Absolutely. When we think about writing at the National Writing Project, we think about multimodal composition: words, audio, video, graphic texts, etc. That said, no one is abandoning words. We’re just acknowledging that today your ability to create and publish, say, a video affords opportunities for expression that go beyond just words.
Yes, absolutely. Whether in email, texts, or posting status updates, most people in the world are probably writing and publishing more words, images, video and audio now than ever before. Facebook is one of the biggest publishing platforms in the world. It’s word dependent, but it also includes audio and video—and creating audio and video are deeply compositional. The question is how can we take advantage of the fact that so many people are now creating and circulating content to improve teaching and learning.
Going public and writing for an audience is something we always cared about. Maybe the real shift is that now it’s easier and more expansive.
There’s a very narrow band of writing that is assessed in schools, and a lot is at stake on that narrow field. So the question is how do we balance helping young people do well in assessment contexts with the other stuff that might actually take them fuarther in the world?
You mentioned earlier about teachers needing to have digital lives—why is that important to connected learning?
We don’t want to just say to educators, “You do these fives steps and you’ll have active, enquiring learners.” That’s forgetting that the teacher is also a learner. We think if we have active, enquiring, connected, engaged adults, they’ll transfer that culture or learning and inquiry to young people.
How do we link what we’re learning about the creative opportunities in new digital environments to how people engage and learn in their communities and in society at large?
Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards
In teaching, as in life, maximizing meaning from experiences requires reflection.
Every school's goal should be to habituate reflection throughout the organization—individually and collectively, with teachers, students, and the school community
the school needs to create an atmosphere for reflection
a time and a place for looking backward and inward, not forward and outward
We are going to take a break from what we have been doing, stand back, and ask ourselves, What have we learned from doing our work today?
the tradition in education is to simply discard what has happened and move on to new topics. This episodic approach is reflected in both classroom instruction and assessment and in change efforts as schools frantically strive to stay abreast of an array of educational improvements and mandates. Knowledgeable, vigilant, and reflective organizations, however, view school change from a broader perspective—as a process of revealing and emancipating
In reflective schools, there is no such thing as failure—only the production of personal insights from one's experiences.
which dispositions were you most aware of in your own learning
Meaningful engagement with the UWCSEA Profile here.
Collecting work provides documentation for comparing students' levels of knowledge and performance at the beginning, middle, and end of a project.
Providing sentence stems might stimulate more thoughtful reflections during portfolio conferences (where reflection can be modeled) or as an option for those who need a "jump start" for reflections:
I selected this piece of writing because. . . .
What really surprised me about this writing was. . . .
When I look at my other journal entries, I see that this piece is different because. . . .
What makes this piece of writing strong is my use of . . . . Here is one example from my writing to show you what I mean. . . .
among the eight most important qualities of Google’s top employees, STEM expertise comes in dead last. The seven top characteristics of success at Google are all soft skills: being a good coach; communicating and listening well; possessing insights into others (including others different values and points of view); having empathy toward and being supportive of one’s colleagues; being a good critical thinker and problem solver; and being able to make connections across complex ideas
And topping the list: emotional safety. No bullying. To succeed, each and every team member must feel confident speaking up and making mistakes. They must know they are being heard
STEM skills are vital to the world we live in today, but technology alone, as Steve Jobs famously insisted, is not enough. We desperately need the expertise of those who are educated to the human, cultural, and social as well as the computational
among the eight most important qualities of Google’s top employees, STEM expertise comes in dead last. The seven top characteristics of success at Google are all soft skills: being a good coach; communicating and listening well; possessing insights into others (including others different values and points of view); having empathy toward and being supportive of one’s colleagues; being a good critical thinker and problem solver; and being able to make connections across complex ideas
And topping the list: emotional safety. No bullying. To succeed, each and every team member must feel confident speaking up and making mistakes. They must know they are being heard
STEM skills are vital to the world we live in today, but technology alone, as Steve Jobs famously insisted, is not enough. We desperately need the expertise of those who are educated to the human, cultural, and social as well as the computational