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Student Voice goes way beyond the words “student” and “voice”. It is a process that impacts every student, the staff, and the way a school site does business; a shift in attitude and perspective if you will. Imagine empowering students with meaningful purposes and accompanying tools that will empower them to be effective Academic Leaders for themselves, their peers, their educators, their parents, and in short their school and community.

We all learn from one another, and perhaps that is the most exciting aspect of Student Voice work…we all become learners and leaders! We know that in order for scaled-up collaboration to be effective, we must focus on the same framework.

You have to be more focused and intentional in order for Student Voice to be effective, and you have to understand that while Student Voice is about academic success, the work itself will lead to new perspectives, reframing conversations, and new values for all stakeholders like those included in the AALF whitepaper titled, “The Right to Learn”

We are aware of how much we don't know: that we have yet to explore the full pedagogical potential of learning online, of how it can change the ways we teach, the ways we learn, and the ways we connect.  

As we begin to experiment with how novel technologies might change learning and teaching, powerful forces threaten to neuter or constrain technology, propping up outdated educational practices rather than unfolding transformative ones.

All too often, during such wrenching transitions, the voice of the learner gets muffled.

Students work in groups, and when they have a question, they call him over. He arrives with iPad in hand and records his voice and his writing on the iPad, which he immediately uploads to the class website so other students can benefit from the explanations instantaneously. (This, by the way, is another form of flipped teaching, he says.)

“Everybody is heard in our class,” said Leah Postman, 17.

Janae Smith, also 17, said, “It’s made me see my peers as more intelligent, seeing their thought process and begin to understand them on a deeper level.”

Mrs. Olson asked her students to connect “the argument” of the poem they read and the video with their own rally. As the discussion swirled in class, one student typed on the backchannel: “We tend to have the attitude that someone else will do it. But what happens when everyone thinks the same as you?”

“How can The Future be materially relevant for people for whom The Future is developmentally irrelevant?”

“reconceptualizing the roles of young people throughout society.” In this capacity I have worked with educators, administrators, support staff, and students in hundreds of educational settings, both in school and out of school, to help students determine the meaning of education for themselves.

I propose that rather than impose meaning on students, adults in schools make meaning with students.