Sunday, April 25, 2010

seeking validation

why are we here?.
used by Lucas to present to curriculum committee - requesting validation for innovation lab courses, here is a more formal google doc

1. We are seeking validation of some student-centric courses
2. Validation will be requested on an individual basis (created courses, tech interns)
3. This will affect only a very small percentage of TSD students next year.   50-100?
4. Your validation means much more than simply permission 
______________________________________________get why we're here?

why request a change?
                 
problem
A)  Great lessons- still lack engagement,
asked and listened, ...every answer to a solution was different, ...
less book work, more books, ... less lecture, more lecture, ... less tech, more tech, ...

B)  Info tech has been changing so fast for the past few decades that traditional schools and curricula can't keep up 115
2006 - doubling every 2 years, 2010, doubling every 3 days

solution: play
A)  The ideal education is different for each individual  106
The internet changes possibilities for how each of us can learn.. it allows for unlimited individualization and grouping per passion.
It will convert expensive institutions to expansive networks 110
It's not about being online or offline, it's about finding your connection  119
B)  Our best hope np is to get better at empowering individuals to find answers for themselves 134

learning how to learn, that process, is the skill set for the 21st cent, for skills we haven't even thought of yet.
Erica Mcwilliams, usefully ignorant - know what to do when you don't know what to do
Dan Pink on Drive, preparing for a different future, candle experiment - different skill set. 
Efforts to stop leak, new problems, different strategies


This prototype is being referred to as     
personal learning networks 113  
1. how to purposefully develop them for rigor
2. how to facilitate and optimally sustain them
3. how to validate them
___________________________________________get why personalization is needed?

what do we want to do?
redefine school play  (bird's eye view) 

We see an Innovation Lab as the foundation and sustaining piece for
Your School-Design It & Your Prof Development-Design It
















visual via Diane McInturff

innovation labremix by student - lab intern

_________________________________________get the Innovation Lab model?

what do we need from you?





ie: creating a course by "chess Joe"

1. a case for pln's
a) passion
not only other chess players that happen to be in his math class, or his school, or district, or state
instructor is the author of the book they are learning from, the author of the technique and history
no trite conversations, most definitely blues clues, flow
b) individualization and rigor
because the members of his pln are just as excited as he, he has 24/7 back up, support, accountability, stretching,...feedback, safe place to try and test AND they know the focus isn't chess... but learning how to learn... and mounds of research validate the logic of chess




2. a case for validation
a) chess Joe, isn't going to do it, even though his parents fully support it, reason, "doesn't see it as valid unless it comes from the district."
b) more than permission students need your validation
Jonathan Kozol, Savage Inequalities
garrison-like campuses located in high-crime areas, which often lack the most basic needs. ..diminishes poor children's horizons and aspirations.

3. a starting place
a) some specifics for you today
b) some conversations to help the transition

___________________________________________get why your validation matters?

We limit our youth when we continue to fit validation into rules the ed institutionalism has deemed as the way.
Lucas
Let's take a step outside that box...officially... validatingly.
Gabbi
Just with this small group... let's test it out... let's see if it has meat... let's give these young people of TSD the reins to play... in the safey of our district... before we send them off.... to search and play on their own.
Gus
Along the way, we'll encounter rough spots, growing pains, unintended and unforeseen consequences - but the alternative is to be satisfied with mediocrity, and insufficient supplies of it at that.  132

page references and a great deal of resources are from DIY U by Anya Kamenetz

personal learning network
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