one voice

...lobbying for differentiation.

Many of us are already doing things that provide every student with access/process/connections to an indispensable art form by the time they graduate. 

What is needed is a coming together of those stories... a logging of rich activity in order to:

1) educate our communities...our country ...so that wise/different decisions can/will be made about spending/providing web access for all, as well as a new way to measure success

2) provide a solid model base for teachers/students who haven't yet tapped into the potential of rich web use

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Please help my brave students (brilliant like yours) in their attempt to get the attention of  President Obama, the attention of the country ... of the world - so that our voice - lobbying for differentiation - can be heard.

Their message comes from many places, including all of you. A summary of our cry out for radical action is said best by Sir Ken Robinson:

Education is about developing human beings, and human development is not mechanical or linear. The answer is not to standardize education, but to personalize and customize it to the needs of each child and community. There is no alternative. There never was.  ....And now the web allows it.

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The short version of their proposal:

Why our school is a good model:

1. We are just like everyone else, in that we desperately need change in how we spend 7 hours a day, 5 days a week.

2. Because of our low funding resources, our plan models a true disruption, doable by any school, beginning fall 2010.

Vital pieces of the plan:

a) Content is no longer fixed. Standardized testing of content is hurting our country -it is encouraging more and more of the wrong things. 

b) Access/process/connectivity is now the standard and should be made available to all. 
c) Individualized instruction via open sourced networking of people and info will provide richer, more authentic and more humane learning spaces for all stakeholders. When learning is not bound by geography, but rather connected by passion, the result is indispensable citizens in a nation, rather than cogs in a factory.
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With their application, they send a 2 min video. They want the video to be from everyone.
Here's their request to you:
Please go here, and submit a 2 or less minute video where you have captured your school engaging in rich open source learning (ie: something you couldn't do w/o access/tools - several examples)
They plan to mesh the videos together into 2 min.... kind of like this:
and also provide each one separate for individual viewing if he is so inclined.

By Wed would be great, By Friday will work, their application is due March 15.

It's not about one person, or one group even, it's us.

It's about all of us. 

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If you're so inclined - the longer version of their plan is here.. under the Innovation Lab..

 

If you like.. please rate it (on the right)- so  that our voice will be strong...bold...heard.

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