Mike Falick's Blog

Today's Convocation on Public Education: Answering the Question about Educating Kids for a Future We Can't Describe

Today, the American Leadership Forum and the Houston A+ Challenge co-hosted the Fifth Biennial Convocation on Public Education.  The Convocation this year is entitled Education 2021 - Preparing Kids for a Future We Can't Describe.

The keynote speaker for the Convocation was noted educational futurist, David Warlick who challenged the 250 participants to answer the question of how to educate kids for a future we can't describe.  He started from the proposition that in a flat world (see Thomas Friedman), it is important to change what and how students are educated in the classroom.

David pointed out that this is the first time in history we are preparing kids for a future we can't clearly describe.  He also said that it is an insult to our students to continue to educate them in 19th century classrooms.

The main take-away for me from the Convocation, as was the case during Spring Branch's Visioning Process is the critical importance of changing the way education is delivered to meet the rapidly changing world in which our students live.

David Warlick's handouts from the presentation are available here.  His slideshow, which is very enlightening, is below.

The Convocation was even streamed live (and parts are available for viewing) on Ustream.

| View | Upload your own

Here's a Must Watch Video: A Vision of K-12 Students Today

I previously posted about Kansas State's class video on A vision of Students Today.  Today, I came across this new video which is truly excellent entitled A Vision of K-12 Students Today.

Another Great Video from the Digital Ethnography Class at Kansas State University: How Access to Information has Changed

The Digital Ethnography class at Kansas State University has posted a number of videos that are consistent with the Visioning Process our District utilized during the Fall of 2005. 

The video embedded in this post is described as follows:

This video explores the changes in the way we find, store, create, critique, and share information. This video was created as a conversation starter, and works especially well when brainstorming with people about the near future and the skills needed in order to harness, evaluate, and create information effectively.

Why Technology is So Important: Students Tell How Behind the Times Schools Are When It Comes to Understanding Their Technology Needs

I came across this video on the Spring Branch ISD EdTech Blog.  It really shows why today's students feel that school doesn't reach them and their technology needs.      

The students discuss how important technology is to their education.  It speaks volumes to why we must acquire technology to meet the needs of today's students.  After all, why should they have to "power down" intellectually when they come to school.  (Click the picture to view the video)

         

School 1.0 vs. School 2.0: The Future of Education - When Students Stop Being Mirrors, and Instead Become Amplifiers

This fascinating article by David Warlick explains, in a short essay with 2 diagrams, everything that Spring Branch's visioning process discussed during the Fall of 2005.  This is an excellent visualization of the future of education.  (The entire article appears after the jump).

____________________________________________________________________________________

Diagram 1

In school 1.0 (and especially during shifts into the negative realm that have resulted from the well intended but stifling affects of NCLB) teaching and learning are a game.  David Williamson Shaffer characterizes games as consisting of roles and rules.  Teacher’s and students practice roles and work within the constraints of rules. Teachers deliver content and skills, students are mirrors, reflecting content and skills back to the teacher (or government).  If the reflection is in the image of the teacher and the state’s standards, then success has been achieved — regardless of any continuing affects on the students abilities to prosper in a rapidly changing time.  (See diagram 1)

School 2.0’s greatest affect on teaching and learning is that it empowers both roles with a Yin and Yang affect.  Teacher’s become learners and learners become teachers, and each side is empower with conversation, control over their information landscape, and connections with each other — with almost no constraints of hierarchy.

Students stop being mirrors, and instead become amplifiers.  Their job is not merely to reflect what they encounter, but to add value to it.  Content and skills are no longer the end product, but they become raw materials, with which students learn to work and play and share. Information is captured by the learner, processed, added to, remixed, and then shared back, to be captured by another learner/teacher and reprocessed.  Each exchange and improvement not only runs on the energy of students (learner/teacher) curiosity and intrinsic need to play, work, and communicate information, but it also generates energy, which the teacher (teacher/learner) channels.

Diagram 2

As the energy builds, the activities, ideas, and content begin to re-vector out of the classroom and into the community, begging for attention and further participation.  (see diagram 2)

Teachers and learners become information artisans, mining for information raw materials, remixing and re-networking what they find, and then communicating their new and valuable information products for re-mining.  Teachers become learner models, and students be

The Web Continues to Provide More and More Free Educational Resources: The Visioned Future of Higher Level Learning is Almost Here

During the visioning process Spring Branch used during the Fall of 2005 that began the development of the District's Five Year Educational Plan, I discussed my view that top professors would soon teach highly specialized subject areas through live, online lectures that would be easily and readily available live and at low or no cost.  While we are not quite there yet, there continue to be an ever increasing number of programs available at no cost to the end user. 

Today I came across another great site that has many links to podcasts of college and above level links to specialized lectures.  The links are all available here or after the jump below.

I have posted similar links regularly, and they can be viewed by clicking here or on the Free Educational Resources link under Categories on the left side of this page. 

Things Really Have Changed in the Last 30 Years: Forbes Compares Dorm Rooms from 1976 and 2006

As part of Spring Branch's Visioning Process last Fall, we looked at the differences between our own school experiences and those of today's students.  A Forbes article published today has a good comparison of dorm rooms from 1976 as compared to dorm rooms in 2006. 

Among the comparisons:

1976: Mailbox in the lobby 2006: High-speed 100-megabit-per-second Internet connection

1976: Pay phone in the hallway 2006: Skype free Internet-telephone software on your desktop PC

1976: An IBM Selectric 2006: A Sony Vaio

1976: Stacks of books from the library 2006: Google

1976: Set in the lounge has a coat hanger for an antenna; it gets four channels 2006: 30-inch color TV in your room is connected to campus cable system; it gets 200 channels, including two student-run stations 1976: A turntable and audiocassette player connected to secondhand speakers 2006: Video iPod plugged into a Bose SoundDock Digital Music System

Vision Time: Spring Branch Goes 20/20: Part 3

Last Friday and Saturday concluded the Spring Branch ISD Visioning Process that began in October (you can read my prior posts here and here).  This has been an exciting experience in which about 60 people (the Board, Superintendent, senior staff, teachers, parents, community members, and students) have discussed where we would like to see Spring Branch in 2018 when our current pre-K students graduate.

During our last 2 day meeting, we were grouped at 6 tables with 2 tables each representing elementary, middle and high school.  Based on the first 4 days of this process, we discussed where we see each of these levels of school now, and how to bring about changes to make them better capable of educating our students in this rapidly changing world. 

The findings of the visioning sessions will now become part of the work for the development of the Five Year Educational Plan through the course of the Spring with adoption by the Board anticipated in June 2006.

Vision Time: Spring Branch Goes 20/20: Part 2

Last Friday and Saturday (11/4 and 11/5) the Board, SBISD staff, community members and students (over 60 people) participated in days 3 and 4 of the had of the District’s Visioning process.  Our focus for these 2 days was on elementary, middle and high schools looking out to the year 2018 (the year today's kindergarten class will graduate). 

The highly animated conversation concentrated on how to make school more relevant to the students, how to ensure that our students are enabled to adapt to the extraordinarily rapid changes occurring with technology and the impact that will have on the students as they enter the job market of 2018, what the school of 2018 should look like, and how teaching might be different in 2018.

Our final 2 days of the visioning process will be December 2 and 3.  The visioning process is a core component of the Board's goal to complete the development of Five Year Educational, Long Range Facilities, and Technology Plans by June 2006. 

As I discussed in my post on days 1 and 2 of the visioning process, I feel this is a critical time in our District's history to address the challenges presented by the nearly constant change facing our students.  All you have to do is read the last chapter of Tom Friedman’s The World is Flat (see my prior posts here) to get a sense of the critical nature of our work ahead.

Vision Time: Spring Branch Goes 20/20 with Ian Jukes and Ted McClain

Last Friday and Saturday (10/21 and 22) the Board had what I feel is the tremendous honor of participating in the first 9 hours of the District’s Visioning process. The goal is for Spring Branch to complete the development of Five Year Educational, Long Range Facilities, and Technology Plans by June 2006.  The Visioning process involves the Board, staff, community members and students (over 60 people) looking at ways to define what we as a District want for our students.

So you wonder why I’d be energized by spending 9 hours on a Friday afternoon and Saturday morning on this? Well, under Dr. Klussmann’s leadership, we were able to bring in educational futurists Ian Jukes and Ted McClain. When these two gentlemen speak of the future, they aren’t talking about the 22nd century – they are talking about today’s kindergarten students – the Class of ’18.

I have felt a sense of urgency on the issues Jukes and McClain discussed since I read Tom Friedman’s The World is Flat which I have discussed previously in several posts you can review here. What I learned on Friday and Saturday transforms my sense of urgency to a sense of immediacy. I invite you to get energized the way I have by visiting Mr. Jukes’ site.

Included on his site are a number of handouts that can be downloaded including this one that is an extension of Windows on the Future written by Jukes and McClain.