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"Re-Engineering Information Technology: Design Considerations for Competency Education by Liz Glowa, February 2013 Re-Engineering Information Technology: Design Considerations for Competency Education analyzes and examines components and elements of effective competency-based information systems. Based on interviews and research, the ideas in Re-Engineering Information Technology build upon the lessons learned in analyzing information systems developed by competency education innovators, best practices of systemic approaches to information management, and emerging opportunities. The paper is designed for readers to find those issues that are of most interest to them in their role and be used to catalyze strategies, support new competency-based instructional models, and inform decision making for continuous improvement. You can find more resources on the Competency-Based Pathways Wiki."

Subtitled "Designing for the Future of Learning."  About school design, includes Noble High School (ME) plans and photos.

Great TEDtalk on use of design thinking in a rural North Carolina school, with students at the creative center.

According to TLE team member Owen Milne, this site is "the go-to for understanding the ongoing relationship between pedagogy-space-technology as it relates to designing and managing active learning environments."

Riverdale is applying "design thinking" to its teaching and learning environments... Check out the links to Ideo and to Design Thinking for Educators. Note: The October conference is being moved to mid-winter, to align with teachers' needs.

Kids learn from teachers, peers, and the physical environment.  Video about flexible, connected, adaptive spaces and furnishings designed with adolescents' physicality and 21st century learning in mind.

Monument Mountain school Independent Project alternative to classrooms, student directed learning

""When adults dine, we don't just think about the food," explained Orla O'Keeffe, the executive director of policy and operations. "The food is important, but so is what's going on around it: the ambience, the service, the company. Why would we assume kids are any different?""

The School Construction News profile on the Noble High School project.

"The authors highlight the dynamics in which "Teacher leadership provided considerable momentum in the institutionalization of competency education practices.""

Student friendly learning spaces for the way kids really learn.  Comfort helps learning.  Discomfort hurts learning.

"We are moving away from the model in which learning is organized around stable, usually hierarchical institutions (schools, colleges, universities) that, for better and worse, have served as the main gateways to education and social mobility. Replacing that model is a new system in which learning is best conceived of as a flow, where learning resources are not scarce but widely available, opportunities for learning are abundant, and learners increasingly have the ability to autonomously dip into and out of continuous learning flows." Hat tip to Jason Finley:  ttps://groups.diigo.com/group/vermont-education/content/user/jdfinley 

Student involvement in school improvement, even strategic planning, is not a high school only proposition. Younger kids can participate as well.

"Yet the reaction from most "reformers," especially those with the most money, is to pretty much stay the course, to treat education as something that schools define, deliver, assess and confirm. Technology allows us to do that "better" than we have in the past, in some conversations "better" than teachers can. It allows us to "achieve" at higher levels, to compete more effectively with the world, and to stoke the push to make every child "college ready." This is not "beginner's mind"-type thinking." The Storified link is particularly worth checking out.

Form followed function at school in Minneapolis based on students doing real work, feeling welcome in learning environments.

I thought this was interesting not so much because I agree with it but because the combination of images and narration triggered critical questions for me. I wonder if it would for other educators as well, perhaps as a conversation starter to begin grappling with our visions for the future.