But what are they betting on? AltSchool is a decidedly Bay Area experiment with an educational philosophy known as student-centered learning. The approach, which many schools have adopted, holds that kids should pursue their own interests, at their own pace. To that, however, AltSchool mixes in loads of technology to manage the chaos, and tops it all off with a staff of forward-thinking teachers set free to custom-teach to each student. The result, they fervently say, is a superior educational experience.
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Inside the School Silicon Valley Thinks Will Save Education | WIRED - 0 views
www.wired.com/altschool
school model schools of the future School Change schooldesign schoolreform #MustRead
shared by Bo Adams on 05 May 15
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heir own weekly “playlists,” queues of individual and group activities tailored to the specific strengths and weaknesses of each kid.
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This puts AltSchool at the intersection of two rapidly growing movements in education. Along one axis are the dozens of edtech startups building apps for schools; along the other are the dozens of progressive schools rallying around the increasingly popular concept of personalized education. The difference is: AltSchool is not just building apps or building schools. It’s doing both. In that way, AltSchools are more than just schools. They’re mini-research and development labs, where both teachers and engineers are diligently developing the formula for a 21st century education, all in hopes of applying that formula not only to other AltSchools, but to private, public, and charter schools across the country.
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Ventilla likes to call AltSchool’s approach to teaching “Montessori 2.0.” The Montessori method emphasizes letting kids learn primarily through independent projects rather than direct instruction.
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“We think assessment can be much less invasive and much more accurate when you’re collecting data from many sources.”
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The team is also working on a recommendation engine for teachers, not unlike those used by companies like Amazon and Netflix. This tool would take into account everything that My.Altschool knows about a student—from her playlist history to how she learns best to what her strengths and weaknesses are—to recommend activities. “It’d be great if the system could figure out that Johnny’s an auditory learner, who loves castles, and that he’s struggling with estimating,” Bhatia says, adding that an early version of that tool will likely be available this year.
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Once these tools have been validated within the AltSchool environment, Ventilla’s goal is to bundle them up into what he calls an “operating system for a 21st century education” and license them to the education system at large.
Tools for Project Based Learning: The Landscape Today - 0 views
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Updated Empathy Map Canvas - The XPLANE Collection - Medium - 0 views
Using Lego Serious Play as a Design Thinking Tool - 0 views
When Schools Create Their Own Edtech Tools: The Story Behind Slate | EdSurge News - 1 views
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02_future_competences_and_the_future_of_curriculum_30oct.v2.pdf - 1 views
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An analysis of current contributions show that although there are substantial variations, most agree that competence is far more complex than skill, and that it comprises knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes.
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The most recurring examples include: – Creativity, communication, critical thinking, problem solving, curiosity, metacognition; – Digital, technology, and ICTs skills; – Basic, media, information, financial, scientific literacies and numeracy, – Cross-cultural skills, leadership, global awareness; – Initiative, self-direction, perseverance, responsibility, accountability, adaptability; and – Knowledge of disciplines, STEM mindset.
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Many contributors agree that a competence is a complex construct, comprising knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, etc. But in the actual listing of the competences, they mix competences with their constituent elements.
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While there is consensus on the need to transition to competence-based curricula, views on the structure of curricula remain divergent between the maintenance of traditional subjects and learning areas interwoven with competences, and the more radical view that curricula should be restructured around competences.
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However, the world still lacks a global normative instrument that can be used as a global reference point for curricula transformation.
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Competence is herein defined as the developmental capacity to interactively mobilize and ethically use information, data, knowledge, skills, values, attitudes, and technology to engage effectively and act across diverse 21 st century contexts to attain individual, collective, and global good.
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A competence-based curriculum is grounded in the understanding of the demands of the learners’ context.
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In contrast to competence-based curricula, subject-based curricula are mostly grounded in an understanding of the subject matter content or the disciplines. They generally prepare learners to know the subject matters and to gain a deep understanding of advancements in the field. They don’t necessarily emphasize immediate use of acquired knowledge. The application is often deferred to real life situations that learners may confront later in life, forcing them to apply what they had learned. Because of insensitivity to context, it is often easy to have the same curriculum across different contexts, mostly borrowed from what are considered to be advanced contexts. The risk of irrelevance of the curriculum is also higher.
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A key consideration is how best to facilitate curriculum specialists to gain an in-depth understanding of the learners’ current and future contexts, and how to identify competences, which should be reflected in curricula.
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Competence-based curricula emphasize the ability to use what is learned. Acquisition is important but not sufficient.
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A key consideration is how to support educators to reach for the deeper impact of learning, and how to assess it.
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Especially at the post-primary level, a key consideration is how to enable educators to master their specific disciplines, and at the same time, to have adequate knowledge of other disciplines enough to make transdisciplinary linkages. Another challenge is how to design curricula in a way that makes linkages across subjects and learning areas.
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Competence-based curricula are structured around competences and not around subjects, and progression relates to the competence rather than subject matter difficulty.
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As the last word, competence-based curricula are not against subject matter content. Effective application of content across disciplines actually requires a high level of mastery of the content.
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seven macro competences that are considered relevant across contexts. These are: (i) Lifelong learning; (ii) Self-agency; (iii) Interactively using diverse tools and resources; (iv) Interacting with others; (v) Interacting with the world; (vi) Multi-literateness; and (vii) Trans-disciplinarity. Because of their universality, macro competences are quite stable. They allow for curricula stability across transformations and reforms. They are the bigger picture and the overarching "why" of a curriculum.
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Responsible use of tools and resources is also at the heart of responsible consumption and sustainable lifestyles, which contribute to sustainable development.
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It demands collaboration to resolve complex problems and create integrated solutions across contexts.
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Increasing complexity requires ever more sophisticated solutions that integrate knowledge from multiple disciplines and from domains of knowledge.
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This framework therefore balances the need for dynamic change in curricula with the equal need for stability.
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How Teachers Are Changing Grading Practices With an Eye on Equity | MindShift | KQED News - 0 views
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experiences students have in each teacher’s class can be vastly different
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I am so curious how the US faculty discussion of this article will go. This paragraph made me pause because I wonder if teachers actually care that much that their grading policies are different than another teacher's policies. Do they look at it from a student's perspective? Or from a learning coherence perspective?
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Grades, then, become a behavior management tool, a motivational tool, and sometimes an indication of mastery too.
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When Everyone Is Doing Design Thinking, Is It Still a Competitive Advantage? - 1 views
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Design thinking has come a long way since I wrote about it here in 2008. The most valuable company in the world places design at the center of everything it does. Designers are on the founding team of countless disruptive startups. Domains such as healthcare, education, and government have begun to prototype, iterate, and build more nimbly with a human-centered focus. Now that design thinking is everywhere, it’s tempting to simply declare it dead—to ordain something new in its place. It’s a methodology always in pursuit of unforeseen innovation, so reinventing itself might seem like the smart way forward. But in practice, design thinking is a set of tools that can grow old with us.
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And I’d argue that in order to create sustained competitive advantage, businesses must be not just practitioners, but masters of the art.
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Umpqua
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UK’s Design Policy Unit
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Company evangelists handed out Moleskines with tips on “how to be better-makers,” and an internal tool (built on IDEO’s OI Engine) helps teams master design thinking through open-platform challenges.
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Design thinking even shows up in the questions asked during reviews, when employees are evaluated on how successfully they’re building its principles into everyday work.
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Getting to that kind of mastery is our challenge for the next decade. How might organizations build deep design thinking skills and creative leadership at all levels?
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host of resources
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Students Design, Tinker, Create and Discover through Maker-based Learning | NextGen Lea... - 1 views
nextgenlearning.org/...r-through-maker-based-learning
Maker makered makereducation agency #MustRead badging
shared by Bo Adams on 23 Dec 15
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The nature of maker-based learning actively engages students, nurtures their agency, improves efficacy, and develops a creator or producer identity instead of a (passive) consumer one.
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In Thomas’ experience, too many people fail to reflect on WHY they’re choosing certain tools, and HOW those tools will be integrated into the curriculum and culture of school.
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Sometimes the impetus for making is a practical problem. Other times, play, curiosity and imagination are the motivators. Regardless, researchers from Harvard's Project Zero agree, "maker experiences help students learn to pursue their own passions and become self-directed learners, proactively seeking out knowledge and resources on their own" (Agency by Design, p. 3). HT Parker Thomas
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The Myth Of The Innovation Lab - 0 views
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happens when teams in innovation labs use lean startup tools without really understanding how they work. They take the canvases, sticky notes, whiteboards and bean bags, and they start thinking that they are all set for doing innovation. The teams then focus their attention on making cool products, without thinking about the business models that underlie those products.
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causes the most frustration among people who work inside innovation labs. These are hard working diligent people who understand how to apply lean startup methods and tools the right way. They often succeed in creating great products with good business models. However, when they are ready to take these products to scale they face resistance from their parent company.
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The lesson learned is to not let the creation of an innovation lab lull you to sleep. You are not in a safe space. The parent company does not love you as much as you think it does. There is still a lot of work to do to get buy-in and support from leaders and key stakeholders.
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opening of the innovation lab itself often represents innovation theater - played out at the leadership level within the company
Prototyping with Power Tools - Track Changes - 0 views
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Equipping Young Leaders to Take on the 32 Most Important Issues of Our Time - Vander Ar... - 0 views
blogs.edweek.org/...ortant_issues_of_our_time.html
PBL Challenge_Based_Learning curriculum school model School Change #MustRead
shared by Bo Adams on 22 Aug 17
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If we take citizenship preparation seriously, we should be encouraging young people to engage with the world’s most important issues by helping them frame projects around these goals. Here are six reasons:
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Extended and integrated challenges are the best way to promote deeper learning and develop readiness for the automation economy. The goals include interesting and timely causes that many young people will find motivating. Making a contribution toward a goal they care about may be the best way to develop student agency. Goal focused projects get kids into the community and connected with local resources (see #PlaceBasedEd) It’s also a chance to shift the paradigm from “prepare for a career 10 years from now” to “make a difference right here, right now.” Taking on real challenges will promote creative and effective uses of technology from collaboration to production.
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Integrate projects into existing courses. The Global Goals site has useful project resources for 16 of these goals. Plan an integrated unit between two courses. Most of the goals combine science, sociology, research, problem-solving and writing. Capstone projects in the last two years of high school are a good place to start. Each academy at Reynoldsburg High School in Ohio and Chavez Schools in Washington, D.C., engage in a capstone project. Students at Singapore American School are required to conduct a capstone project.
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To engage millions of students in local projects connected to global goals, it would be helpful to have: More content associated with each goal (GlobalGoals.org is a start); Templates for local projects; A microcredential system that could help pack projects full of valuable learning (i.e, science, math, communication and collaboration); Access to data sources, data tools and project tools (mentors would be really helpful); and A project gallery for completed contributions.
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'Maker' movement inspires hands-on learning | The Seattle Times - 0 views
www.seattletimes.com/...ent-inspires-hands-on-learning
maker Maker Movement tinkering pedagogy learning constructionism article #LiquidNetworkSpill #mvifishares School Change
shared by Jim Tiffin Jr on 19 Aug 16
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Tinkering is being promoted on college campuses from MIT to Santa Clara University, as well as in high schools and elementary schools.
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The blending of technology and craft in tools like 3-D printers and laser cutters has made it possible for ordinary people to make extraordinary things. And many ordinary people, living as they do, more and more in their heads and online, are yearning to do something with their hands.
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Constructionist Approach
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“You’re exploring creativity, you’re exploring design thinking, you’re developing a sense of persistence,” she says. Building something new requires planning, trying and, yes, failing, and then trying again. “These are incredibly important mind-set for today’s world,” she says.
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talks excitedly about students who have designed child prostheses. “That’s what they’re going to remember their entire life,” she says. “They aren’t going to remember sitting in an electronics lecture.”
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Alexandra Garey, who graduated from Rutgers last year, credits tinkering with changing the course of her studies, and life: “I went from somebody who was majoring in Italian and European studies to someone who was designing and prototyping products and realizing any product that came into my head.”
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“U.S. schools are very good at finding the brain-smart people,” he says. “They are also very good at finding the best athletes.” But they are not so good at finding and nurturing people who, he said, describing himself, think with their fingers.
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A fabulous article full of stories about the impact of maker-centered learning experiences, and the growing number of places that provide them - elementary schools, high school, colleges, public. Perhaps most gratifying is the use of distinctly maker-centered AND educational terminology in the same article. A great sign of things to come!
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Educational Leadership:Science in the Spotlight:How Do You Change School Culture? - 0 views
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Staff members are not seduced by a leader's claim of “collaborative culture” when every meeting is a series of lectures, announcements, and warnings.
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Mastering the Fine Art of Managing People | Inc.com - 0 views
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Our culture is also an amazing recruitment tool. When we share it with people online, it's like branding from the inside out.
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The 100-hour knack - The Whiteboard - 0 views
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What obstacles hold us back from reaching the 100-hours. What part does interest play? How (should we?) get beyond our own interest for the sake of skill aquisition?
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What obstacles hold us back from reaching the 100-hours. What part does interest play? How (should we?) get beyond our own interest for the sake of skill aquisition?
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So, how do we push ourselves through this “pre-knack” period when the short-term calculus doesn’t seem to add up?
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That means our job is not only to teach our students the skills and tools for their practice, but also to inspire and set into motion a practice that gets them past that tipping point, where the ability becomes part of them and they couldn’t imagine not putting it to use.
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The Marriage of Formal & Informal Learning - 1 views
www.cognitiveadvisors.com/...ge-of-formal-informal-learning
assessment Badges microcredentialing LRS #MustRead Learning learning analytics dashboards
shared by Bo Adams on 01 Aug 15
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Technological tools and leadership support alone will not be enough to make the marriage of informal and formal learning work. The shared values, beliefs, mental models, habits, and behaviors of the workforce in an organization – its culture is key.
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The two key advantages of informal learning are that it happens at the point of need and what is learned is usually applied right away.
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In the cooperative model, the learning and development group can shift from being the producer of content to being the guide, initiator, facilitator, and coach.
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Based on alignment with agreed upon organizational and learning goals, the learner takes responsibility for his or her own learning – with the support and guidance of the organization.
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People who are not used to working in a learning organization culture, where cooperative learning within communities of practice is the norm, need the knowhow and a new mindset regarding learning to cooperatively in the workplace.
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The positive is that this incidental learning doesn’t take people away from the work. The disadvantage is that when they are so caught up in doing, people often miss an important ingredient for learning: reflection.
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David Kolb, wrote about a model of experiential learning consisting of the following cycle: action, observation, reflection, concept formation, and back to action.
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Morgan McCall and George Hollenbeck asked managers to stop once a week and answer just two simple questions, “What did you do last week?” and “What did you learn from it?” They found that this simple process of reflection enabled the managers learn from their experiences and to change the way they managed.
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integration of formal and informal learning can create a virtuous cycle that leads not only to increased productivity but to the real innovation that is necessary for long term success in a dynamic marketplace.