Wednesday, April 17, 2013

tweets to apr 17 - change, algebra, gates 5 bill cameras



Anya Kamenetz (@anya1anya)
4/16/13 6:27 AM
how to survive the coming chaos by @Joi via @willrich45wired.com/business/2012/…



Wired: And in the face of that we ought to do what?
Ito: What you need to do is understand these changes are happening, and build systems and governments and ways of thinking that are resilient to this kind of destructive change that is going to happen. It’s a kind of change that is really hard to predict, it’s really hard to control, so how do you as a human being, or as an organization, survive in this chaotic, unpredictable system where planning is almost impossible?
Wired: Please tell me you have an answer.
Ito: There are nine or so principles to work in a world like this:
  1. Resilience instead of strength, which means you want to yield and allow failure and you bounce back instead of trying to resist failure.
  2. You pull instead of push. That means you pull the resources from the network as you need them, as opposed to centrally stocking them and controlling them.
  3. You want to take risk instead of focusing on safety.
  4. You want to focus on the system instead of objects.
  5. You want to have good compasses not maps.
  6. You want to work on practice instead of theory. Because sometimes you don’t why it works, but what is important is that it is working, not that you have some theory around it.
  7. It disobedience instead of compliance. You don’t get a Nobel Prize for doing what you are told. Too much of school is about obedience, we should really be celebrating disobedience.
  8. It’s the crowd instead of experts.
  9. It’s a focus on learning instead of education.
We’re still working on it, but that is where our thinking is headed.

Dave Meister (@DaveMeister_)
4/16/13 6:28 AM
TV news has become useless to me. I don't need to be told how to feel and I only need to hear the bad news once. #backtoyourregulartweets

interesting..
take note how often our conversations stagnate there..

seths post today on energy


Andy Carvin (@acarvin)
4/16/13 6:50 AM
Visiting a high school in Baltimore this morning. No shortage of things for us to talk about, for better or worse. #syria #boston #etc

Dughall McCormick (@dughall)
4/16/13 6:50 AM
I am currently responding to the curriculum consultationis.gd/fwCOJ8
same as acarvin..?

perhaps. if we could only give up the reins
perhaps big difference... dates.
yesterda/today vs 2002/2011

Michelle Bourgeois (@milobo)
4/16/13 6:54 AM
Forgiveness or permission?

imagine perhaps.. neither
imagine personal/daily agency w/o raised eyebrow

Teny Oded Gross (@tenygross)
4/14/13 7:53 AM
Teachers: Will We Ever Learn?, via @nytimesnyti.ms/1728asr

Call it the industrial-factory model: power resides at the top, with state and district officials setting goals, providing money and holding teachers accountable for realizing predetermined ends. While rational on its face, in practice this system does not work well because teaching is a complex activity that is hard to direct and improve from afar. The factory model is appropriate to simple work that is easy to standardize; it is ill suited to disciplines like teaching that require considerable skill and discretion.

or perhaps.. simply.. learning is natural..compulsion, no matter how pretty we get at it.. blocks learning.
and whether or not we realize that.. ending each sentence with how people did on some test... will never get us where we want our own children to be. it's the raised eyebrow.. elephant in the room.. no matter how you  sugar/force coat it.
The factory model is appropriate to simple work that is easy to standardize; it is ill suited to disciplines like teaching that require considerable skill and discretion.

more like.., I'll suited when/if you actually want people to think .. to learn how to learn. not complicated... but rather..... too simple for us to accept..

perhaps we encourage relationship.. people known by people..and voice.. everyone talks to self
we need to trust that.. not the complexity of some discipline of teaching.. a compulsory curriculum
imagine a world where we really see people
Teaching requires a professional model, like we have in medicine, law, engineering, accounting, architecture and many other fields. In these professions, consistency of quality is created less by holding individual practitioners accountable and more by building a body of knowledge, carefully training people in that knowledge, requiring them to show expertise before they become licensed, and then using their professions’ standards to guide their work.
wait...what..?
that's why health and law.. et al is doing so well... right..?
no prescribed training... proof.. 
Bunker Roy -ish - life is the training, the proof
these criteria, American education is a failed profession. There is no widely agreed-upon knowledge base, training is brief or nonexistent, the criteria for passing licensing exams are much lower than in other fields, and there is little continuous professional guidance. It is not surprising, then, that researchers find wide variation in teaching skills across classrooms; in the absence of a system devoted to developing consistent expertise, we have teachers essentially winging it as they go along, with predictably uneven results
sorry Jal.. but precisely why we are where we are.. no?
wow - Harvard in education field is saying this..
perhaps out of perpetuating it..
perhaps agreed upon knowledge base.. begs to be... knowing what to do when you don't know what to do... being usefully ignorant, not theoretically pretty..
em devoted to developing consistent expertise, we have teachers essentially winging it as they go along, with predictably uneven results.

remove the confines of compulsion... at all levels ...student/teacher/admin/parent....etc.. classroom walls... age levels... etc 
and that's exactly what  we want.
people living day to day in the vulnerability of context.
embracing uncertainty..
fine tuning the art of.. knowing what to o when you don't know what to do

Greg Satell (@Digitaltonto)
4/14/13 7:50 AM
If you want to create change, forget about the nodes and focus on the networkp.ost.im/p/dxNKt5

So rather than try to find a big shot to support your cause, actively recruit those who will be passionate about your idea.  Chances are they know some others who’ll like it as well.Study after study has shown that influence is not a function of individuals as much as it is the effect of chains of people – not the nodes, but the network.
So take Seth Godin’s advice:  If you want to change the world, start with a tribe.  Look to find people who are passionate rather than influential.
That’s because majorities don’t just rule, they influence, to a much greater extent than most people would think.  Back in the 50’s, Solomon Asch documented just how much with his famous conformity experiments, in which he showed research subjects who were told that they were in a “perceptual experiment” this pair of cards.

There’s a reason why revolutionary movements so often originate in closed systems like college campuses.  You don’t need to convince everybody, just a local majority.  Once you’ve attained that, the idea can spread to other clusters through the strength of weak ties and before you know it, the movement is gathering steam.

Tony Wagner (@DrTonyWagner)
4/12/13 8:07 AM
@alexanderrusso: It's Not the Test That Made Them Cheat ow.ly/jZqzT" What is not mentioned is the impact of high-stakes.


Tony Wagner (@DrTonyWagner)
4/12/13 3:16 PM
@grantwiggins great rant from a math lover on everything wrong with algebra Igrantwiggins.wordpress.com
Since the king was rarely around to punish his son when necessary, tutors to the young prince found it extremely difficult to enforce rules or learning.
so telling.. on so many levels 



Tony Wagner (@DrTonyWagner)
4/12/13 1:44 PM
At New Tech High Network, project-based learning plus #CWRA equals college success http#://j.mp/ZRy7Gy


Fast Company (@FastCompany)
4/16/13 6:56 AM
Inside Bill Gates' $5 Billion Plan To Put Cameras In Every Classroomtrib.al/boFkXhu

Among all his foundation's educational initiatives for things like smaller schools and new technology, Gates has increasingly zeroed in on effective teaching as the key lever to improve education, as he discusses in an exclusive interview in Fast Company this month.
Heather Thorkelson (@RepOfFreedom)
4/16/13 8:45 AM
The need to be normal is the predominant anxiety disorder in modern life. - Thomas Moore, Original Self


Jimmy Wales (@jimmy_wales)
4/16/13 8:40 AM
The 6 Worst Media Reactions to the Boston Marathon Bombing | The Skeptical Libertarianow.ly/k6UiK



Harvard Biz Review (@HarvardBiz)
4/16/13 8:47 AM
Change Management Needs to Changes.hbr.org/Z00EhG
While it might be plausible to conclude that we should rethink the basics, let me suggest an alternative explanation: The content of change management is reasonably correct, but the managerial capacity to implement it has been woefully underdeveloped.
Here's an example of this pattern: Over the course of several years, a major healthcare company introduced thousands of managers to a particular change management approach, while providing more intensive training in specific tools and techniques to six sigma and HR experts. As a result, managers became familiar with the concepts, but depended on the "experts" to actually put together the plans. Eventually, change management just became one more work-stream for every project, instead of a new way of thinking about how to get something accomplished. 

William Chamberlain (@wmchamberlain)
4/16/13 8:48 AM
Check out @DirtySexyEdtech's new blog tinyurl.com/cmej8oc I love a good #edrant Make sure to follow too, #goodstuff #edstuff


Ben Berkowitz (@benberkowitz)
4/16/13 6:18 AM
Internet + Humanity +1. Neighbors posting free housing in #Boston in googledoc and here:neighborsforneighbors.org/page/marathon?… thanks to @josephporcelli