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Showing posts from October, 2017

School Culture and Perpetual Beta

Perpetual beta is the retaining of a program or system in the beta, or unfinished, stage of development for an indefinite period of time. If schools are committed to becoming cultures of learning, then embracing a state of perpetual beta is a constructive mindset. Author and professional learner, Harold Jarche, tells us learning, in a networked world, is complicated without establishing personal and organizational structures. In the words of George Siemens , " creating coherent centers on the web ". PKM (personal knowledge mastery) is Jarche's framework for professional, ultimately personal, learning. His recipe for continuous learning involves three perpetually repeating activities. ( Learning through doing ) Seeking - obtaining and curating useful information Sensing - reflecting, practicing, and personalizing the information Sharing - exchanging resources, ideas, and experiences Work is learning, and learning is the work - Harold Jarche This wee

Overpowering the Regularities of School

Shared by Bruce Dixon as part of last week's change.school provocations, HundrED.org is a Finnish organization gathering information from school leaders and change agents about the future of education. " Innovations " provides an exhibition of creative, ambitious, and purposeful educational projects from around the world. Take a look, these luminous examples challenge long-held beliefs about what typically gets prioritized in schools. Are our more traditional priorities influenced by what Seymour Sarason calls the " regularities of school culture"? In everyday terms, Sarason says, " the ways of doing business in school " can be detrimental to a school's mission and vision, yet they go largely " unexamined and unchallenged " by educators. When we have conversations beginning with " why " we start to dig into some of these issues and expose some misguided priorities. We put an appropriate focus on our beliefs about scho

School Stories and the Importance of Coherent, Consistent Messages

You're watching television when a restaurant commercial appears showing beautiful images of delicious meals. Your mouth waters as you gaze upon juicy meats, steaming fresh vegetables, and beautifully decorated desserts. Everyone in the commercial is smiling because their wildest expectations for a tasty meal have been met. " Looks delicious, let's go! " Reality drops a heavy hammer as your anticipated restaurant meal falls drastically short of expectations. The food bears little resemblance to what you saw on TV. People aren't nearly as happy or friendly as the one-minute memoir suggested. In short, there's a dissonance between the shared story and the reality of your experience. Disappointment. "Everything we do tells a story," said Will Richardson during this week's change.school focus session.  Considering school stories, do our actions match the verbiage of our mission and vision? If school climate is chilly, we should start by re

What's Your School Mission?

" What's your mission? ", Asked Will Richardson . Who would have thought such a simple question could be so provoking and actionable? Richardson travels the world to meet with educators and students as he strives  to gain a deeper understanding of schools and the role they play in learning. His simple analysis suggests only a small percentage of students and educators are aware of their school's mission and vision, and an even smaller percentage of school stakeholders are actually " living their mission ." " Do you have a mission, or are you on a mission? " This was a fundamental question posed during week four of Change.School cohort three. Does your school or district have a mission statement? If so, where does it live? I didn't know my district's mission statement, but I was able to find it after a simple, quick Google search. It's difficult to live a mission without knowing what it says. Furthermore, I don't recall any

Schools and the Changing Nature of Work

" What do you want to be when you grow up? "   Who among us wasn't asked this question during our formative years? How many of us, even after many years, are still searching for the answer to this question? Futurists, technologists, and economic analysts seemingly have differing predictions about the rapidly changing nature of modern work. There is, however, a complete agreement that change is occurring at an exponential rate. What are the implications of this rapid change in our schools? How can we best meet the needs of students knowing this context of exponential modernization? “ The impact that accelerating progress has on the job market and overall economy is poised to defy much of conventional wisdom. ” - Martin Ford Approximately three-quarters of Americans (77%) think it’s realistic that robots and computers might one day be able to do many of the jobs currently done by humans. Educational attainment impacts how we view workplace technology. Ninety