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Digital needs and changing the work place 

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Digital needs and changing the work place 

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We're halfway to school when my 14-year-old son remembers a homework assignment he forgot to do for biology class.

"Something big?" I ask, fearing the worst.
"Nah," he says with a shrug. "Just a handout and some questions. It doesn't matter."

It's happened before, many times, in fact, that "it doesn't matter" response when it comes to work both of my kids are doing in school. This morning when he said it, I started trying to remember any work that they'd done this year that actually did matter in the world, work that seemed to have a purpose outside the classroom. Unfortunately, not much came to mind.

That's an especially frustrating reality for me because in my travels to schools around the world I see lots of examples of "work that matters"; high school kids in Philadelphia designing solar panels for hospitals in the African bush; middle school kids in San Diego writing books about their local ecosystems and selling them in local stores; primary school kids designing a new classroom wing being built at their school outside of Melbourne, Australia. And more.

The growing access to knowledge, information, people, and tools that our students are getting demands a shift in how we think about the work they do in school.

"Work that matters" has significance beyond classroom walls; it's work that is created for an authentic audience who might enjoy it or benefit from it even in a small way. It's work that isn't simply passed to the teacher for a grade, or shared with peers for review. It's work that potentially makes a difference in the world.

And while we've always been able to do "work that matters" in our classrooms, our growing access to the Web and the tools and technologies of the modern world can certainly amplify the potentials for audience and for real world application of whatever it is our students are doing. Suddenly, our students have a potential audience of 2.5 billion people who could become readers or collaborators, and they've got all sorts of tools and apps in their backpacks that they can use to create really beautiful, meaningful work in ways that most of their teachers couldn't imagine doing when they were in school. I would argue, in fact, that the growing access to knowledge, information, people, and tools that our students are getting demands a shift in how we think about the work they do in school, one that moves them away from traditional, institutionally organized "assignments" and toward more student-organized projects that are centered on the intersection of their interests and the subject or standard at hand.

That argument becomes even more compelling when you look at the work some kids are doing on their own, outside of school, around their own interests and passions. Like 16-year-old Sean Fay Wolfe, whose 422-page book Quest for Justice (a novel set in Minecraft) currently ranks in the top 1 percent in sales of books sold on Amazon. Or like 12-year-old " Super Awesome Sylvia" Todd, who designed and helped to create a water color replicator that now sells in kit form for $295. Or 15-year-old Jack Andraka, who used his after school time to work in a Johns Hopkins laboratory to invent a cancer test that obliterated the current gold standard.

Are these kids outliers? Sure. But they are also examples of what is now possible for every child and, I would add, each one of us as well. And those examples and the thousands more like them should compel us to rethink what's possible in our classrooms if we begin to open up to the potentials. Instead of passing paper, digital or otherwise, back and forth between students and teacher, what if we allowed students to do real work for real audiences that can read and interact far beyond the limits of the school walls, schedule, and curriculum? What if we let our students do work that they actually cared about and wanted to create, not for a grade but because of its potential contribution to and effect on the world?

No question, this kind of work is harder to manage and to assess; there is very little if any "work that matters" that happens when students sit to take state assessments. Even though this type of work might tell us much more about what a student has learned and can do with that learning than any traditional test, it's not as efficient or quantifiable or rankable.

Still, we can start small, can't we? What if we took 10% of what we're currently doing and handed it over to our students, asking them to meet the standard or the outcome we've set for them in a way that they care about and that had a purpose beyond the classroom? What if we created opportunities for them to educate, entertain, inspire, or connect with people from all over the globe who might be sincerely influenced by the work they're doing? And what if we asked them to assess their own work in ways that matter to them, ways that inform them what worked, what didn't work, and how they might do it differently down the road?

Schools and classrooms should support a deep culture of "doing work that matters," where the adults in the building serve as models for the type of creating and learning we might expect from kids. And there should be a clear vision that everyone understands and works toward, one like the vision at Mount Vernon Presbyterian School in Atlanta which states: "We are a school of inquiry, innovation, and impact." Impact, as in the work that students do carries more weight than just a grade.

The reality of this moment is that every one of our students can create and share and connect in ways that didn't exist even a decade ago. I can't imagine what it's going to be like a decade from now. But I know this: if our students look at the work we're asking them to do today and say "It doesn't matter," we're missing a huge opportunity to help them become the learners they now need to be.
Will Richardson will be the opening keynote for the July 28-30 EdTechTeacher Summit in Chicago.
For Students, the Importance of Doing Work That Matters

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For Students, the Importance of Doing Work That Matters

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We're halfway to school when my 14-year-old son remembers a homework assignment he forgot to do for biology class. "Something big?" I ask, fearing the worst. "Nah," he says with a shrug. "Just a handout and some questions. It doesn't matter."

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My first book, "The Innovator's Mindset; Empower Learning, Unleash Talent and Lead a Culture of Creativity" is now available at Amazon. This is a prelude to my latest book, "Innovate Inside the Box; Empowering Learners Through UDL and the Innovator's Mindset" which is also available on Amazon. You can find a full resource for this book at InnovateInsideTheBox.com.

Below is the current table of contents which will house additional links, resources, as well as discussion questions for each chapter. I wanted to provide this as a space that brings the book to life and encourages people to go deeper into the content, as well as provide links and questions to guide any book chats on the topic.

Here is an endorsement from Michael Fullan, Canadian educational researcher and former dean of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.:

"At last here is an Innovator's Mindset for everyday teachers and students. Clear, exciting, practical examples galore, and discussion questions. George Couros takes us into the innovative mind and action set and does not let us escape. Be prepared to enter a new world that makes learning and innovation synonymous."

Michael Fullan, Author and Consultant.

Please check out the chapter guides with questions and links below. Also, here is a sample book study created by Bethany Ligon that you may use or modify.

(If you are interested in bulk orders, please do not hesitate to connect with Wendy Van Dyk of DBC.)

PART I: INNOVATION IN EDUCATION

Chapter 1: What Innovation Is and Isn't
Chapter 2: The Innovator's Mindset Chapter 3: Characteristics of the Innovator's Mindset

PART II: Laying The Groundwork

Chapter 4: Relationships, Relationships, Relationships Chapter 5: Learn, Lead, Innovate Chapter 6: Engage Versus Empower Chapter 7: Creating a Shared Vision

PART III: Unleashing Talent

Chapter 8: Strengths-Based Leadership Chapter 9: Powerful Learning First, Technology Second Chapter 11: Embracing an Open Culture Chapter 12: Create Meaningful Learning Experiences for Educators

PART IV: Concluding Thoughts

Chapter 13: Are We There Yet? Chapter 14: The Biggest Barrier and "Game Changer"to Innovation in Education

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My first book, "The Innovator's Mindset; Empower Learning, Unleash Talent and Lead a Culture of Creativity" is now available at Amazon. This is a prelude to my latest book, "Innovate Inside the Box; Empowering Learners Through UDL and the Innovator's Mindset" which is also available on Amazon.

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"Our job, sometimes, is simply to be the spark, help build confidence, and then get out of the way. If innovation in any school is solely dependent upon one person, it will continue to happen in pockets. In contrast, when we focus on empowering learners to become leaders, they help spread ideas." - George Couros in The Innovator's Mindset
It seems that every school or organization I work with, speak at, or talk to has a similar problem. In all honesty, the school's I've been a part of as a teacher, staff developer (and now administrator) have each dealt with this exact same issue.

Pockets of innovation.

Many of you are probably nodding in agreement right now. Maybe you've been in this situation. Maybe you've been one of the teachers or leaders in the pockets of innovation.

In fact, the pockets of innovation get a ton of praise and accolades from school leaders. They are often shared with the parents and community. The students in these pockets receive the benefit of having their work connected to an audience. The teachers in these pockets tend to get new opportunities for professional growth, which in turn pushes them to continually innovate in their classroom.

The pocket life is the good life.

Except, it's a lot of work. It takes a lot of time as a teacher and school leader to keep the innovative and creative work going. It takes countless hours of reading, creating, collaborating, and facilitating to do this work.

And then, at the end of the school year. Even after all the sharing. Even after all the celebrating of this work. Even after all the hours of professional development. We are often still left with pockets of innovation.

The cycle continues the following year. Many of the same teachers get new opportunities. Many of the same students are celebrated for their work inside the pockets of innovation. It's great work. It's great learning. It should be shared!

But teachers, parents, school leaders, and community members are left wondering: What about the rest of the school?

The Explorers and the Settlers

There is a series of commercials for DirectTV that have been on for some time now about the "settlers" who would rather settle for what they currently have, then try something new and better. It's easy for the "settlers" to point to their current way of living as a good life, and fight back against the new and innovative that is in the world.

Turns out there is a term for this: loss aversion.
In economics and decision theory, loss aversion refers to people's tendency to strongly prefer avoiding losses to acquiring gains. Most studies suggest that losses are twice as powerful, psychologically, as gains. Loss aversion was first demonstrated by Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman. This leads to risk aversion when people evaluate an outcome comprising similar gains and losses; since people prefer avoiding losses to making gains.
We see this loss aversion happen in companies, organizations, and also schools. I've actually heard of some school leaders sharing the video below at staff meetings to talk about whether or not they are promoting a culture of "settling" or a culture of exploring.

It's funny, but also concerning. Even those schools that have poked holes in their pockets of innovation and allowed it to spread far and wide may be left with pockets of settlers. Those that are risk averse and content to do things the way we've always done them.

You can tell I think a lot about this problem in schools. I wish I had a magic solution. But it seems in order to poke holes in your pockets of innovation and spread creative work beyond a few places, there has to be a lot of hard work that takes place.

In my time studying companies, researching, and talking to teachers and school leaders around the globe, I've seen four areas that help spread this innovative type of innovative learning wide and far:

1. Sharing is Not the Same as Highlighting What Works and Fails

There's a story about a woman at Google who lost the company millions. When she apologized to Larry Page, he told her, "I'm so glad you made this mistake. Because I want to run a company where we are moving too quickly and doing too much, not being too cautious and doing too little. If we don't have any of these mistakes, we're just not taking enough risk". (Read more at Reverse Engineering Google's Innovation Machine). Google is a company that actually values mistakes and is willing to pay for them. It's probably a nightmare for their accountants and risk-averse types. 1

That story speaks volumes to anyone who works at Google, or anyone that wants to work at Google. Knowing that you'll be able to innovate and fail (and not be fired for it) makes the hard work less risk averse than at other companies.

I see many schools, mine included, sharing the stories of successes, and celebrating those who are in the pockets of innovation. But what about highlighting the initiatives, pilots, and projects that might not have been that successful? When we highlight what works and fails, we highlight the process and the work that goes into innovation, instead of only the final outcome. This helps build a culture where, as Sir Ken Robinson says, "Everyone's ideas are valued."

2. Reassurance of What Will Be Measured vs What Used to Be Measured

Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO (one of the most innovative companies in the world) offers this advice on building a culture of innovation: 2
What's important is an ability to create spaces where trust can happen, where risks can get taken. We tend in our operationally minded view of the world to try and mitigate and design out as much risk as we can, but if you want to innovate, you have to take risks. And to take risks you have to some level of trust within the organization, because if people get penalized for failure, particularly the kind of failure that's most useful which is where you learn a lot, then they're not going to do it, in which case you're not going to get any innovation.
Many teachers I talk to say the same thing:

My school (or school leader) still cares about our scores on the standardized tests. How can I possibly prepare students for these high stakes tests, and also do creative work in my classroom?

As leaders, we have to own up to this. If we are consistently praising and measuring teacher and student success with measures of "accountability" then that is what we'll get...standard accountability.

Instead, when school leaders offer up new ways of measuring, praising, and assessing teachers based on creative and innovative pursuits/work, then that is what we'll get. What we measure always will matter, and we need to be intentional about shifting the narrative.

3. Empower With Opportunities (Even for Those Struggling)

This one is simple. Give more people better opportunities for growth. Expand the pockets of innovation by supporting different teachers and having them attend conferences, Edcamps, online opportunities, and other avenues to empower their creative work.

The cycle of pockets of innovation will continue if the only people growing in a school are those that are already living in the pockets. We have to make the conscious decisions to spread the opportunities to all teachers and students.

4. A Framework for Creative Teaching and Learning

Tim Brown continued to speak about building a creative culture by saying:

Any organization that wants to innovate, wants to be prepared to innovate, I think, has to have a few things in place. One is-and perhaps the most important thing is-methods for having an open mind. A sense of inquiry, of curiosity is essential for innovation. And the quickest way for removing curiosity in my opinion is to have organizations that are too inward-facing, that don't spend enough time out in the world.

If we don't expand this creative work, we leave ourselves open to being disrupted by outside forces that we will have no control or influence over.

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How to Build a True Culture of Innovation at Your School This Year

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"Our job, sometimes, is simply to be the spark, help build confidence, and then get out of the way. If innovation in any school is solely dependent upon one person, it will continue to happen in pockets. In contrast, when we focus on empowering learners to become leaders, they help spread ideas."

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7 Things That Happen When Students Own Their Learning

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The difference between complying....and engaged..... and empowered

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Please watch this video created by Rick Burkett and his students:

@gcouros Here is my video response to your evening session @LIU12_PD @rlmaderj #tsdawesome pic.twitter.com/ijk3bcs349

- Rick Burkett (@RickB1) March 30, 2017

This connected with me on so many levels.

We talk about innovation and creativity all of the time in schools, but compliance continues to be our dirty little secret.

Are we saying we are in pursuit of one thing while doing the exact opposite?

This was echoed in my favourite Ted Talk, by then 17 year old student, Kate Simonds:

Look at our education system; as students, we have no say on what we learn or how we learn it, yet we're expected to absorb it all, take it all in, and be able to run the world someday. We're expected to raise our hands to use the restroom, then three months later be ready to go to college or have a full time job, support ourselves, and live on our own. It's not logical.

Many schools and classrooms have moved from compliance to empowerment, so this video is not to say that education has not moved away from the notion of compliance. But I challenge you to watch Rick's video with your students and educators together. What would the conversation look like? What would your educators say and what would your students say?

We can't continue to ask for creativity, innovation, and collaborative cultures with deep, independent thinking, while not acknowledging that compliance driven environments prevent these from happening.

Where is your classroom or school on the scale below? Where do you need to go?

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What We Ask of Our Students and What We Do

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Please watch this video created by Rick Burkett and his students: @gcouros Here is my video response to your evening session @LIU12_PD @rlmaderj #tsdawesome pic.twitter.com/ijk3bcs349 - Rick Burkett (@RickB1) March 30, 2017 This connected with me on so many levels.

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An infographic listing 34 reasons why play does matter

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34 Reasons Why Play Matters - AAAStateofPlay.com - Infographic

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Check out 34 reasons why play matters from industry leaders through quotes and general facts. Learn how play is essential to everyday life of a child.

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Some thinking and lessons for us all here

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Modern society tells us to do well in school, work as hard as we can, and eventually teach our kids to do the same. It's an endless cycle that doesn't exactly leave much room for creativity. The same point great Ken Robinson made in the most famous TED speech " How schools kill creativity." This short film talks about the same while encouraging people to look at things a bit differently, and is striking a cord.

Alike, a Pixar-like affair by Madrid-based animators Daniel Martínez Lara and Rafa Cano Méndez, is a 7-minute lesson on what happens to your life when creativity is drowned out by the daily grind. It's also about parenthood, and the importance of letting kids to forge their own journeys. The critically-acclaimed short was made entirely with Blender, an open-source 3D rendering program, and is dedicated "to our families, for helping us not to lose our colour."

As Canadian journalist Graydon Carter once said, "it's a rare moment when we take a break from the tribulations of the daily rat race to reflect on assumptions and values that we casually accept as gospel." Take one of these moments for yourself, and give Alike a go.

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How Society Kills Your Creativity, An Award-Winning Pixar-Like Short Film

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Modern society tells us to do well in school, work as hard as we can, and eventually teach our kids to do the same. It's an endless cycle that doesn't exactly leave much room for creativity. The same point great Ken Robinson made in the most famous TED speech 'How schools kill creativity.'

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The power of Positivity and Play

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Power of Positivity: Positive Thinking & Attitude

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Researchers Reveal 10 Things That Make Kids Happier

"One of the luckiest things that can happen to you in life is, I think, to have a happy childhood." - Agatha Christie

Childhood is a special time in one's life. A time of discovery, play, wonder, and amusement at the world as the child gets the know the world around them. For the parents, this time can bring about a sense of worry, as they seek to ensure the child's health and happiness.

Of course, life happens - to both the child and the parents - which can affect one's childhood years. Regardless of circumstance, the child's happiness almost always comes first to those who love them.

Here, we combine scientific research and childhood happiness. More specifically, we're going to look at 10 scientifically proven tips to help ensure a happy and healthy childhood.

Whether you're a parent, want-to-be parent, or someone who just loves kids, we hope that what you read below will provide some great insight into making for a healthier and happier child.

Here are 10 (scientifically proven!) tips to make the little one happier:

1. Give Them Plenty of Play Time

The primary responsibility of a kid is - or at least, should be - to play. Yes, the kid will eventually have homework, extracurricular stuff, and so on; but from toddler to adolescence, they should be given the freedom just to have fun.

Peter Gray, a child psychologist and professor at Boston College, states "Children learn the most important lessons in life from other children, not from adults...they cannot learn, or are much are much less likely to learn, in interactions with adults."

So, tell them to "go outside and play!"

2. Take Argument and Heavy Discussions Elsewhere

Kid's brains develop at an extraordinary rate during early childhood. When they see and hear about adult-like problems, and uncertainties, the child's delicate psychological state can be negatively affected; potentially making them worried and insecure.
Children should not hear stressful conversations from adults - it is most definitely not the time.
3. Don't Compare Them To Others

The pressure to succeed in today's society can make it enticing to instill an early sense of competitiveness - and some adults do so by comparing them to someone else. Sometimes, adults will also point out desirable personality traits in another child, hoping to duplicate them in the other.
Researchers say that such comparative tendencies can adversely affect a child's confidence and sense of self.
4. Teach The Benefits Of Negative Emotions

Pointing out the obvious - a child is not very mature. Almost every kid will have spontaneous outbursts of anger, envy, sadness, etc. This behavior presents a good learning opportunity for the adult.

Dr. John Gottman at the University of Washington cites the popular tendency of adults to address a child's perceived "misbehavior" - their negative emotions - by doling out some punishment. A better way is to acknowledge the behavior by teaching the child that everyone experiences negative emotions, and finding ways to teaching the child how to deal with their emotions constructively.

5. Acknowledge Their Efforts

The child is going to reach the age when he or she knows that hard work is needed to get ahead. It is important, then, to recognize when the child pushes themselves to accomplish something.

Talking about cognitive tasks during childhood, Dr. Carol S. Dweck at Stanford says: "Our message to parents is to focus on the process the child engages in, such as trying hard or focusing on the task - what specific things they're doing rather than 'you're so smart, you're so good at this...what (the adult) does early matters."

6. Value Family Traditions
Having a variety of things that a family does together is a good sign of a stable household; with stability being an important aspect of childhood development.
According to the Child Development Institute, having regular family time induces five main benefits: the child feels important and loved; the child observes positive adult traits; adults can observe and learn more about their child's weaknesses to guide them better; the child can verbalize their thoughts and feelings, and the parent and child develop a stronger bond.

7. Let Them Take Chances

Children require a certain amount of supervision; yet, adults can overdo it by monitoring their every move. This "overparenting," however, is counterproductive to development.

Researchers, in an article published in the Journal of Psychologists and Counsellors in Schools, write: " Does an extreme attentiveness to a child and their imagined needs and issues, encourage parents to reduce their demands on their child, resulting in the child rarely facing adverse situations, learning to cope, and acquiring resilience, maturity , and other essential life skills? The current study raises the disturbing possibility that the answer is yes. "

8. Give Them A Sense of (Individual) Responsibility

Expanding on the last point, it is important to allow children to complete responsibilities (e.g. chores, homework) without micromanaging them.

Why? According to child psychologists, an excessive amount of oversight can manifest into the child developing an "I can't do this alone" attitude. While some attention - and even, discipline - is necessary for a child to recognize the consequences of abdicating responsibility, inordinate supervision is ineffectual.

9. Create Happy Memories

In a multi-experiment study undertaken by two Harvard professors, adults who recalled good childhood memories "(seemed) to summon a heightened sense of moral purity."
Related article: Stanford Dean Reveals The Single Parenting Trait That Ruins Child Development
Researchers note the participants "were more likely to help the experimenters with an extra task, judge unethical behavior harshly and donate money to charity when they had actively remembered their childhood."
So, in creating happy memories for the child, you may be preparing them to be happy and benevolent adults.
10. Be Happy Yourself!

Children learn by what they see and hear, for better or worse. If an adult exhibits positive behavior, the child is more likely to reciprocate. According to Carolyn Cowan, a psychologist at the University of California: "children do not fare well if the adults aren't taking care of themselves and their relationships."

References:
Discovery Health. (2004, October 21). Retrieved February 27, 2017, from http://health.howstuffworks.com/pregnancy-and-parenting/happy-parents-make-happy-kids.htm
Donald, B. (2013, February 12). Babies whose efforts are praised become more motivated kids, say Stanford researchers. Retrieved February 27, 2017, from http://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/february/talking-to-baby-021213.html
Fernandez, G., M.D. (2012, January 4). Importance of Family Time on Kids Mental Health and Adjustment to Life -. Retrieved February 27, 2017, from https://childdevelopmentinfo.com/psychology/importance-of-family-time-on-kids-mental-health-and-adjustment-to-life/
Gray, P., Ph.D. (2016, October 31). The Culture of Childhood: We've Almost Destroyed It. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/201610/the-culture-childhood-we-ve-almost-destroyed-it
Gross, J. (2012, July 18). Childhood Memories Serve as a Moral Compass. Retrieved February 27, 2017, from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/childhood-memories-serve-as-a-moral/
Locke, J. Y., Campbell, M. A., & Kavanagh, D. (2012). Can a Parent Do Too Much for Their Child? An Examination By Parenting Professionals of the Concept of Overparenting. Australian Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 22(02), 249-265. doi:10.1017/jgc.2012.29
The Gottman Institute. (2017). Parenting. (2017). Retrieved February 27, 2017, from https://www.gottman.com/about/research/parenting/

(C)Power of Positivity, LLC. All rights reserved

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Researchers Reveal 10 Things That Make Kids Happier

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Researchers Reveal 10 Things That Make Kids Happier "One of the luckiest things that can happen to you in life is, I think, to have a happy childhood." - Agatha Christie Childhood is a special time in one's life. A time of discovery, play, wonder, and amusement at the world as the child gets the know the world around them.

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How letting go of control can help learning

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When Kristine Riley looks back on how she used to teach her students, she sees order and control. Her third, fourth and fifth grade gifted-and-talented classes had been structured and orderly, and students sat in designated seats. She had assigned the same tasks to every student and had hoped for roughly the same answers from all of them. She used to believe that it was her responsibility as a teacher to impart information to her students. Riley had decided what was important and students were expected to learn what they were taught.

Riley is also a conscientious teacher and regularly looks for ways to better herself on behalf of her students in Edison, New Jersey public schools. So after a colleague she admired and teachers she followed on social media began extolling the learning advantages of letting go of control in the classroom, Riley decided to give it a try. "I started out small," she said. It took about a year, maybe a year and a half, to abandon her top-down approach to teaching and replace it with what she calls "structured chaos." She shared her findings at a recent EdCamp gathering in New Jersey.

"In the beginning, it was uncomfortable," Riley said. She had to let go of her micro-managing mentality and embrace the notion that the students needed to drive their learning-which meant less of her standing at the front of the classroom. But over time, she came up with a range of classroom strategies that put students squarely in charge.
GIVING STUDENTS CHOICE
Student choice is central to her methods. When she assigns projects, Riley now offers options for students to choose from. Some assignments will include "menus" of questions, for example, that ask students to pick what intrigues them from the "breakfast," "lunch" and "dinner" selections-with a "dessert" choice for those hungry to learn more. In a third grade science unit on oil spills, to name another, Riley proposed different ways to explore the problem, including researching the Keystone XL pipeline and studying cruise ship pollution. Students could then pick an assignment that suited their personal inclination: they could write a song, create a commercial or build a website to share what they learned. Along with choice of subjects, students also have freedom to move at their own pace. And with their teacher's input, students set their own goals, reflect on their work and assess themselves. What's not allowed in class? Students are prohibited from declaring "I'm done." Instead, Riley invites students to ask themselves new questions, like "How can I make this better?" or "What else can I add?"

Rather than have Riley assign seats, students now choose their own work place: a standing desk, an overturned crate or a spot next to the windowsill. Students are free to move around within the room, from one station to another; they're not expected to sit still for the duration of class. Riley encourages them to find a place and get comfortable-ideally, where they will feel engaged and productive.

And as a way to underscore the confidence she places on the students to direct their own learning, the children are free to select their work partners. "This was the most scary for me," Riley said. To prevent children from picking their best friends or ostracizing anyone, she guided the children in creating norms on how to select a work partner. The model they devised was simple: work together, not against each other; compromise; split tasks fairly. Again, Riley encourages the kids to think of their partner as someone with whom they could work successfully-not just a friend, or someone with identical skills, but a fellow student who would contribute to the project.
TOO MUCH FREEDOM?
Does such freedom of choice deter young students from pursuing unfamiliar subjects? Will inviting children to present their work in the way that best suits their interests discourage them from taking risks? Riley says no. "I encourage them to try something different," she said. She is clear about letting students know that she doesn't want the same old thing, just repurposed, every time they turn in an assignment. "I tell them, 'show me that you're challenging yourself to try something new.'"

And to counterbalance the self-directed nature of students' learning, Riley also emphasizes the need for community within the classroom. All students are responsible for clean up and each week Riley picks one empowering quote from the many that students have submitted for consideration. Riley posts the quote at the front of the class and students then strive to live by the saying-for example, "Be yourself, because everybody else is already taken." At the end of the week, students decide who best embodied the quote, and that student then gets to "keep" the quote.

Riley's students prefer the new classroom environment, she said. "They enjoy what's going on in the class so much more," she said. Academically, the kids dive deeper when they determine where they're headed. When Riley introduced programmable robots to the students, for example, each work group sought to develop a different robot capability. And while some groups followed Riley's instructions on programming, others turned to online tutorials to learn more. "They're embracing it and running with it," Riley said about her spirited classroom.

Parents seem to love what's happening in her classroom, Riley said, in part because their excited children tinker with school projects at home. School officials also support her new approach. "My supervisor encourages me to try different things, and is very supportive of all that's going on," she said-so much so that he is trying to push the rest of the school to adopt this mindset. Riley is convinced that these student-centered methods can apply as well in general education classes as in gifted and talented programs. What has changed for her, as she has let go of control in her classes? "Every day, they continue to surprise me," Riley said. "They blow my mind."

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How One Teacher Let Go of Control To Focus On Student-Centered Approaches

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When Kristine Riley looks back on how she used to teach her students, she sees order and control. Her third, fourth and fifth grade gifted-and-talented classes had been structured and orderly, and students sat in designated seats. She had assigned the same tasks to every student and had hoped for roughly the same answers from all of them.

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Changing the Way we Learn

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Our current education system is not fit for purpose. Student mental health is at an all-time low, and student debt is at an all-time high. Dominated by uninspiring curricula and an over-emphasis on short-term knowledge and outdated skills, the entire industry is ripe for disruption.

Better education contributes to better citizens and, ultimately, a better society. As Nelson Mandela said, "Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world." We need to equip young minds with the skills to create a more exciting future, both for themselves and for the species at large. Above all, we need to make learning more inspiring, relevant and fulfilling.

Several technology-driven trends are disrupting education systems around the world. Together, these trends are offering innovative solutions for a flawed system and contributing to more impactful learning experiences.

1. The Digital Classroom

The internet has exponentially increased our access to information. We are seeing the rise of massive open online courses, also known as MOOCs. Last year, there were 58 million students enrolled in MOOCs with 700 universities across thousands of courses. Many of these courses, including those offered by prestigious universities, are available for free or even with official institutional accreditation.

"Digital learning breaks the physical limitations of the traditional classroom and allows an educator to reach millions of students from around the world at a minimal cost."

Though not yet perfect, these courses are becoming more interactive and project-based. They break the physical limitations of the traditional classroom and allow an educator to reach millions of students from around the world at a minimal cost. Individuals from developing countries can now access and enroll in courses offered by the most prestigious universities in the world.

Even in traditional classrooms, this access to online information has transformed the learning experience. Today's innovative teaching methods involve blended learning, which includes a mix of classroom learning and online learning. For instance, students will watch online instructional videos at home while classroom time is focused on problem-solving and collaborative activities. This also gives students control over the time, pace, and place of their learning.

2. Global Online Collaboration

Peter Diamandis notes that over the next few years, three to five billion people will gain access to the internet for the very first time. Coupled with a rising number of internet-enabled mobile phones, this trend will further propel digital learning. Even more, it will enable global collaboration between learners.

According to a New Horizons report on education, we are seeing an increasing focus on global online collaboration, where "digital tools are used to support interactions around curricular objectives and promote intercultural understanding."

As the rising billions arrive on the web, they bring with them their voices and ideas. As they participate in online learning networks, they contribute to the global empathy of our species. For instance, startup Belouga is connecting classrooms across the planet through video conferencing and online chatting. By offering a direct pathway for students to connect globally, social learning networks like this will teach them "culture, teamwork and empathy." Educators too will be able to develop collaborations and share resources with one another.

3. The Future Workforce

According to a 2016 report by the World Economic Forum, 65 percent of children just now beginning school will find themselves working jobs as adults that don't exist today. And according to McKinsey, technology could automate 45 percent of the tasks people are currently paid to do. Jobs requiring higher-order skills, such as creativity, emotional intelligence and analytical thinking are more difficult to automate and are most likely to stick around longer.Educational systems have simply not kept pace with the changing nature of the workforce and need for 21st-century skills. So how do we prepare our students for the future?

"The evolving workforce and continuous emergence of novel industries means we need to inspire students to become lifelong learners."

Educational systems have simply not kept pace with the changing nature of the workforce and need for 21st-century skills. So how do we prepare our students for the future? According to teachers at Connections Academy, educators need to focus on three core 21st-century skills: complex problem solving, critical thinking and collaboration.

Even more, the evolving workforce and continuous emergence of novel industries means we need to inspire students to become lifelong learners. Learning can no longer be something you only do when you are enrolled in a school for a specific period of time. Instead, it should be an ongoing process of self-development and exploration of new ideas and skills.

4. Virtual and Augmented Reality

Show, not tell has always been a fundamental principle in effective teaching. Virtual and augmented reality are revolutionizing the learning experience. They allow students to take journeys into ancient history, travel across the universe and visit museums in different countries, all without leaving the classroom.

For instance, the Google Expeditions Pioneer Program will allow teachers to take their students on a journey anywhere in the world. Whether it's "exploring coral reefs or the surface of Mars in an afternoon," teachers can take students on immersive, virtual field trips.

One the biggest feats of such technologies is that they make the learning experience more engaging, awe-inspiring and transformative. These immersive experiences have the potential to contribute to faster learning, better retention, and improved decision-making.

5. Big Data and Artificial Intelligence

Big data offers the opportunity to both evaluate educational programs and provide more valuable learning experiences for students. It can aid researchers in identifying what teaching methods work best both for the masses and for individual students.

Data can be used to improve student results, assess each student's strengths and weaknesses and create mass-customized programs. Algorithms can analyze student data and consequently make flexible programs that adapt to the learner based on real-time feedback.

One day, they may even aid or replace educators. One Georgia Tech professor used a virtual teaching assistant to chat with students, and some students didn't even notice the difference.

At the moment, most online courses are still mass-made, but in the future they can be mass-customized. After all, every student is unique in personality, learning style and life path. The education they receive should reflect their individual needs.

The Future of Education

In a world of accelerating change, "disrupt or be disrupted" is the way to stay relevant. We are seeing a surge of education and technology companies that are offering innovative solutions at minimal costs. The traditional educational bodies will have no choice but to adapt and integrate these technologies or fall behind as emerging organizations offer better services.

Ultimately, our education system is a direct reflection of our values as a civilization. What and how we teach future generations will have a powerful impact on the kind of world we live in.

As American educational reformer John Dewey said, "If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow."

Image Credit: Shutterstock

Raya is an entrepreneur and science communicator. She is the co-founder of Intelligent Optimism, a social media movement that serves to get people excited about the future in a rational way. Raya is interested in the ethical and existential implications of exponential technologies on society.

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These 5 Big Tech Trends Are Changing the Way We Learn

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Our current education system is not fit for purpose. Student mental health is at an all-time low, and student debt is at an all-time high. Dominated by uninspiring curricula and an over-emphasis on short-term knowledge and outdated skills, the entire industry is ripe for disruption.

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A collection of links

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WE THE EDUCATORS: The Revolution Issue #11

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Email not displaying correctly? View online version.

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What would school look like if we re-invented it today?

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who invented school, when was school invented, invention of school, who created school, when was school created, creation of school, school creation, school invention, when school was invented, when school was created, about school, school http://whoinventedme.net http://whoinventedme.net/who-invented-school

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Graham Brown-Martin on What's the Point of School?

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Graham Brown-Martin on What's the Point of School?

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A great discussion by Graham Brown-Martin on the future of school and edtech in schools.

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WinDays16 - interview with Graham Brown-Martin

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Graham Brown-Martin, innovation catalyst, educator and author, discusses the future of learning, EdTech and EdReform in Croatia at the Microsoft Windays 16 event 26th May Poreč

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Great ideas for Passion based and Inquiry Learning

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Great ideas for Passion based and Inquiry Learning

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Riverstone International School's PYP Exhibition Website -- how finding your passion enhances your creativity and connects you to your community.

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Masters Thesis Neil O'Reilly Waitakiri School

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Project based learning in the classroom.

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Project based learning in the classroom.

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Rachel Bolstad on Future-Oriented learning

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Rachel Bolstad on Future-Oriented learning

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Rachel Bolstad talks about the principles required for future-oriented learning to occur in schools.

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Principles for a future-oriented education system | New Zealand Council for Educational Research

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How can educational research could contribute to the development of a more future-oriented learning system? This article discusses an attempt to synthesise ideas from the "21st century learning" literature with current knowledge about practice issues and future possibilities for innovation in New Zealand education, in order to distil a set of principles for a more future-oriented system.

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An update about views of knowledge and their implications for schooling.

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Views of knowledge / Issue 26: October 2012 / NZC Updates / Curriculum resources / Kia ora - NZ Curriculum Online

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New ideas about knowledge have largely emerged in the world outside education, driven in large part by enormous economic, social, and technological changes. These "knowledge age" ideas - although complex - are extremely important for thinking about the design of a future-oriented curriculum.

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An article where Jane Gilbert talks about knowledge and it's place in the 21st Century.

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Julia Atkins talks about the change in the New Zealand Curriculum, the history of it and where it should go.

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Guy Claxton talks about learning to learn and it's relation to the NZC

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I think the essence of learning to learn, for me, is a deep-seated attitude to your own mind, in a way. It's having believed and become interested in the expandability of your own capacities. Often in everyday language we either have a very crude language or we have a belief that you're just kind of born, you know, 'I'm lousy at Maths' or 'I can't draw' or 'I'm good at French' or all that way of speaking implies fixity. Like, you know I'm just lucky or unlucky with the amount of mental ability and different kinds of mental abilities that they gave me.

But what's now come to be called, I would prefer this terminology, what's come to be called the emerging science of learnable intelligence, that's David Perkins phrase, is really showing that there may be fixed limits, there may be some limits for each us which are different about how much we can expand our mental capacity and skillfulness. But those limits are set broadly. And within those, all of us - just like our physical limits - some people are never going to be able to run 100 metres in under 10 seconds - I'm certainly not - but that doesn't mean I can't run faster, I can't expand my capacity to move swiftly through space, and exactly the same applies to our minds. And once you've got that idea then it becomes really interesting. How could I stretch my ability to think? How could I develop the craft of learning itself? And then that opens up a whole journey of personal development. Although sometimes that phrase gets associated with more psychotherapeutic approaches but this isn't about therapy this is about understanding the malleability of mind. The expandability of mind. And it's that understanding I think that underpins the whole approach, as I take it, the whole approach to The New Zealand Curriculum.

I think the crucial shift for teachers is to begin to get used to this idea that they are coaching the expansion of mental confidence and capacity. And that this is a possible thing and that this is something that is highly desirable. What that's asking of teachers is not just to sprinkle a little bit of new something over what they do. A mindmap here, or a learning styles inventory over there. It's actually asking them to do something a bit more difficult. But entirely possible. Which is to adjust their habits. And habit change is a different kind of learning from merely implementing an initiative or doing what you're told like, 'Oh now I've got to do it this way.' Habit change is about realising that the way you've talked to your students has been encouraging an attitude of instrumental 'I've got to get the right answer, I've got to get this task done' the very way you've talked to them has been fostering that attitude and that you can talk differently. But learning to talk differently, to encourage kids to become more interested in difficulty, to think about where and how they could stretch themselves and that's a good thing to be doing. That's a habit change for teachers. And any kind of habit change needs understanding, needs commitment, needs support, needs time, needs exemplification, needs self-forgiveness because habit change is always a process of forgetting. One step back and two steps forward. That doesn't mean 'Oh forget it, I'm never going to be able to do it' it means, that's the process of habit change. And to help teachers understand the kind of learning which is being asked of them when we introduce something like a learning to learn philosophy or a key competencies curriculum, I think is really necessary.

If people don't have that understanding of the kind of learning they want to do then people get dispirited or over enthusiastic and then fed up that it's not happening as quickly as they want it. So thinking about their own learning and becoming more inquisitive and experimental in their whole approach to teaching and learning I think is at the heart of what we're asking teachers to do.

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Learning to learn / Learning to learn / Media gallery / Curriculum stories / Kia ora - NZ Curriculum Online

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I think the essence of learning to learn, for me, is a deep-seated attitude to your own mind, in a way. It's having believed and become interested in the expandability of your own capacities.

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A great resource on how to set up inquiry learning or project based learning in your classroom.

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I've also discovered I need to teach the difference between collaboration and cooperation. Most students have been taught to cooperate. "Play nice in the sandbox." Collaboration is an entirely different thing. Many adults don't know how to collaborate well.
1. START WITH ONE UNIT
Start with creating one inquiry unit in one subject. You can jump in and change everything at once like I did, but that's slightly crazy. Instead, if you design one unit in one subject, at the end of each day, or week, you can analyze what worked and what didn't. While teaching doesn't always leave a lot of time for luxuries like reflection, it really is the key to figuring out inquiry learning, and as the teacher, it's one of your most important roles.

Sometimes you may not understand why certain things aren't working. Ask your students. I'm often surprised by how much they know and how adept they are at articulating what they need.
Two of the best resources I've found for creating an inquiry classroom are Carol Kuhlthau's work and Alberta Learning's Guide to Inquiry Learning.

If you don't know how to create an inquiry classroom, ask me. I'm happy to help. You can begin by posting comments here. If you need resources, I can probably point you to some. Over the past year, I've had the opportunity to email, Skype and, if distance allows, have teachers, administrators and superintendents visit my classroom to see what we do.
2. TALK ABOUT LEARNING
Talk to your students about their learning - a lot. Especially in the beginning, I talk to my students about why my classroom is structured differently than every other class in our school. I show them Ken Robinson's talk about how the 20th century school system doesn't really prepare students anymore. I also show them Chris Lehmann's TEDx talk emphasizing how education is broken and Karl Fisch's Did You Know?

I tell my students that essentially I'm preparing them for jobs that don't currently exist, that will use technology which hasn't been invented yet, to fix problems we're not currently aware of. They get the point. It's about developing skills and habits of learning, and we use content to do that.

But I also talk to my students about stuff like how their brain works, and how neural connections need to be made. That often, in order for students to learn something new, it needs to be attached to things they already know. Just before the recent break, during the last week of school, we talked about cognitive dissonance and Vygotsky's zone of proximal development. They like to know there's a reason for the way they feel when they don't "get it." And they like to know that everyone's zone of development is different. In fact, they were amazed to find out everyone's brain is different.

And, yes, I use the big words. I simply explain what they mean. I don't use them to sound smart. I use them because it makes my students feel smart; most of our society doesn't treat our students like they're capable of understanding or doing much. I do.
3. MAKE TECH WORK FOR YOU
Embed technology in ways that are authentic to the learning process. The first tools that I teach my students are Google Docs, Diigo or Delicious to bookmark their research, and Symbaloo to house their tools.

Experience has taught me that the first day I introduce a class to Google Docs, we will get nothing done. To them, it's the most amazing thing ever. They usually spend most of the class typing back and forth to each other in the doc. No big deal. However, eventually, my students open Google Docs without me telling them to. I have students who literally use them for every lab, essay, and assignment. And the ability for a group to work on and edit the same document at the same time, more than makes up for the initial class we lose.

The social media tools we used to show our learning in our slavery unit seemed like the most natural and logical tools to use. As a learning community, we want our learning to extend beyond the four walls of our classroom. So we have a discussion, or likely multiple discussions, about what that should look like. We also want our projects to have "real world" implications. What's more real world than advocacy against modern-day slavery using social media?

Essentially these are the two criteria we use to assess the product we're going to create. How do we extend our learning beyond our classroom - and how can what we do here make a difference to the real world? Our tool selection is guided by the answers to these questions.
4. EXPECT TO HIT THE WALL
Remember that inquiry learning is an emotional process. Each stage of learning has specific emotions attached to it, and at some point, you and your students will likely hit the wall. That's normal.

I've found that we need to talk more as an inquiry class. My role is to be well aware of how my students are doing emotionally, especially when we're dealing with a weighty, overwhelming topic like slavery. While this may not matter much in a traditional classroom, it can completely blow apart a community learning through inquiry.

I won't promise you that any of this will be easy. It's not. You'll likely have days when you wonder why you ever started it. But trust me, it's worth it.
This article originally appeared on Shelley Wright's blog Wright's Room where she explores her experiences in the classroom and ruminations on the future of learning. Wright teaches high school in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.

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How to Design a Classroom Built on Inquiry, Openness and Trust

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I've also discovered I need to teach the difference between collaboration and cooperation. Most students have been taught to cooperate. "Play nice in the sandbox." Collaboration is an entirely different thing. Many adults don't know how to collaborate well. 1. START WITH ONE UNIT Start with creating one inquiry unit in one subject.

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Sir Ken Robinson talking about passion and how we can nurture it in ourselves and our students

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How to turn your school into a maker haven

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How to turn your school into a maker haven

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This resource talks about learning the curriculum through maker spaces and through deeper thinking projects.

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"School is a big system," Martinez said. "When you push it one way, it pushes back." That's one reason it can feel so hard to incorporate an alternative idea like maker spaces into traditional schools. It's not easy to give kids freedom to produce creative solutions to complex problems in just 40 minutes. But teachers who believe in it have to start somewhere if they want to make change.

"The only way to change big systems is one step at a time," she continued. "And the first step is any first step. You just have to try these things and do them."

Martinez suggests picking one thing that could work in an individual school's specific environment and to move on from there, rather than trying to do it all at once and ending up delaying the project because it's the wrong time, there's no money or support from leadership -- or one of the many other common obstacles preventing changes in education.

"I think kids are more in tune with this outside world that cares about what they think and what their passions and talents are, and they know school doesn't have it," Martinez said. That's why a child programming a robot one minute is crying and fighting over having to do worksheets later the same night. So far, education has treated the kind of tinkering valued in maker communities as a goofy activity before the serious learning, not as the core lesson itself.
MEETING THE STANDARDS
"Making is a stance about learning," Martinez said. "It's the landscape you create in a classroom or any kind of learning space where kids have agency over what they do and a large choice of materials that are rich, deep and complex." Creating a space where kids identify and solve problems is also one goal of the Common Core standards taking hold in many states.

"You guys can figure this out," Martinez told ISTE educators. "You can change your curriculum to fit these ideas. You don't need to wait for a professional development session. The whole world is out there to help you out."

Martinez says it's as simple as giving students a real-world problem and then inviting flexibility and student agency into the classroom.

"The student shouldn't have to report which step they are on or always make a brain map," Martinez said. But they should be given lots of room to try and fail. The iterative process is part of what gives students ownership over the problem and its solution. It's also what makes figuring it out so sweet.

"As a teacher it's your job to think about what standard that ticks off," Martinez said. "It's a different way of looking at standards." It's about allowing students' passions to run away with them and then recognizing that in the process the student was learning core skills required by the standards. "The standards are calling for more authentic connections, for deeper learning," Martinez said. "There are connections in every subject area."

Perhaps one of the most inspiring results of the Maker Movement is the creative confidence young people are developing. "The best thing that happens is a student completely exceeds your expectations," Martinez said. And when students do things they didn't realize they could do, they feel empowered.

"We want kids to approach any challenge in the world and say, 'Cool, I can figure it out,' " Martinez said.
MAKER TOOLS FOR THE CLASSROOM
The Maker Movement's power comes not from a specific set of tools but from embracing an approach to learning that has fallen out of favor over the past several decades. "We are at the peak of inflated expectations," Martinez said. "A 3-D printer will not change your school. Going shopping will not change school; it never has, it never will."

Yet the tools available now are much less expensive than they used to be. 3-D printers are no longer out of reach for some school budgets, even though they are infamous for misprints and other funny failures. There are many free design programs online like SketchUp and Tinkercad, not to mention online repositories for design templates. These are great bases for students to modify.

If there is one tool Martinez recommends for a teacher starting down the maker path, it's the MaKey MaKey. It's a very simple small board that allows a user to connect the computer to any object that can conduct even a little electricity. It uses alligator clips and a USB plug-in and has no other software needs. The starter kit costs $50.

One high school engineering design class interviewed students at a special needs school about their favorite games. Then they used MaKey MaKeys to design a special interface for each child to more easily interact with the game.

Incredible maker projects have come out of the cheapest disposable supplies, too. Cardboard is a favorite, but conductive materials like El wire, copper tape, foil, conductive ink, fabric and graphite pencils are also crowd pleasers. The website for Invent to Learn is a great resource for materials and ideas.

"You have to believe strongly in how you think learning happens and then you can evaluate the tools," Martinez said. "If the tool is a toy and it's not going to help students have agency in the long run, then it might not be the tool you want." She cautioned educators against packaged products that make the process sound simple. "Easy sounds good, but complexity is good as well," Martinez said. "You want kids to grapple with complex things."

Kids want to make an impact on the world and very often they are more motivated by contributing to the common good than to anything else. Many kids will design and build incredible things, but then put their templates online so someone else can improve on it. Those are the qualities educators should try to nurture in students. "All we have to do is open up the classroom doors a little bit and let them change the world," Martinez said. "Because they want to."
HELPING TEACHERS GET THERE
One way Stager and Martinez have been helping teachers become more comfortable with the Maker Movement and its potential in the classroom is to give them space to invent and create themselves. Every summer they run a Constructing Modern Knowledge Workshop, in which educators come together and remember what it's like to be a learner, trying new things for the first time.

"The teachers learn through their own experiment that things don't have to be as they seem, that their classrooms could be freer," Stager said.

This year the four-day workshop had 200 participants, most of whom had no experience with the tools or concepts of making. One group wanted to make a self-watering plant. They figured out how to measure soil moisture with an electric charge, and created a probe out of a nail and a connector that they designed on CAD and 3-D printed. They even made a robot out of Legos to pour water on the plants when the soil conditions indicated the time was right.

Teachers were amazed at their own ingenuity and the power of working in groups. They wanted to bring that same wonder back to their students. One teacher became very frustrated with the process and intended to leave. She took a walk to cool down and decided she wanted to try again. At that moment she realized her students never have the opportunity to walk away from a problem or get the space to reflect. Instead, she constantly drives them to stay on task.

"Part of the problem is we have a generation of teachers who have never been taught anything other than curriculum delivery," Stager said.

That dynamic may be changing slowly as teachers get excited about hands-on learning and students demonstrate the incredible things they invent, build and share.

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How to Turn Your School Into a Maker Haven

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"School is a big system," Martinez said. "When you push it one way, it pushes back." That's one reason it can feel so hard to incorporate an alternative idea like maker spaces into traditional schools. It's not easy to give kids freedom to produce creative solutions to complex problems in just 40 minutes.

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Sir Ken Robinson talking about changing education from the ground up.

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A video explaining some of the changes needed in Education

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A youtube video about why we need to change the way we teach

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Benefits and Challenges of student designed learning. 

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Benefits and Challenges of student designed learning. 

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A case study from a Senior Leadership Academy English teacher

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"It was really about what they got done, and the quality of work, and did they respond to our feedback about the plan," Block said. The point was that students should be making progress on their work, and if they finished one thing, they should begin something else that caught their interest.

"A real challenge is how to figure out the gradebook for something like this because suddenly I'm not putting in the same grade for everyone," Block said. He admitted it took effort to let go of the idea that he'd be entering the same number of points for each student.

The foray into self-designed learning was an experiment for both Block and his students, but it yielded some helpful results and feedback from students.
STUDENT REACTIONS
A common reaction from students to this experiment was that, without concrete deadlines, it was hard to motivate themselves. Students expressed excitement around the ideas they were exploring, but often found themselves stagnating somewhere between idea conception and execution.

"When we hit a wall or a lull, we didn't really know what to do," said senior Aaron Block (no relation to his teacher). "There were times when we were really on it and we were really productive, and then there were some classes where we hit a wall and that didn't happen."

Block worked with four other students to produce a radio piece about gentrification in the Point Breeze neighborhood of Philadelphia. The students interviewed residents about their experiences of change in the neighborhood, pairing those personal viewpoints with research on gentrification. Block felt that being forced to be self-motivated made the work go slower.

"But on the other hand, we also have this high-quality tangible thing that we're leaving the class with, and I think that's worth it," Block said. In his reflection at the end of the class, Block said he was more proud of the radio piece he worked on than any other project during the semester. His groupmates agreed, adding that because the radio project took a long time, they were all juggling other assignments while working on it. During the second quarter the whole class read "The Namesake," and many class periods were devoted to discussion, cutting into time for the group to work together.

"The freedom. of course, in theory is good, and it forces us to be adults about the work that we're doing. But on the other hand it would have been nice to have had a little more structure and not be so free-floaty," said student Anna Sugrue.

Several students had no problem motivating themselves, but universally these were students who had hit upon a subject that had become all-consuming to them. Imani Weeks, Joie Nearn and Sydne Hopkins-Baker chose to research "colorism," a very personally motivating issue to these three African-American women.

They found the topic after reading "On the Run: Fugitive Life in An American City," by Alice Goffman about police interactions with African-American men in a Philadelphia neighborhood. The book got the three young women talking about other issues that face the black community, and they became incensed by something that has affected all three of them: a sense within the black community that lighter skin is more beautiful.

The three students interviewed more than 15 classmates and teachers about the subject and made a documentary video and website to showcase their findings. They wrote personal reflections about the research they had done, and even when the project was finished, all three still felt fired up.

"It made me very upset to hear some people's views," Nearn said. "In a way, I think some people are brainwashed." These three students, along with two boys who worked on a radio story about skateboarding, were so passionate about their projects that they liked working on them, and felt no difficulty motivating themselves to work without deadlines. Their passion fueled them, which seems to be a hallmark of the most rewarding self-designed learning experiences.

Even students who wished there had been more structure recognized the value of learning how to motivate themselves, including coming up with strategies to set personal deadlines. "I hated [design your own learning] at first and part of me still does," said student Kara Rosenberg. "But I think it's challenging, which is why I do like it."

Rosenberg partnered with another student who had attended the same middle school to design a lesson around gender stereotyping. Together they went back to their middle school and presented the lesson to a group of sixth-graders. Rosenberg loved the experience, partly because it gave her some perspective on how much she has grown and matured since middle school, and partly because the lesson hit home.

"I had a girl talking about how she loves to go camping with her dad and they go all the time, but when it's just her and him he will tell her she has to do the dishes because it's her job, and that's what women have to do," Rosenberg said. The girl was hurt by her father's words, but didn't really know why. Other students also shared personal stories and seemed glad to have a framework to name why those experiences had unsettled them.

Researching, planning and delivering the lesson took only a few weeks, so Rosenberg also worked on a radio story and wrote a thesis paper. Most students seemed comfortable with the idea that when they had finished a project, they would naturally move onto another one. And, surprisingly, very few students expressed concern about how the class was graded.

"I don't think it's fair to compare someone to someone else," Rosenberg said. She thinks it's important that there be a standard for quality work, but thinks it is totally appropriate for each student to be judged "on their own scale." Many students expressed this sentiment, aware that some classmates were more verbal, while other excelled at writing, but that each had valuable thoughts to offer.

Several students said creative projects were actually harder than more traditional assignments, like analyzing literature and writing papers. "I feel like creative projects might be a little harder because there's more to do," said Jada Terrell. "With thesis papers you're thinking of a thesis, writing a draft, getting peer reviews and then writing your final draft, and that could be the end of it."

Her radio story, on the other hand, has required extensive research, interviewing, transcribing, script writing and revision, time in the WHYY studios and recording. The payoff is the chance to have her work aired on public radio, recognition all the radio groups hoped to achieve.

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The Benefits and Challenges of Student-Designed Learning

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"It was really about what they got done, and the quality of work, and did they respond to our feedback about the plan," Block said. The point was that students should be making progress on their work, and if they finished one thing, they should begin something else that caught their interest.

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A talk by Sir Ken Robinson on our school system

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Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?

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Sir Ken Robinson makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.

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Sugata Mitra who coined the term SOLE

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In a special edition of TEDWeekends, TED and The Huffington Post are partnering to co-premiere a talk by this year's TED Prize winner. The TEDTalk by the winner is accompanied by an original blog post, along with new op-eds, thoughts and responses from the HuffPost and TED communities. Watch the talk above, read the blog post and tell us your thoughts below. Become part of the conversation!

From Plato to Aurobindo, from Vygotsky to Montessori, centuries of educational thinking have vigorously debated a central pedagogical question: How do we spark creativity, curiosity, and wonder in children? But those who philosophized pre-Google were prevented from wondering just how the Internet might influence the contemporary answer to this age-old question. Today, we can and must; a generation that has not known a world without vast global and online connectivity demands it of us.

But first, a bit of history: to keep the world's military-industrial machine running at the zenith of the British Empire, Victorians assembled an education system to mass-produce workers with identical skills. Plucked from the classroom and plugged instantly into the system, citizens were churned through an educational factory engineered for maximum productivity.

Like most things designed by the Victorians, it was a robust system. It worked. Schools, in a sense, manufactured generations of workers for an industrial age.

But what got us here, won't get us there. Schools today are the product of an expired age; standardized curricula, outdated pedagogy, and cookie cutter assessments are relics of an earlier time. Schools still operate as if all knowledge is contained in books, and as if the salient points in books must be stored in each human brain -- to be used when needed. The political and financial powers controlling schools decide what these salient points are. Schools ensure their storage and retrieval. Students are rewarded for memorization, not imagination or resourcefulness.

We need a pedagogy free from fear and focused on the magic of children's innate quest for information and understanding. -- Sugata Mitra

Today we're seeing institutions -- banking, the stock exchange, entertainment, newspapers, even health care -- capture and share knowledge through strings of zeros and ones inside the evolving Internet... "the cloud." While some fields are already far advanced in understanding how the Internet age is transforming their structure and substance, we're just beginning to understand the breadth and depth of its implications on the future of education.

Unlocking the power of new technologies for self-guided education is one of the 21st century superhighways that need to be paved. Profound changes to how children access vast information is yielding new forms of peer-to-peer and individual-guided learning. The cloud is already omnipresent and indestructible, democratizing and ever changing; now we need to use it to spark the imaginations and build the mental muscles of children worldwide.

This journey, for me, began back in 1999, when I conducted an experiment called the "hole in the wall." By installing Internet-equipped computers in poor Indian villages and then watching how children interacted with them, unmediated, I first glimpsed the power of the cloud. Groups of street children learned to use computers and the Internet by themselves, with little or no knowledge of English and never having seen a computer before. Then they started instinctually teaching one another. In the next five years, through many experiments, I learned just how powerful adults can be when they give small groups of children the tools and the agency to guide their own learning and then get out of the way.

It's not just poor kids that can benefit from access to the Internet and the space and time to wonder and wander. Today, teachers around the world are using what I call "SOLEs," "self organized learning environments," where children group around Internet-equipped computers to discuss big questions. The teacher merges into the background and observe as learning happens.

I once asked a group of 10-year-olds in the little town of Villa Mercedes in Argentina: Why do we have five fingers and toes on each limb? What's so special about five? Their answer may surprise you.

The children arrived at their answer by investigating both theology and evolution, discovering the five bones holding the web on the first amphibians' fins, and studying geometry. Their investigation resulted in this final answer: The strongest web that can be stretched the widest must have five supports.

Today, I launch my SOLE toolkit -- designed to empower teacher and parents to create their own spaces for sparking children's curiosity and agency. My team and I are excited to see more educators trying this future-oriented pedagogical tool on for size and then sharing their learnings are insights so we can all benefit from the hive mind.

Meanwhile, with my newly bestowed TED Prize, my team and I will build The School in the Cloud, a learning lab in India where children can embark on intellectual adventures by engaging and connecting with information and mentoring online. Technology, architecture, creative, and educational partners will help us design and build it. Kids will help us explore a range of cloud-based, scalable approaches to self-directed learning. A global network of educators and retired teachers will support and engage the children through the web.

We need a curriculum of big questions, examinations where children can talk, share and use the Internet, and new, peer assessment systems. We need children from a range of economic and geographic backgrounds and an army of visionary educators. We need a pedagogy free from fear and focused on the magic of children's innate quest for information and understanding.

In the networked age, we need schools, not structured like factories, but like clouds. Join us up there.
Watch Sugata Mitra's interview with HuffPost Live here. TED and The Huffington Post invite you to take the SOLE Challenge, a unique contest in which we're asking teachers and parents to create child-centered learning labs in their homes and schools. Write an 800 to 1,000 word blog post on your experiences and send it to tedweekends@huffingtonpost.com. Three winning submissions will get to attend TED Youth 2013.
Ideas are not set in stone. When exposed to thoughtful people, they morph and adapt into their most potent form. TEDWeekends will highlight some of today's most intriguing ideas and allow them to develop in real time through your voice! Tweet #TEDWeekends to share your perspective or email tedweekends@hufﬁngtonpost.com to learn about future weekend's ideas to contribute as a writer.

This story appears in Issue 39 of our weekly iPad magazine, Huffington, in the iTunes App store, available Friday, March 8.

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ted prize 2013: a wish to inspire the world

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In a special edition of TEDWeekends, TED and The Huffington Post are partnering to co-premiere a talk by this year's TED Prize winner. The TEDTalk by the winner is accompanied by an original blog post, along with new op-eds, thoughts and responses from the HuffPost and TED communities.

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A report into integrating modern learning into Christchruch Schools

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A white paper on modern learning environments in school.

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Innovative Learning Environments | CORE Education

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The last decade or so has profoundly disrupted Western education. Many factors, including changes in society; globalisation; low-cost mobile devices; information storage; retrieval and storage networks; and, advances in our understanding of the way the human brain learns have meant that long-established practices in education have come under increasing scrutiny.

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Learning environments, belonging and inclusion

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Learning environments, belonging and inclusion

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A white paper by Mark Osborne on School's learning environments

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Learning environments, belonging and inclusion | CORE Education

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This CORE Education white paper will explore some of the ways in which a well-designed and thoughtfully implemented physical learning environment can foster a sense of belonging in learners, which in turn can contribute to their wellbeing and ultimately their success in education.

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A report from CORE education about the use of Ipads in school

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An interesting blog by NZ Principal Karyn Gray

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"This school isn't strict enough," was the lament of the 14 year old girl I followed as she was leaving the learning space for the fourth time during the morning and I was remonstrating with her to return to her allocated group and space within the flexible learning environment 280 11-15 year olds and their 12 teachers were thrust 10 days earlier.

"Tell me about that," I requested. "Every time you have left I've followed you and requested politely that you return. What do you mean by strict?"

Her answer saddened me. It also angered me, and challenged me.

According to this beautiful young lady- who so obviously has much talent and potential, but also has been very challenged by her past schooling and in turn has been and is immensely challenging of schooling and authority in any form, I was informed that strict meant shutting you in a room where you couldn't leave and making you do a worksheet silently.

So the conversation went on with me explaining that I didn't really think a random worksheet would help her learning. The response: "this isn't about learning, it's about being a proper school. "

My heart sunk. Here I was observing a group of teachers working harder than they ever had, who were pushing themselves way outside their comfort zones and their past specialist teaching areas, creating and delivering high interest, practical, hands on learning activities requiring discussion and debate and thinking, and here they were facing a group of pre- teens and teenagers who have an understanding after 6-10 years in our education system that proper learning, or at least proper schooling, consists of sitting in a room silently or quietly doing worksheets. Or at least being told what to do and what to learn and how to learn it and complying.

Since when did learning have no place in schooling in some of our young people's minds and lives and hearts? What are we going to do about that? Are we going to continue to perpetuate the myth that "well-controlled" classrooms where everyone is silent or at least quiet and appears to be actively following instructions and doing the task adds up to effective learning? Or at least effective schooling?

Are we going to continue to explicitly and implicitly give young people the message that learning (or at least schooling) is something that an adult has to do to you in order for it to be proper or real?

We spent three months together as a foundation staff working on unschooling ourselves from our notion of what learning in the school system has been in the past and what it possibly could be in the future. We knew we would be working alongside some young people who have been completely disenfranchised with the schooling system they have worked in and we were determined that we will re- engage these young people. The ones who couldn't conform to the old system, the ones already jaded by a system that so clearly doesn't meet their needs.

We knew we would have to work hard to induct young people who have achieved and had a traditional sense of school success validated by their past experiences. We are having to work even harder to induct young people who have been failed by their past experiences of schooling into an understanding that schooling can equal learning and that this learning can be meaningful to them in deeply personal ways. We need to accept that just because they have been failed by one system they are not just going to magically accept and become part of a new system.

We worked solidly, and without the normal interruptions of a school, for 7 hours a day on this for three months as a staff in our build up to opening. And we just broke the surface. We need to very careful we don't judge ourselves, or allow others to judge us, because some of our young people haven't immediately fallen into line with a completely different way of schooling- even if they were failed by previous systems. We need to have patience, and tolerance and belief in what we are doing. We need strong support systems around us to prevent disenchantment in what we are doing and to prevent temptations to fall back to the past when it gets hard. We need to reflect back on all the talking and learning we have done about implementation dips and learning pits.

And we need to keep going. To keep changing and transforming what being at school is and means. How learning and schooling could be. One day at a time. Sometimes even one hour or one minute at a time. Definitely one young person at a time.

To all our kaiako and kaiārahi and kaiawhina working so hard every day delivering and every night preparing I want to publicly say- you are awesome. You have a vision and a commitment to developing individual young people to be both learners and the best people they can be that is admirable. You are showing resilience and compassion, passion and commitment and it is an honour to stand amongst you.

It will take time, And that is okay. Change, real change, has to if its to be effective and sustainable.

I look forward to the day I can have a conversation with the young lady quoted above and she can equate her schooling with real life learning that is meaningful for her and where she is in her life right now.

And I have every faith that with the support of our Haeata staff that time will come. Every faith and a total belief.

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"This school isn't strict enough," was the lament of the 14 year old girl I followed as she was leaving the learning space for the fourth time during the morning and I was remonstrating with her to return to her allocated group and space within the flexible learning environment 280 11-15 year olds and their 12 teachers were thrust 10 days earlier.

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An interesting blog by an NZ principal Tony Grey

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video prepared for the Department of Children, Schools and Families to engender a debate about 21st century schools, personalisation, etc

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What do learners need to know for the 21st century?

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Rethinking Learning: The 21st Century Learner | MacArthur Foundation

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What do learners need to know for the 21st century?

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Rethinking Learning: The 21st Century Learner | MacArthur Foundation

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On future focused learning.

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For those who left school a while ago, the inside of a modern classroom might seem like a pretty foreign place.

Far from the days of chalk and pencils though are so-called "future-focused" schools - no bells, no individual classrooms, and Principal Birch is simply known as Daniel.

"They don't have one particular teacher; they have a group of teachers who they can access as experts," says Mr Birch. "They learn to collaborate, they learn to problem solve and they learn to take risks."

This is future-focused education, and Auckland's Hobsonville Point primary and secondary schools are leading the way.

"We teach with learning areas combined together around projects of contexts that the kids have helped create with us, that they want to explore," says Hobsonville Point secondary school principal Maurie Abraham.

Mr Birch and Mr Abraham helped set up the schools. Their philosophy is simple.

"We need to be preparing our kids for a future that is rapidly changing and they need the skillsets to manage that," says Mr Birch.

Parent Lisa Squire says sending her child here was a no-brainer, "giving the children opportunities to develop skills, real life skills, going beyond reading and writing".

The students also see the value in being equipped for the "real world".

"When you're at university and stuff it's all on you," says student Jack. "You haven't got your mum and dad there to help you along. You're there by yourself."

It's not for everyone. A handful of families left after the first year, but after nearly two years in operation, numbers are climbing.

"We've attracted more than we've lost as we've carried on," says Mr Abraham. "We're getting daily enquiries from people who live outside of the zone about how they can get enrolled."

Although times have changed, some old-school rules remain.

3 News

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For those who left school a while ago, the inside of a modern classroom might seem like a pretty foreign place. Far from the days of chalk and pencils though are so-called "future-focused" schools - no bells, no individual classrooms, and Principal Birch is simply known as Daniel.