These two powerful questions framed a recent webinar presented by Professor David Perkins of Harvard Graduate School of Education's Project Zero. Answering these questions and helping teachers find meaningful and contextually relevant answers to these questions has been a focus of Perkins' work, especially in recent times. His book "Future Wise: Educating Our Children for a Changing World" introduced us to the notion of lifeworthy learning or that which is "likely to matter in the lives our learners are likely to live". This is a powerful notion and one that has the potential to change not only what we teach but also how we go about teaching what we do.
In the ebb and flow of educational theories and approaches to learning one can see many commonalities to the world of fashion. A good idea emerges, becomes mainstream, is appropriated by a wide number of educators who blend the essential elements into their methodology and over time the once good idea becomes an oversimplified or slightly misunderstood model of what it once was.
"* Maps: Search for buildings / places on campus, see bus routes and live locations, use GPS to find where you are on the 8,180 acre campus
* Directory: Search for students, faculty, and staff in the Stanford directory, tap to call or email, add them as contacts on your phone
* Courses: Search for classes, find out where and when they're offered, tap to call or email the professor, enroll during open enrollment, view your courses and grades
* Athletics: Get news, scores, and schedules for every Stanford varsity sport
* Images: Get photo images of Stanford University, send to a friend, save as wallpaper
* Events: Get information about things happening on campus
* Videos: Check out Stanford content on YouTube (UTV)
* News: Extra! Extra! Read all about it! News from a variety of Stanford news sources - Stanford News, the Daily, Graduate School of Business, Medicine, athletics, and more!
* Stanford on iTunes U: Access thousands of Stanford audio and video recordings- including courses, faculty lectures and campus performances - in iTunes U
* Library: Search the prodigious content of Stanford libraries in a variety of ways, show content availability and location, call number, view item in SearchWorks
* Emergency: Call to report emergency or non-emergency, call to obtain information from the Stanford Emergency Information Hotline
* 5-SURE: Call to get a safe ride home"
The New Learning Institute interviews "leading thinkers and researchers who are examining the role that digital media plays in young people's lives. Mimi Ito, John Seely Brown, Henry Jenkins, Diana Rhoten, James Gee, Nichole Pinkard, and Katie Salen all see digital media - social networks, online games and media production - as the transformational tools of the 21st century."
Schools are made of people. Schools are all about people. Schools are made from the connections between people. Schools exist to serve people and make the lives of all people better.
Blueback is a beautiful metaphor for life and particularly of the life we live in schools. When looked at close up, with an eye on the details, the experience of school is one of passing and recurring cycles. When looked at from a distance, with an eye on the whole, there are elements of constancy, the throughlines which bring meaning to our experience and which have as their consequence the residuals of education.
Identifying what our children need to learn is one of the most important processes within education. For the teacher this is the question they engage with as they design their teaching and learning units. By no means is this an easy task and the teacher must balance multiple factors to ensure that the programmes they design provide their students with the learning they require. Even the most effective sequence of lessons is of little value if what it sets out to teach has little importance in the lives our learners are likely to lead.
How might we prepare our students for an unknown future?
If we accept that we are living in times of rapid change and that the world our children will inhabit is likely to be very different from the world of today, or perhaps more importantly, different from the work our current education system was designed to serve, what should we do to ensure our children are able to thrive?
We live in a time of chaos, complexity and contradiction. (Sardar, 2010 [1]) Where rapid changes and transformations through technology, politics, globalisation and the climate, conspire against normality (Friedman, 2016 [2]) These times demand a fresh approach to education, one that provides learners with the thinking dispositions they need to turn challenges into opportunities, to connect their learning to their passions and emerge from their years of formal education as self-navigating life-long learners.
Praise and Feedback occupy significant spaces in the lives of our learners. It should not be surprising then that the language we use to communicate praise and feedback can enhance or hinder our efforts.
The bushfire crisis that is currently impacting Australia is beyond devastating. The scale of these fires defies the imagination. For so long now we have lived with skies laden with smoke as a constant and inescapable reminder that this is not an ordinary summer. This is weather and drought at its most extreme. Our only salvation will be rain but this is not the season for that and the long term forecasts are not promising. Our young people, in particular, will be affected and will need special care in the weeks and months to come. What might this mean for schools and for student agency?