For most people, learning with others as opposed to learning alone is a no brainer. Learning is social by its very nature, and while there are certainly moments where it happens through deep reflection and application in isolation, we ultimately seek to share our learning with others and, in turn, learn with and from them. That’s […]
Small Communities, Tightly Joined Read More »
What needs to be in place for high-bar change initiatives in schools to sustain when the leader of that change initiative retires or moves to another school or district? That’s the question Bruce and Will discuss in Episode #14 of the Modern Learners Podcast. Too often, “hero leadership” is the driver of change. Not often
When Leaders Leave Can Change be Sustained? Read More »
At the “commencement” session for our first cohort of Change Schoolers this week, amid some fun awards and the popping of a cheap bottle of champagne, I gave the final reading, a snip of something that I hoped would tie the bow on our work together. Naturally, it was about change. And not surprisingly, it was by
The Roots of Change Read More »
In today’s episode, Will and Bruce reflect on six of their two hundred Shifting Conversations posts that they have written over the last three years. Some things have changed, and some have not. Often times, educators feel powerless to change their current conditions in ways that deeply impact learning. That was the focus of this
What’s Changed? Recap of 200 Shifting Conversations Read More »
Last month, we missed a bit of an anniversary here at Modern Learners, three years of writing and making that total over 330 posts, 199 newsletters, a slew of whitepapers, podcasts, masterclasses and goodness knows what else. Add to that the recent addition of Change School to the Modern Learners “portfolio” and even I have
So Many Questions… Read More »
A couple of weeks ago, EdSurge ran a post that asked “Is Your EdTech Product a Refrigerator or a Washing Machine?” The premise was simple. If your product is like a refrigerator, the pace of it’s adoption in schools will probably be pretty fast since you can just “plug it in” to the existing infrastructure
Learning’s Lousy Adoption Curve Read More »
I came across an apt metaphor for change in schools a few months ago. An administrator told me excitedly that they had been giving students some say in ways in which their classrooms were outfitted, and that one class had chosen to use yoga balls to sit on instead of the traditional hard plastic (or
Yoga Balls in Rows Read More »
Fourteen people in a room. All of them educators. 12 of them parents. How many of those 12 do you think told a similar story of learning for their kids in schools? If you said all 12, you’d be correct. And if I asked you to guess what that story was? You’d probably get than one correct
A Common Sense Argument Read More »
For some reason, today I found myself using the word “beautiful” more often than most. I watched a truly “beautiful” sunrise this morning featuring streams of orange light peeking through puffy gray clouds. My daughter, who happens to be in Santiago, Chile at the moment, texted a “beautiful” picture of the city from an overlook, mountains
“Beautiful Learning” Read More »
Brandon Busteed of Gallup made this interesting comment during a session at SXSWedu in Austin on Monday: “Apprenticeships double the odds that you end up engaged in your work over your lifetime.” This shouldn’t seem shocking to anyone in education, though it should give us pause. How many opportunities do we give kids to do
Learning From Masters Read More »
For those not yet totally overwhelmed by the information stacks and flows of the modern world, here’s a not so secret trick to pushing yourself over the edge. Login to your Google account. Go to Google Alerts Create an alert for “computers in education” Copy the RSS feed for that alert Paste into your favorite
How to Read “Tech in Schools” Stories Read More »
Remember 1849 when everyone seemed to be heading to California in search of gold? That’s the feeling I’m getting lately when it comes to change in education. Almost everyone seems to be trying to lay claim to “change” in schools these days. Chromebooks! Personalization! AI! It’s the new gold rush (though I doubt the football team
Raising the Bar on Change in Schools Read More »
It’s time to raise the bar on our conversations around school change. For too long, we’ve been paying lip service to “transformation,” unwilling or unable to reimagine our work in schools in ways that are fully relevant for the realities of the modern world. And as we pursue half-measures to become “better,” we neglect the
10 Principles for Schools of Modern Learning Read More »
From the outset, understand that I have no idea where this post is going to end up. It’s one of those posts that’s going to have to write itself, struggling from one sentence to the next, stepping down a path that’s not real visible to some unknown destination that may or may not be a place worth
Education’s “Alternative Facts” Read More »
I’ve been trying to imagine the pothole filled ride that 2017 is about to deliver, and I’m not sure “buckling up” is going to do much good. I can’t remember a new year that augured so much uncertainty. You? My first instinct is to tie everything down, stick to the routines, make sure emergency measures
Our Resolution: Be Less Efficient. And Ship. Read More »
