boat, individuals creating something under impossible constraints with little or no expectations.  Many of the products of this brief exercise were creative because the exercise forced us to get out of our normal analytical minds and access the creative parts of our mind.  One of my partners stated that before the charette she thought she was not an artist and after it she thought that she was an artist.  I had the same feeling as I accessed and employed my “creative mind.”

There were many other short scaffolding sessions before and during our work.  All of them were purposeful, and, for me, effective.

The other element that focused us on the process was forced reflection.  At different points of our work session, we were asked to reflect on how we felt or what we were doing in front of a camera.  This was done in two different ways, one was in the “confessional booth” where we responded in front of a camera to a written question without anyone else present.  The other method occurred when we were filmed responding to oral questions in the middle of our design work.  Perhaps Arzu and Justin were really interested in documenting the process, but the effect for me was that it forced me to look inside myself frequently throughout the process.  The filming was essential to this process as it made my reply spontaneous.  I didn’t have time to craft a response.  While I don’t remember specific revelations in design that occurred as a result of this process, I do remember feeling less stress and more focused afterwards.  I was never asked to look at my recorded reflections, and I don’t know if anyone ever looked at them.  This made and makes no difference to me as the value gained was in the moment.

The final essential element in process was getting outside input into our design.  There were a couple of formal review periods where people outside of the charette were invited to question us about our process and design.  There were also informal reviews done by Justin, Arzu, and the Fellows.  The reviews were always done by questioning:  Have you thought about this?  Why did you do it that way? What are you trying to express?  What about the use of color?  Why did you choose wood as a medium? Getting input was crucial to the process.  Nearly every time someone interacted with us it changed our design to some degree.  At the very least it forced us to think in deeper and broader ways about the design.


While I have believed in Constructivist learning for years, participating in this charette gave me a personal understanding of the process that I previously lacked. To be a student in a classroom where process was central to learning deepened my appreciation for this model and will give me a framework to build upon.

Beside(s) Content

“Developing content knowledge provides the foundation for acquiring these skills, while the skills in turn are necessary to truly learn and use the content. In other words, the skills and content knowledge are not only intertwined but also reinforce each other.”

http://www.hewlett.org/newsroom/news/national-research-council-report-highlights-importance-deeper-learning


Of course great teachers have always focused on teaching students to communicate, collaborate, create, solve problems, and innovate.  Great teachers ask students to work together through project-based learning to enhance all of these skills.  In our school, it is commonplace to walk into a classroom and see students working together to design a road trip across the US, or build a tower out of straws that can withstand an earthquake, or make a claymation video to bring awareness to a critical problem facing the environment.  None of this is news to anyone who sees and values great teaching.

The problem is that while these skills are discussed, written about, and extolled, they remain a minor part of most schools’ curriculum, behind content.  Unless individual teachers value these skills, they don’t get the attention that they deserve.  Even teachers who appreciate these skills often let them play second fiddle to content.  After all, content is what is in the textbook; what is assessed; and what parents, students, the State expect to be taught.  While the system doesn’t deny that 21C skills can be taught, it certainly doesn’t promote them or make it easy.  That needs to change -- now.

Every student and parent can tell you the subjects that define school -- English, history, math, science, art, PE, foreign language.  What would a school look like that raised the awareness and place of 21C skills to stand on equal footing beside the subject areas?  What if instead of asking a student how they did on their algebra test, parents asked how they did on their metacognition today (and it didn’t seem weird)?  What if administrators created a schedule that made it easy for teachers to plan lessons that gave students the opportunity to work and reflect on 21C skills?  What if a school decided to report on student growth on 21C skills in addition to mastery of content?  What if students knew they were supposed to develop their ability to innovate, rather than it being an unnoticed by-product of a project?  All of these what ifs are doable and pretty easily, but they won’t happen unless we (students, teachers, parents, administrators, the State) change our collective minds about what students should learn in school. 

Communities of Interest

Yesterday I emailed Grant Lichtman. I became acquainted with Grant’s blog, The Learning Pond, http://learningpond.wordpress.com/grant-lichtman/ from someone’s tweet several months ago.  I don’t remember who tweeted about Grant; it could have been one of many folks who I follow on Twitter who are interested in improving learning.  Five years ago I never would have emailed Grant to engage with him on trends in education, as I never would have known he existed.  

Although I was equally interested in improving learning five years ago,  I was limited to talking to colleagues at my school who shared similar interests, reading in journals and books, and attending a conference once a year.  I did those things, but my progress was slow, and I didn’t have the momentum and support to feel like I was making much of a difference.  Today, through Twitter and blogs, I belong to a community of people who share the same interest in improving learning.  Access to this community has been free and simple.  I feel empowered to work on a daily basis because I know there are many within my community who are working to do the same thing.  We share ideas and practices, we inspire, we support, we tell jokes -- in short, we do all the things that people do when they belong to a community -- except that most of us don’t even know what the others look like or where they live.  We have formed a community of interest.

We are shifting from participating in communities of place to communities of interest.  Hundreds of years ago, most of our communities were based on location.  Travel was limited and exchange of ideas was slow.  As new technologies that facilitated communication were introduced, it became easier for people to form communities of interest.  Paper, pen, printing press, telephone, and television all made it easier for people who share similar interests to connect with each other. (Collins and Halverson, 11-13)  Today’s everyday technological tools have dramatically accelerated the shift toward communities of interest.  Blogs like this one, hashtags in Twitter, and online gaming have created a world where communities don’t have anything to do with place, unless the place referred to is our planet.

Schools must give students the opportunity to participate in communities of interest so they can learn the skills necessary to be successful in these environments.  Students should have their own blogs and Twitter accounts, and schools should help students to use these in productive and appropriate ways.  Students need ways and opportunities to connect with broad and narrow communities of interest by providing networking opportunities with other schools around the globe.  NAIS’s Challenge 20/20 is an example of a way that schools can help create and model a community of interest for students.

Schools can and should also model communities of interest within the school walls.  At the Middle School at CDS, we offer students an opportunity to spend time with students and faculty members who share similar interests in a course called exploratory.  Exploratory choices look similar to after-school clubs, but we know that it is so important for middle school students to connect and build relationships that we have moved the club time into our school day.  Exploratory groups change three times a year and the offerings are always diverse:  songwriting, cooking on a griddle, watching and discussing Hitchcock movies, yoga, creating mandalas, designing apps, etc.  As a result of students choosing exploratories by interest, we end up with mixed-grade, mixed-gender, mixed-social groups within our exploratories.  

It is a powerful thing to connect with others by sharing passions and interests.  I wonder what Grant Licthman has to say about this topic.  I bet I’ll find out soon.

Collins, Allan, and Richard Halverson. Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology: The Digital Revolution and Schooling in America . New York, London: Teachers College Press, 2009.

On "Reconceptualizing technology integration . . ."

Dede, C. (2011). Reconceptualizing technology integration to meet the challenges of educational
transformation. Journal of Curriculum and Instruction 5, 1 (May), pp. 4-16

http://www.joci.ecu.edu/index.php/JoCI/article/view/121/Dede

Summary
The education industry lags behind other industries in the use of technology to bring down the cost of education.  This abstract supports a shift from integration of technology into the classroom to redefining the classroom through technology use. The author does not want technology to automate teaching, but rather to help the teacher to become more efficient in all aspects of teaching.  It is important to note that in this model, the teacher remains at the center of the educational process and is not simply seen as an adjunct to monitor individualized instruction and assessment completed through technology.

As a designer of technology for education, the author argues that designers should focus their efforts on innovations that can be used in a Digital Teaching Platform and that can be used successfully in any teaching environment.  He calls for programs that offer “contextual variation” that can be adapted and used successfully with a variety of learners in different learning situations.

Response
We should think beyond the classroom integration model of technology.  Fifty years from now, are we still going to be educating our population using a school calendar based on an agrarian system and a delivery system based on industrial models?  This would be a tragedy.  Of course, national reform movements have never been successful, so the integration model of technology use will continue creeping along. Paradoxically, it seems the best way to kill a movement in education is to call for universal reform.

One of the best suggestions in the paper is that the designers of educational technology develop technology with “contextual variation,” that is, technology that is not tailored to suit one particular school but that can be varied by the user to fit any school.  Flexibility of use should be a goal in any new developments of technology.  It is interesting that the most flexible piece of technology used in our school is Google Docs, which wasn’t created specifically for educational use.

Another objective that should drive technology development is one that strengthens the relationship between teacher and student.  Developers should analyze the characteristics of the teacher/student relationship that promote learning and then use the enhancement of these characteristics as a goal in any development.

Also, instead of technology development focusing on delivery and assessment, greater effort  should be put into developing technology that moves beyond the memorization of facts or algorithms.  Technology that promotes innovation and creativity is a desired outcome for new development.  For example, using augmented reality (AR) programs where the students’ actions change the programs’ responses will make educational technology more engaging and give greater opportunity for higher-level thinking.  Instead of creating programs with a linear and predictable outcome, programs that accept and integrate different lines of thinking are needed.

The National Education Technology Plan - Read It

When I saw an excerpt from “The National Education Technology Plan” as part of my coursework for the Future of Learning Institute (FOL), I looked down the list for another reading that would be more useful and engaging.  However, I decided I would skim it and then I could at least say that I had read it.  My skepticism was almost immediately overcome, and I read with interest, making numerous connections to our technology program in the Middle School at CDS.

Since I was able to link the document, I will not offer a summary, but I will say that the most engaging parts of the document are the examples that have been collected from schools all over the country that are using technology in innovative ways to motivate students, offer them means of learning, and provide them with individualized learning opportunities.  It is inspiring to know that there are so many great educators creating new ways for students to learn by using technology.  I advise reviewing the section on learning starting on page 9, which is where the link will take you.  Check out the sidebars for examples.

http://www.ed.gov/technology/netp-2010/learning-engage-and-empower

I was pleased to find the following statement which supports our work this summer of finding ways and time for students to create electronic portfolios, reflect on the work, and share that work with others.

Student-managed electronic learning portfolios can be part of a persistent learning record and help students develop the self-awareness required to set their own learning goals; express their own views of their strengths, weaknesses, and achievements; and take responsibility for them. Educators can use them to gauge students’ development, and they also can be shared with peers, parents, and others who are part of students’ extended network. (Transforming American Education:  Learning Powered by Technology, p. 12)

Listening to Ryan

My grandmother and grandfather were missionaries in Hong Kong.  They made many Chinese friends, creating social networks among the upper-class Chinese in an effort to lead them to Christ.  My grandparents were accustomed to British ways and good at doing tea, so it seemed natural for them to work on and create these relationships.

During WWII, my grandparents were placed in separate prison camps by the Japanese.  There was some distance between the camps that made normal communication impossible.  But, my grandfather played the violin, and he would play different songs that carried different moods.  My grandparents’ Chinese friends would then relay the mood of the music to my grandmother, which helped her to stay connected to her husband.

As I fight time to get things done, I need constantly to monitor myself to slow down and listen.  I was told this touching story by the director of Black Mountain Expeditions who plans and executes outdoor education programs for our students.  We met to complete the plans for the Middle School Overnight programs at the start of the school year.  The conversation meandered from cars to travel to this wonderful story before we finally got down to our task.  Another day, I might have pushed the agenda, and I would have missed hearing this remarkable parable about the importance of relationships.  The lesson for me is to always be ready to listen and to make the other person’s story a part of your story.

Commenting on "Neuroscience Bases of Learning"

In late July and early August, I will attend an institute at Harvard called the Future of Learning (FOL).  Reflecting on the required readings prior to attendance and the Institute sessions will take up much of my leadership work over the summer. Unfortunately, Harvard has not given me permission to link to articles that I am reading for the FOL.

The following is a summary of some of the ideas from the following paper which is required reading for the FOL Institute:
Neuroscience Bases of Learning
M H Immordino-Yang, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
K W Fischer, Harvard University Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA, USA
ã 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Educators should pay attention to and understand the relatively new field of Mind, Brain, and Education (MBE).  In particular we need to understand more about the how nurture and nature interact to affect learning.  Below are a few of the topics discussed in this paper.

Nature v Nurture
We usually think of biology influencing the brain.  We are born with particular biological traits and these influence the way we learn.  This article states that the relationship between nature and nurture is much more of a two-way street where learning influences biology.  What we learn and how we learn changes the way our brain functions.  Our biological condition with regards to learning is not static.
Educators Beware
The information that advances in brain imaging and the field of neuroscience have provided will take time to analyze and understand.  Unfortunately, non-scientists have been providing their own analysis of this information which has resulted in some wrong conclusions.  Educators need to be aware of this and make sure that new ideas and interpretations of research coming from Mind, Brain, and Education (MBE) can be scientifically substantiated.
Reality
It is important to understand  how memory affects our reality.  What we see and obtain through our other senses is strongly affected by our memory and the emotion tied to those memories.  “ . . . our prior learning, our neuropsychological predispositions,” strongly affect the our reality.  Our brains do not have an internal camera that captures precisely what occurs, as our past experiences and learning shape the reality. Educators must keep this in mind as every student approaches a new learning opportunity from a completely different perspective that strongly influences the manner that the lesson will be learned.

My Take

• Stay aware of advances in MBE by looking at clearinghouses of research coming from leading scientific institutions.  Rather than trying to figure out on my own how to access new advances in this area, I will ask the professors when I attend the FOL Institute.
• Reinforces the idea that everyone’s concept of reality is unique and this shapes the way they learn.  Educators must be flexible when approaching students.  While this is not news, it is good to get a reminder.

Finding Help

Part of the plan is to look at what established school are doing to educate leaders in education. While there may be other schools with better programs, I looked specifically at Stanford’s Policy, Organization, and Leadership Studies (POLS) program and Harvard’s School Development Strand in the School Leadership program.  I chose to study these programs because they both seemed to take a progressive stance in methodology and curriculum. Stanford’s and Harvard’s programs offer chances to work with issues in a real educational settings.  This fits perfectly with my situation as I deal with real issues in education on a daily basis through my job.  So, I plan on referring back to them over the next several years to help guide my curriculum.

Both POLS and the School Development Strand offer latitude and choice within the programs, which supports my desire to follow my own interests.  Off the bat, I noticed a course at Stanford, the History of School Reform, that deals with the history of why the reform movements in education have not worked.  While I already have some background in reform movements of the last century, I have not looked at them from this particular angle.  So, I emailed Dr. David Labaree who teaches this course and asked him to send me the reading list and any course materials.  I was pleasantly surprised when I received a prompt reply with the course syllabus attached.  

This is exactly how envision this process working.  I find a topic that interests me, I look for an expert in the field and get advice and direction, then I pursue the work of learning.  The “work of learning” will hopefully include others who can help me to pursue alternate lines of thought.

A Credentialing Blog

“. . . there is a fundamental disconnect happening right now between the providers of education and the consumers of education.”  -- Salman Khan

In the recent All Things Digital Conference, Stanford President John Hennessy and Salman Khan discussed on line learning and credentials. In the video, Khan talks about decoupling learning from credentialing so that people can gain a credential regardless of “seat time” at a university by proving competency through some legitimate format.  The legitimate credentialing format that I am proposing is a credentialing blog.

This blog will serve as the credential that I have learned everything that I need to know to be an educational leader in greater depth and with greater salience than a Masters Degree from XYZ University. Through my blog, future employers will understand what I have learned and how I think.  The blog will be a reflection of me as a learner and person.  It will hold my opinions about the topics that are critical to my profession, and it will outline what I have learned.  

I believe that this type of blog, a credentialing blog, will be standard practice in the next ten years.  It will be different from a standard professional blog where the blogger comments about new trends and ideas in a particular field as the intention of a credentialing blog will be to document work towards learning with the end result being a recognizable credential.  It will be a portfolio of learning.

A former principal of mine, Alan Credle, once told me that the most important thing that a principal does is hire the right people. My hope is that the credentialing blog will help those who are hiring find the right people. I also hope that the credentialing blog will open opportunities for those who want control over their education and learning.

Gaining Control

When I started thinking about why I want to create my own program in Educational Leadership, my first thoughts centered on why I didn’t want to follow a traditional program.  What that boiled down to was an issue of control. Gaining control makes this method genuine for me.  I will be intimately connected to everything that I study and learn.

I want control over what I learn.  I want to follow the pathways that interest me.  Along the way, I know those pathways will split, converge, and disappear, but for me to be fully engaged, I must have a large degree of control over my direction.  I am not planning on a lonely journey.  My desire is to have others who share the same interest in the same topics guide me, raise my level of awareness, challenge me, and push me.

I want control over how I learn.  I approach learning in many different ways.  I read books and articles, I watch PBS and TedTalks, I listen to podcasts and NPR, I read blogs and tweets, I talk to experts and practitioners,  I discuss with colleagues and students, I travel, I seek, I question.  For this experience to be genuine, I have to access every opportunity and resource.

I want control over my time.  At this stage in my life, I just can’t add another institution or person to the list of folks and obligations that tell me when to jump. I need to choose the time when I can work and not have deadlines imposed by others.

I believe that others feel this way and would like to find a new path to learning and credentialing.  I hope that I can serve as an inspiration and model for those looking for a different way.

Parallel Thinking

Two months ago conditions changed in my personal life that made me realize that I needed to shore up my credentials in order to be ready for the future.  I applied to and was accepted into an online Masters in School Administration program at Western Carolina University.  This masters program is designed primarily for public school educators who wish to work as administrators within the North Carolina State school systems -- a different path than I'm traveling.  As the start of the summer session came closer and closer, I kept feeling more and more apprehensive, not the type of nervous excitement that I got when I was driving to Sewanee from San Antonio in 1976, but more of a nervous anxiety driven by dread.  Something clearly was not right.  So, I had an informal meeting with two trusted friends, and they both told me to punt.  I punted, long and deep.  I think that I may have punted out of the stadium altogether.

My friend and colleague, Sam, made a podcast that focused on my situation and what he saw as the solution.  It will take you about twenty minutes to listen to, but it will be worthwhile.

How Should You Go to School?

At about the same time that Sam was making this podcast, I was typing this email to him:

Hi Sam,

I started extending the idea that I talked about in Missy's office to be an "experiment in higher education."

I am going to design my own masters program (maybe I will not use this term), using a template of courses derived from the best schools in the country.  I will create a blog to document my course work and reflections.  My coursework will be self-study, intensive workshops, on-line classes, collaboration with others who find their way to me from my blog, and ongoing dialogue with selected mentors.  I will ask my mentor/advisers to accredit and validate my coursework.  In the process, I hope to explore from the inside the new type of education that we know is going to influence the future world of education. 

I think we were both a little shocked when we read/listened to each others' ideas.  Parallel thinking with Sam Harrelson is pretty scary for me, and I'm sure it must have been scary for him to be thinking like me (but in an altogether different way).

This summer I will start my experiment in higher education, and I hope that you will be a part of it by reading my blog, offering suggestions, asking questions, and being a fellow traveler in pursuit of learning.