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Nine tenets of passion-based learning

It's a technology infused quest designed to uncover your passions and illuminate ways to activate the pathways to fulfilling those passions using game mechanics and strategy.

Google's "20% Time", inspired by Sergey Brin's and Larry Page's Montessori School experience, is a philosophy and policy that every Google employee spend 20% of their time (the equivalent of a full work day each week) working on ideas and projects that interest that employee. They are encouraged to explore anything other than their normal day-to-day job. As a result 50% of all Google's products by 2009 originated from the 20% free time, including Gmail. Real break-through happens when we are free from others' expectations and driven by individual passion.

"In the course of the next 10 years, a new generation-Generation C-will emerge. Born after 1990, these "digital natives," just now beginning to attend university and enter the work- force, will transform the world as we know it. Their interests will help drive massive change in how people around the world socialize, work, and live their passions-and in the information and communication technologies they use to do so."

"In the course of the next 10 years, a new generation-Generation C-will emerge. Born after 1990, these "digital natives," just now beginning to attend university and enter the work- force, will transform the world as we know it. Their interests will help drive massive change in how people around the world socialize, work, and live their passions-and in the information and communication technologies they use to do so."

Some ideas around why we created @motmedu Looking for a conference with a difference? What story do you have to tell? The #motm13 Unconference is built around stories for the purpose of making strong connections with other passionate educators who are integrating ICT with pedagogy.

"Another Teachmeet has come and gone.  The tweets from the day tell the story so well.  Thanks to all concerned for a great start to 2013. Every Teachmeet I have attended has been different. Different because of the venues, the presentations, the time of the day, the day of the week, the people who attend. This is one of the reasons I like them. Teachers sharing passion, interest, skills, questions and ideas."

For students engaging in creative personalised learning projects such as a 'Genius Hour' or 'Personal Passion project it can often be difficult for them to uncover the right project. Students have become so reliant upon their teachers to pose them problems that when they are given the option to explore one of their own design they don't know where to start. This is indeed a significant challenge as we know that our students will enter a workforce and world of learning beyond school where they must be active problem finders. How then might we provide the support they require without removing the opportunity for truly personalised exploration.  

Looking for a conference with a difference? What story do you have to tell? The #motm12 Unconference is built around stories for the purpose of making strong connections with other passionate educators who are integrating ICT with pedagogy. 

"Spongelab Interactive is a group of scientists, teachers, animators, artists, and programmers passionate about science education. We believe that cutting-edge technology and stunning interactive media should be available to everyone, regardless of fiscal constraints. Most of the content on our site is free. Like what you see? It's yours. To use anything identified as premium (usually full games, interactives or case studies) you can: Redeem the credits you have earned while using our site - each piece of premium content is marked with a "P" and can be redeemed when you select it from the search results page Buy a bank of credits through our PayPal ordering system - In the My Profile area, order blocks of credits in the Buy Credits section. Purchase a Site License - Get access to all content, unlimited student seats, all for $600 CAD, contact us and we do the rest. "

Article by Joyce Valenza. "... curation tools present an exciting new genre of search tool--strategies for scanning the real-time environment, as well as opportunities for evaluating quality and relevance in emerging information landscapes.The best of these efforts model for our learners a new type of citizenship--a desire on the part of experts, specialists, and individuals who feel passionate about a topic, to share their knowledge and updates by forming knowledge-sharing communities."

@tomwhitby "Dell Computer has sponsored four education Think Tanks over the last year, or so, and I have been fortunate to participate in three of them...Each of the groups is given four to six general topics of concern in education to discuss for about forty-five minutes to an hour. Since the members are all invited guests, they are usually intelligent, passionate, and well-versed in aspects of education specific to their profession....Progress is being stymied by the 6 "P's". By this I am not referring to the military expression "Proper Planning Prevents P*ss Poor Performance". I am talking about Poverty, Profit, Politics, Parents, Professional development, and Priorities preventing progress in Public Education."

As the topic for this week's OZ/NZ Flashmeeting was podcasting, I invited Mark Pentleton

We are passionate about two things: the power of education, and the potential of every child to learn, regardless of his or her circumstances. Everything we do flows from those core values.

School of Everything connects people who want to learn with passionate teachers in their local area. The award-wining site is free to join for both people who want to learn and people who want to teach.

"What Makes a Great Teacher? Image credit: Veronika Lukasova Also in our Special Report: National: "How America Can Rise Again" Is the nation in terminal decline? Not necessarily. But securing the future will require fixing a system that has become a joke. Video: "One Nation, On Edge" James Fallows talks to Atlantic editor James Bennet about a uniquely American tradition-cycles of despair followed by triumphant rebirths. Interactive Graphic: "The State of the Union Is ..." ... thrifty, overextended, admired, twitchy, filthy, and clean: the nation in numbers. By Rachael Brown Chart: "The Happiness Index" Times were tough in 2009. But according to a cool Facebook app, people were happier. By Justin Miller On August 25, 2008, two little boys walked into public elementary schools in Southeast Washington, D.C. Both boys were African American fifth-graders. The previous spring, both had tested below grade level in math. One walked into Kimball Elementary School and climbed the stairs to Mr. William Taylor's math classroom, a tidy, powder-blue space in which neither the clocks nor most of the electrical outlets worked. The other walked into a very similar classroom a mile away at Plummer Elementary School. In both schools, more than 80 percent of the children received free or reduced-price lunches. At night, all the children went home to the same urban ecosystem, a zip code in which almost a quarter of the families lived below the poverty line and a police district in which somebody was murdered every week or so. Video: Four teachers in Four different classrooms demonstrate methods that work (Courtesy of Teach for America's video archive, available in February at teachingasleadership.org) At the end of the school year, both little boys took the same standardized test given at all D.C. public schools-not a perfect test of their learning, to be sure, but a relatively objective one (and, it's worth noting, not a very hard one). After a year in Mr. Taylo

"interactive interview with Sir Ken Robinson, author of The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything."

"We are literally pushed into educational systems designed to anticipate our needs over twelve or more years of schooling and our key needs for skills over the rest of our lives. As we successfully complete this push program, we graduate into firms and other institutions that are organized around push approaches to resource mobilization. Detailed demand forecasts, operational plans, and operational process manuals carefully script the actions and specify the resources required to meet anticipated demand."

Reformers have largely worked within, rather than on, the system of education. Working within the system has resulted in status-quo preservation, even when reformists felt they were being radical. Illich failed to account for how educational institutions are integrated into society. Freire spoke with a humanity and hope that was largely overlooked by a comfortable developed world incapable of seeing the structure and impact of its system. To create and nurture change, a message must not only be true for an era, but it must also resonate with the needs, passions, interests, realities, and hopes of the audience to whom the message is directed.

"Genius Hour in the classroom is an approach to learning built around student curiosity, self-directed learning, and passion-based work. In traditional learning, teachers map out academic standards, and plan units and lessons based around those standards. In Genius Hour, students are in control, choosing what they study, how they study it, and what they do, produce, or create as a result. As a learning model, it promotes inquiry, research, creativity, and self-directed learning."