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Interesting Infographic on the future of ed tech.  

"Learning Futures was a programme designed to get young people engaged actively and positively with their learning, achieving better outcomes and retaining a commitment to learning beyond school. We are now looking for people interested in becoming an 'Engaging School'."

Many great links to resources, tools, and related documents.

A recent study in the US found that: * 98 percent of students feel bored at school at least some of the time; * Two-thirds of students feel bored every day; * A quarter of students feel unchallenged by lessons

"The biggest problem in American secondary schools may be boredom. What American youth need more then anything is opportunity to discover their passions and unleash them into the world. The Future Project, a NYC-based startup, is addressing this challenge by mobilizing an army-the Future Corps-to help American high school students find and begin working toward their dream."

Could be the next step for ELOs?! Starting to think about how I could present a proposal to collaborate with Castleton and/or Middlebury on developing similar project.

"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."

1. Set Important Goals 2. Create Powerful Learning Experiences. 3. Manage Productive Learning Environments.  4. Know Students. 5. Promote Growth.  6. Leverage Teacher Talent. 7. Build Community.

"People who accomplished great things, [Duckworth] noticed, often combined a passion for a single mission with an unswerving dedication to achieve that mission, whatever the obstacles and however long it might take."

"Here are five of the key leadership lessons that you can take away from Captain Kirk as you pilot your own organization into unknown futures."

Kobayashi Maru? I was never very good with languages in school. Does that translate to No Child Left Behind?

In our educational leadership analogy, yes! However, while being the ultimate no-win scenario, I think NCLB has still encouraged leaders to innovate and improve learning in their schools by holding them accountable and providing funding for improvement.

Interesting and short bit of writing that hits on my personal beliefs about where the majority of transformational focus should be...simply supporting good teaching.

"Education reform needs a face lift -- one that includes higher standards for entry into the profession and mentor teachers assisting those needing to improve."

Agree about the necessity to pursue improved educational outcomes, yet as with other professions (i.e. doctors & lawyers) 50% finish in the lower half of their class. As with all things educational funding is the sacred cow and asking for higher standards of entry, while a worthy goal, would ultimately fall on the sword of budgets.

Dr. Tony Wagner, co-director of Harvard's Change Leadership Group has identified what he calls a "global achievement gap," which is the leap between what even our best schools are teaching, and the must-have skills of the future:Critical thinking and problem-solvingCollaboration across networks and leading by influenceAgility and adaptabilityInitiative and entrepreneurialismEffective oral and written communicationAccessing and analyzing informationCuriosity and imagination

Shared this a couple of months ago...worth another look.

And we're thrilled to have Tony Wagner as the keynote for the Rowland Foundation's 2nd Annual Conference on School Transformation! You can preview The Global Achievement Gap here: http://books.google.com/books?ei=AWNyT-eMBOXe0gG5tsW9AQ&id=_4zBmOBP9uwC&dq=tony+wagner&q=personalization#v=onepage&q&f=false

"When you issue an open invitation and gather together a large group of self-nominated passionate stakeholders from a broad cross-section across a system or organization and ask them to vision your shared ideal future, anything can happen."

"Technology and social media specifically have provided tools that enable educators to connect, communicate collaborate and create. That ability makes a difference in individuals. It enables reflection and relevance. It is also creating two groups of educators, the connected, and the unconnected. The discussions of the connected seem to be focused on the future and moving toward it. The discussions of the unconnected seem to be steeped in the past with little or very slow-moving forward movement."

There are some great presenters confirmed.

improving our professional development - as Lauren and Laura's project involves - and creating more student-centric learning opportunities would move educators from behind the desk and students away from test preparation packets

A see a future Rowland fellow!

Look on pages 25-26 for a brief description of a Danish folk high school course "Take the Future." In it, Mette Hojland describes how her class looks at a 'spiritual, individual, and global perspective'; she also talks about a rubric that she has for developing the sense of self-and it's not reductive!

"By the end of this year, Android will be in more devices than the next four competitors combined (Windows, iOS, Mac OS, and BlackBerry). Before the end of this decade, Android will be in nearly as many devices as all other operating systems combined."

Makes me wonder about what #EdTech curriculum should look like. Are we teaching skillsets which have the diversity necessary to meet our students' future needs? How much of our teaching focuses on mobile applications? How is the mobile experience planned into what/how we teach...of using technology that is not based upon using it while sitting on our backsides.

"If examinations challenge learners to solve problems the way they are solved in real life today, the educational system will change for ever. It is a small policy change that is required. Allow the use of the internet and collaboration during an examination. If we did that to exams, the curriculum would have to be different. We would not need to emphasise facts or figures or dates. The curriculum would have to become questions that have strange and interesting answers. "Where did language come from?", "Why were the pyramids built?", "Is life on Earth sustainable?", "What is the purpose of theatre?" Questions that engage learners in a world of unknowns. Questions that will occupy their minds through their waking hours and sometimes their dreams. Teaching in an environment where the internet and discussion are allowed in exams would be different. The ability to find things out quickly and accurately would become the predominant skill. The ability to discriminate between alternatives, then put facts together to solve problems would be critical. AThat's a skill that future employers would admire immensely."

"We have a romantic attachment to skills from the past which are no longer relevant on a curriculum for today's children."

If you have not seen doctopus and Google docs used in conjunction with assessments you ought to check it out! It is so phenomenal that I cannot express how super fantastic a tool it will be for you.

Paraphrasing here..."Society & Learning moving from Hierarchical models to Newtork Relationships as a the central organizing principle." ~ R. Elmore

Education policy leaders and professors, contributors to the recently published The Futures of School Reform, talked about reform of the education model in American schools. They discussed the teacher's role in the classroom, tenure, and collective bargaining and responded to questions from members of the audience.

Just a ton of topics covered in this two hour video. But, some great issues raised and ideas discussed.