innovation3

Looking to improve my authority. I’ve written 106 posts (this is 107). And there are a total of 103 comments. Seems to me my ranking on somebody’s list will drop in proportion to the PCR (posts/comments ratio). So I’m looking for lots of one word comments to boost my authority. Comments like Funny! or Awesome! maybe Humorous! Of course, if you want to write different words or phrases or more, go for it. To encourage engagement, I thought I’d present something light and funny. So here goes…  Don’t forget to comment.

Thanks to Dilbert.com for the comic.

Bill Haley & his Comets – Rock this Joint

Students come to the classroom with preconceptions about how the world works. If their initial understanding is not engaged, they may fail to grasp the new concepts and information that are taught, or they may learn them for purposes of a test but revert to their preconceptions outside the classroom. How People Learn, Key Findings

Image Sources:

1. www.flickr.com/photos/97831130@N00/2179047732
2. www.flickr.com/photos/49968232@N00/70584289
3. www.flickr.com/photos/49968232@N00/60865004

In a recent post, Investing in the Status Quo, Darren Draper on his blog, Drape’s Takes, quoted Arnie Duncan, Secretary of Education, saying,

If all we do is invest in the status quo, then we’ve missed this once-in-a-lifetime historic opportunity to give our children the education they desperately need and deserve.

It seems to me that for adults, the psychological grip of the status quo is usually stronger than their desire to learn. But I am convinced that when their desire to learn is ignited, anything is possible. If that’s the fact then the question is obvious.

Who will ignite the desire to learn in the adults today so they will ignite the desire to learn in our children tomorrow?

I wrote about investing in our children in an October 2007 a post, “Investing Our Wisdom in Their Potential.”  In the post I wrote about efforts in Massachusetts to change the educational status quo. Unfortunately the status quo still reigns supreme despite a governor, a legislature and a professional coalition of educators supportive of the principles to challenge the status quo discussed in the post.

We have made a substantial investment in the status quo. I think about the children we have failed and will continue to fail until we embrace change and adopt the best of what we know about informed practice.

Have the times have changed enough for the post I wrote to have relevance? I have faith in the Obama administration. Can Arnie Duncan’s can spur the nation’s political leaders and all educators to do the right thing?  Will we finally invest the wisdom of our profession in the potential of all children?

For a long time the educational knowledge base has shown us the ways to get it right for kids, but as a society, we have chosen to endorse policies and a status quo that fail our children each year. We are not engaging, challenging and inspiring our children to learn as we should be. The evidence is all around us. We need to acknowledge that and invest our professional wisdom in the potential of children!

Now is the time to admit that for every child every year is a once-in-a-lifetime historic opportunity.

Now is the time to admit that for every child and every community, for our nation and our planet every year we invest in the status quo is an historic lost opportunity.

Now is the right time to start the change. Now is the time to believe we can.

After I wrote this post today, I learned that President Obama spoke to the National Academy of Sciences this morning. After I listened to his speech, I realized this post was a prelude to the post I just wrote regarding the President’s comments about STEM eucation. Hence, ‘We’re Going to the Moon’: Part 1 and Part 2.

It has taken ten years of advocacy by colleagues throughout Massachusetts to achieve this reform package. I am proud of the role MASCD has played in shaping the agenda. Working together with hundreds of educators, business leaders, parents and politicians, we have come to a new day for children. The power to transform is with us; let us use it wisely. “It’s about all the kids!”

(Note: Pay particular attention to Goal 4: Innovation and Systemic Reform to Create a 21st Century Public Education System) Technical Help Request: Please comment on how to anchor this to the goal 4 section below if you know how. Thanks

Below is a communication I received from a colleague of mine in Massachusetts. I am the President of the Massachusetts Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (MASCD) and Mary Forte Hayes is the Executive Director. Yesterday Mary was at the Kennedy Library when Governor Deval Patrick announced the next generation of education reform. The last major educational reform in Massachusetts was in 1993.

Dear Colleagues,

It was an exciting day today (June 25, 2008) at the Kennedy Library, a perfect setting for the launch of a visionary plan for education in the Commonwealth. I was there, as were many education and policy leaders and friends of MASCD. The Governor unveiled his vision for education, which is a call to completely redesign the system as we know it. He kept repeating “Today is a new day,” with good effect, and with the backdrop of the wall of windows onto the blue sky and water of Boston harbor framing the skyline. The Governor stressed many times, as did Secretary of Education-designate Paul Reville, that “all children” means ALL. Paul Reville recapped details of the 10 year plan that have been shared over the past 2 days. There are some very bold actions included. They are consistent with our priorities and well-aligned with the Whole Child compact. See summary below, which I have taken from the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education (MBAE). Thanks to MBAE for the timely summary.

Mary Forte Hayes

Ready for 21st Century Success

The New Promise of Public Education

Acknowledging that our schools “must ensure that high school graduates know and are capable of much more than ever before”, this report calls for transforming public schools over the next decade to meet the needs of current and future realities rather than perpetuate past practices that did not prepare all students for the demands of higher education and a technologically driven economy. With an unequivocal commitment to eliminating disadvantages based on socio-economic status, the proposed reform strategy focuses on four challenges:

International competition and an outdated curriculum

- Massachusetts must shift its focus from a 20th century approach to teaching to a modern curriculum that includes 21st century themes such as global and cultural competency, financial literacy, and other applied skills as well as strengthening content ranging from math, science, and world languages to social sciences and the arts.

A stubborn achievement gap – This can only be closed by acknowledging that children have different needs based on the advantages and obstacles they encounter outside of school. Public education must be coordinated with other social and health services so all children can meet high standards.

An education workforce crisis - Student achievement depends on teacher quality. The teaching profession has to be promoted as the critical and valuable vocation that it is in order to attract and retain outstanding candidates. The system for preparing, supporting and evaluating teachers must be comprehensively re-designed.

A century-old system - The system of standards and accountability instituted in 1993 has brought us far, but reaching the goal of bringing all students to proficiency requires a new, individualized approach. In an economy where the same skills are needed for college and for jobs at family-sustaining wages, it will take new, differentiated approaches to give all students what they need to succeed.

Read the Full Report

Four Goals of Action Agenda

Putting Children’s Learning Needs First

For each goal, the Patrick Administration has identified what will be achieved in the short (by 2011), mid (by 2015), and long(by 2020) terms to reach the stated vision. Details can be found at: http://www.mass.gov/governor/education

Goal 1: Raising Student Achievement

Key short term goals include increased support for early childhood education; an inter-agency Child and Youth Readiness cabinet; a pilot drop out prevention and intervention program for urban districts; Student Support Coordinators to link services for students in low-income schools; and a statewide data system that will provide a “Readiness Passport” to document all education and social service experiences received by every child.

Goal 2: Teachers and Education Leaders – Supported and Effective Educators

By 2011, establish differentiated pay for high-need locations and disciplines; pilot intensive induction and mentoring for new teachers; establish Readiness Science and Math Teaching Fellowship to increase supply of teachers in these fields; accelerate development of “real time” assessment data to support instruction; strengthen MCAS requirement with complementary measures of student growth and 21st century skills; build state capacity to attract and retain a highly competent, culturally diverse teaching force. Mid- and long-term actions would strengthen teacher preparation in several different ways and provide support for continued improvement at all education levels.

Goal 3: College, Career and Life Success

In addition to integrating 21st century skills into all aspects of public education; needs based financial aid would be increased; offer community college opportunities to early childhood educators and income-eligible parents; provide accelerated graduation and early college opportunities; allow in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants; build a school-to-college web portal; offer college readiness assessments to high school juniors; and guarantee transfer credit among public colleges and universities. In the longer term, additional initiatives to increase work and college readiness will be implemented, in some cases focused on students with specific needs.

Goal 4: Innovation and Systemic Reform to Create a 21st Century Public Education System

The Readiness School concept which has received much press attention is part of this goal, which would also establish a Readiness Finance Commission to recommend cost savings and efficiencies, potential sources of revenue, and options for a complete overhaul of the state’s education finance system. Other key features of this goal are expanding learning time both during out-of-school time and the summer; establishing a public-private Commonwealth Education Innovation Fund to foster innovation; expand student access to online learning; and provide other incentives and programs to use technology to improve teaching and learning.

Links to Subcommittee Reports and Video of Announcements
Above summary provided by MBAE, email of 6-25-08.

Clarence Fisher at Remote Access posted some interesting data for his students blogging and commenting habits. One question I have: Is their a correlation between attainment of 21st Century Literacies and your data?

In other words: Do students who evidence attainment of 21 Century Literacies blog and comment more, and students who blog and comment less do not evidence attainment of 21st Century Literacies. I suspect that if the potential of tapping the richness of collective intelligence to help us invent a more creative, collaborative, contributory future is dependent on students developing 21st Century Literacies, then I’d conclude that understanding and monitoring student attainment of these literacies is something we have to research.

As I work to introduce my 15 year old grandson John to Web 2.0, I am thinking about these issues. What the syllabus for our web 2.0 instruction? for students? for teachers? for administrators? for parents? for school board members? for the public at large?

Can we as a society take the risk of not teaching 21st Century Literacies? What are the personal, social, planetary benefits of everyone attaining 21st Century Literacies? We speak too much of consequences. What are the benefits to our students if they acquire 21st Century Literacies?

When I thing of 21st Century Literacies, several sources come to mind. I think the juries still out on this issue.

Adopted by the NCTE Executive Committee
February 15, 2008

Literacy has always been a collection of cultural and communicative practices shared among members of particular groups. As society and technology change, so does literacy. Because technology has increased the intensity and complexity of literate environments, the twenty-first century demands that a literate person possess a wide range of abilities and competencies, many literacies. These literacies—from reading online newspapers to participating in virtual classrooms—are multiple, dynamic, and malleable. As in the past, they are inextricably linked with particular histories, life possibilities and social trajectories of individuals and groups. Twenty-first century readers and writers need to

1. Develop proficiency with the tools of technology
2. Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally
3. Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes
4. Manage, analyze and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information
5. Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-media texts
6. Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments

Or iste NETS

“What students should know and be able to do to learn effectively and live productively in an increasingly digital world …”

1. Creativity and Innovation
2. Communication and Collaboration
3. Research and Information Fluency
4. Critical Thinking, Problem-Solving & Decision-Making
5. Digital Citizenship
6. Technology Operations and Concepts

Or Will Richardson’s

The new world of learning is requires us to teach students to be independent learners, ones that are not dependent on teachers but are:

* Self-directing–we now have the ability to create our own, personal curriculum around the ideas or topics that we are most passionate about. We no longer require curriculum to be delivered to us. We need to help our students find their passions and pursue them in the context of online networks in ethical, effective, organized and safe ways. And finding a balance between the online and offline life is also a “literacy” in this age. There are so many ways to communicate these days (blogs, wikis, IM, text, etc.) that it’s easy to get overwhelmed.
* Self-selecting–in this world, learning spaces are created, not provided. And teachers are not assigned, they are selected. The creation and nurturing of these highly collaborative spaces and communities is a new “literacy” that we need to help our students develop. How do we find the best teachers? How do we connect to them? How to we build communities with others that are supportive and effective?
* Self-editing–whereas most of us were educated in a world where the materials we worked with had been edited by someone else along the way, in today’s world, less and less of what we read is now “edited” in the traditional sense. So, reading and writing is no longer enough; we need to develop people who are effective editors of information as well.
* Self-organizing–the Dewey Decimal system doesn’t serve the online world well, so we have to organize our own stuff. To do that, we use tags and social bookmarking systems, building folksonomies where we organize the Web together.
* Self-reflecting–as we become more and more in charge of our own learning, we need to develop the ability to reflect upon and assess our own work. This “metacognitive” work can involve a number of different genres and tools.
* Self-publishing–our students will need to be literate at sharing out the work they produce because that increases the connections and conversations that can lead to further learning. Blogs, wikis, podcasts and video are among the publishing skills they will need to have.

Or the New Media Literacies Project.

From the Executive Summary – Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century

The new skills include:

* Play— the capacity to experiment with one’s surroundings as a form of problem solving
* Performance— the ability to adopt alternative identities for the purpose of improvisation and discovery
* Simulation— the ability to interpret and construct dynamic models of real-world processes
* Appropriation— the ability to meaningfully sample and remix media content
* Multitasking— the ability to scan one’s environment and shift focus as needed to salient details.
* Distributed Cognition— the ability to interact meaningfully with tools that expand mental capacities
* Collective Intelligence— the ability to pool knowledge and compare notes with others toward a common goal
* Judgment— the ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility of different information sources
* Transmedia Navigation— the ability to follow the flow of stories and information across multiple modalities
* Networking— the ability to search for synthesize, and disseminate information
* Negotiation— the ability to travel across diverse communities, discerning and respecting multiple perspectives, and grasping and following alternative norms.

Fostering such social skills and cultural competencies requires a more systemic approach to media education in the United States. Everyone involved in preparing young people to go out into the world has contributions to make in helping students acquire the skills they need to become full participants in our society. Schools, afterschool programs, and parents have distinctive roles to play as they do what they can in their own spaces to encourage and nurture these skills.

New Media Literacies Project

In this VoiceThread we listen to the story of a woman and her son’s visit and eventual escape from Kenya. It is a good illustration of the potential power of this Web 2.0 tool.

Wes Fryer and family share this VoiceThread with us. Rachael’s trip to get her hair cut short was an opportunity for the family to create a Web 2.0 artifact for family and friends. Feel free to add your comments so Rachael can know you enjoyed her story. With help from dad’s pictures, Rachael presents a really complete story of a trip to the stylist.

Chris Harbeck and Darren Kuropatwa are mathematics teachers in Canada; Chris at Sargent Park School, a junior high school in Winnipeg and Darren at Daniel McIntyre Collegiate only a few blocks from Sargent Park. In April 2008 they brought a few of their students to Manitoba for the Pan-Canadian Interactive Literacy Forum to speak about their learning experiences in their respective math classes using Web 2.0 tools. Listen to Chris and Darren and their students speak. Be ready to take notes on the interactive internet tools the students refer to that have become signposts for how technology has become a transparent backdrop to the real business of school – learning. More important however, be ready to be inspired by these teachers’ comments and the students’ presentations. Remember as you are watching and listening to these SlideShares that if students do not have teachers like Darren and Chis who are willing to learn how to use Web 2.0 tools and use them to push learning off the charts for their students, the students in our schools will never have the learning experiences of which these students speak.

Here is Chris Harbeck and three of his students, Kate, Karen, and Angelo, speaking about their learning.

| View | Upload your own

Here is Darren Kuropatwa and three of his students, Chris Cadonic, Graeme Weiss, and Mark Rabena, speaking about their learning.

| View | Upload your own

Finally, don’t miss the Q and A after the presentations, which you can find on Darren’s blog in a post on the conference right here.

Critical Perspectives on Web 2.0 , a post by Will Richardson prompted this comment on a project I am beginning with my grandson.

Will, I’ve been thinking a lot about the juxtaposition of the tremendous challenges we face as we try to improve schools systemically and the individual learner’s right to learn. Is it the story of learning students experience in schools that which is preventing them from fulfilling the promise we see for web 2.0 pedagogies, is it a broader issue of cultural norms and expectations that students have internalized, or is it something else?

I keep seeing in my mind’s eye the pictures of your children sitting in your home with their laptops open ready to learn with a teacher who is with them via the internet. (Don’t remember where the picture came from. Probably Pageflakes.) Right to learn triumphs over attempts to improve schools!

Here’s a conference session proposal I just submitted to MassCUE for their November 2008 conference that describes the platform my grandson and I intend to use to learn more on the topic.

In the original Greek version of the story Pygmalion is a sculptor who creates a statue into which Aphrodite breathes life. Every day students in schools throughout our country are learning without the benefit of 21st Century Web 2.0 pedagogies. What would happen if someone tried to add those pedagogies from outside the system? Google applications, digital story telling tools, blogs, wikis, and RSS feeds and aggregators are some of the tools teachers are using to help students become self-directed learners. If a high school student is not asked by teachers to use those tools, is it possible for a student to learn how to apply those tools to complete his assignments and breathe live into his own learning? In this session John, a Massachusetts public high school student who once told me he did not mind learning, it was the homework he could not stand, will join me to report on our efforts to add Web 2.0 pedagogies into his learning environment. Which tools help John with assignments? Which carry him beyond the assignments into new learning? We will report on what happened and speculate about the implications for John’s future learning and schooling in general.

Here’s John’s first assignment.

I’d love to have my network join the conversation as this project (Pygmalion Project) moves forward. I’m flying somewhat blind here and could use everyone’s help. You can start by commenting on this post.

This is the most recent version of Did You Know – IV? video that I have seen. It reminds me of a 60 Minutes interview with Al Gore that aired tonight on Global Climate Change. This week a marketing campaign will begin (April 1, 2008) to convince people to acknowledge the truth of global climate change; Gore says, “this is about survival,” and comments that Vice-President Dick Cheney and others like him, who say the jury’s out on whether or not global climate change is being caused by humans, are similar to people who “still believe the moon landing was staged in a movie lot in Arizona and those who believe the earth is flat.”

Later in the interview at CBS Gore says, “We don’t have any other choice; we just don’t have any other choice. I wish I knew a better way to do it. I constantly ask myself, how can I be more effective in getting this message across? It’s so clear. It’s so … compelling and yet it takes time to get the facts out.

This new version of the Did You Know video is an attempt to get the facts out on a different topic – the global digital shift.