21st C. Learning Summit - And End and a Beginning

On Thursday, October 14, 2010, Solution Tree's 21st C. Learning Summit closed with provocateur Will Richardson. For the first time that week, rather ironically, the speaker established a backchannel for behind-the-scenes conversations and questions. For the first time that week, rather ironically, the speaker used a share-able presentation tool that required no paper.

https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=ah8n38hnwpnq_765gr5sjmd9

With a similar message to that of Chris Dede, Will Richardson compelled the audience to realize that learning is a 24-hour-a-day possibility with the advantages of countless learning networks. Education is distributed now, and it is no longer essentially confined to the time and space called school. In fact, school sometimes gets in the way of deep, efficient learning, because it often is the slowest institution to change and adapt. Students utilize smart phones rather effortlessly to stay connected and to learn, but schools often ask students to check their phones at the door. Cheryl Lemke had said it the day before - school is now but one of many nodes on a stident's primary learning carrosel, and we need to accept that we no longer occupy the most important or central position...not while we lag behind this generations normal modalities of learning and growing. Doug Fisher, too, practically scolded us for banning cell phones from students in school. If we don't teach students to use their networks and tools wisely, who will? Schools, let's make sure we stay relevant and provide the coaching and immersive education that students deserve.

21st C. Learning Summit - in progress report

During this week, I am attending Solution Tree's "21st C. Learning Summit" in Chicago. So far, we have heard from Ken Kay of P21, Rick DuFour (one of my main heroes)of PLCs, and Chris Dede of Harvard and "immersive learning."

Ken Kay's message, in my own words, is that we need to blend the 3Rs (reading, writing, and arithmetic) with the 4 Cs (critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity) to facilitate interconnected content and skill development for students in the 21st C.

Rick Dufour made the case that we can only get to Ken Kay's vision if we have a plan for teacher learning - professional learning communities that provide workplace learning everyday instead of workshop learning a few times a year. The evidence of PLC effectiveness is convincing and compelling. We just need to do what we know works! Learning must be the focus, collaboration must be the culture, and results must direct our course. Four Qs should guide us...1) what should students learn? 2) How will we now that they have learned? 3) What will we do when they don't learn? 4) What will we do when they already know it. We teachers should model the four Cs in the way we work...modeling is a powerful teacher for students.

Chris Dede spoke of distributed education - a system that extends beyond the school in space, time, and people. And learning should happen through collaborative problem resolution via mediated interaction. We should help students with real life by making learning less segmented and more integrated through projects, situated learning, and immersive learning. Furthermore, good formative and diagnostic assessment could replace summative assessment as we scale effective assessment of skills and content in context.