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When was the last time you asked a group of District education leaders how they would like a full-days professional engagement to be delivered?
I asked the question a couple of weeks ago and I’m happy to share their collective voices.
| What will make this Leadership Workshop worth your time? | |
| If using technology, link technology with how it is used in context- not a demo or walk through….just as part of the session flow.
Give me practical ideas to take back to the district not things I have to buy first. |
|
| I’d like to get some tools for data gathering or evaluation . I want to see recent relevant examples of successful and measurable change. | |
| I want time to get to know the others in the room, their context, pain points and successes. I want opportunities to continue the conversation after the event. | |
| I want more collaborative discussion regarding ed tech and innovation. Understand and connect w/ successes and struggles of others around positive change. |
| I want to be motivated and I want examples. |
.
| What don’t you want? |
| I don’t want to sit and listen all day…I want interactivity. All participants said they were here to LEARN by talking, doing, thinking, sharing and reflecting. |
| I don’t want to be bored or leave ‘empty’…follow up with additional case studies, research and opportunities were promised. |
| I don’t want to be discouraged (note: Some approaches ‘problematize’ education and place people in a deficit frame of mind) |
| I don’t want sessions focused on specific products or a sales pitch (note: Some said ‘I don’t make purchasing decisions, I influence them) |
| I don’t want to be bored. |
So, there you go!
If you don’t ask, you don’t know.
Regards
Mark
Ah! The external question. Yes it’s fine for gurus’ to say the question should be ‘What change do I want to make in the world?’…but this is a great additional resource for educators and parents- it won’t provide all the answers but it might generate some useful questions.
This is an awesome 100% Free tool which uses machine intelligence to match you against 800 possible careers.
XQ (The SuperSchool Project) has partnered with Sokanu to help students learn what careers are the best fit with what makes them unique.
Take the career test and find your compatibility with over 800 careers.
After signing up you’ll be taken directly to the career assessment which measures your unique background, interests, skills preferences, preferred work environment, and personality . Their recommendations improve in real-time as you answer more questions. Finish the short assessment in one sitting, or log back in at any time and get results at your own pace.
https://careers.xqsuperschool.org/#
Future thinker and all round edu superhero, Mark Treadwell has just made available his latest publication free
Thanks Mark.
Great article by NYT which features both Microsoft and insights from Steelcase and explore the purpose behind physical space redesign to help to unlock tacit knowledge through intentional social collision and more human-centric environments.
But wait…there’s more!!
https://www.nmc.org/nmc-horizon/
2. OECD Physical Spaces in Primary School design
http://www.oecd.org/edu/innovation-education/centreforeffectivelearningenvironmentscele/43834191.pdf
3. MICROSOFT 2006 Document
http://is-toolkit.com/knowledge_library/kl_files/BSF-GuidesOverview.pdf
4. Impact of classroom design on learning
5. How Place Fosters Innovation
https://www.steelcase.com/insights/white-papers/how-place-fosters-innovation/
6. A guide with associated case studies and a photo library on new build and refurbishment in the sectors including sustainable approaches and business incubation spaces
https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/learning-spaces
7. KNOWLEDGE ARCHITECTURE DESIGN RESOURCES
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/design/inclusive
8. <https://d.docs.live.net/474b7c9b34aa68d0/Microsoft%202017/Modern%20Learning%20Builds.docx>
(list inspired by collections from Vanderbilt University, EDUCAUSE, and other sources).
9 Library as Classroom. What can public libraries learn from the NMC Horizon Report > 2014 HiEd Edition? Michael Stephens of the SJSU School of Library and Information Science explains how the report can guide libraries in planning and developing their community learning spaces! http://www.nmc.org/clipping/library-as-classroom/
10. 99% INVISIBLE: A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO LEARNING SPACE DESIGN,
by Tom Haymes. http://www.nmc.org/blog/99-invisible-holistic-approach-learning-space-design/
11. Flexible Classrooms: Highlights from #Spaces4Learning – This blog post by CFT director Derek Bruff features a few reflections on a learning spaces event hosted at Peabody College in December 2013.
12. Commons 2.0: Library Spaces Designed for Collaborative Learning Bryan Sinclair of the University of North Carolina at Asheville discusses ways in which today’s libraries must adapt to the Web 2.0 world and become collaborative and interactive spaces that foster student learning in new and creative ways. This article originally appeared in a 2007 edition of the Educause Review.
13. Flexible Space & Built Pedagogy: Emerging IT Embodiments This paper analyzes the convergence of information technology infrastructures and traditional educational spaces and proposes flexible criteria for material-virtual, hybrid learning environments. Torin Monahan developed the concept of built pedagogy to account for the ways that built environments teach values through their constraints upon social action and interaction and suggest ways that the built pedagogies of hybrid spaces can facilitate learning by inviting students and teachers to participate in the continual re-design of learning structures. This paper was published in the Inventiojournal at George Mason University in 2002.
14. Leading the Transition from Classrooms to Learning Spaces In this 2005 Educause Quarterly article, author Diana Oblinger discusses the changing notion of the classroom and provides a guideline to administrators who are directly or indirectly involved in the development of learning spaces.
15. Learning Spaces In this chapter from the 2005 Educause book Educating the Net Generation, Malcolm Brown explores some of the challenges presented by “net generation” students and the opportunities provided by new instructional technologies and changing ideas about how people learn. The article includes three scenarios for ways in which innovative learning spaces can transform our ideas about teaching and learning.
16. Learning Spaces: More than Meets the Eye This brief article discusses the shift of focus from “classroom” to “learning space” brought about by the integration of technology into teaching and learning. It originally appeared in a 2003 edition of Educause Quarterly
17. The Psychology of Learning Environments In this chapter from the 2006 Educause book Learning Spaces,author Ken Graetz uses the fictitious setting of a classroom at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to explore a few of the fundamental ideas of environmental psychology and their relation to teaching and learning.
18. Radical Flexibility and Student Success Dr. Homero Lopez, founding president of Estrella Mountain Community College in Arizona, discusses with Educause Vice President, Diana Oberlin, his institution’s approach to designing learning spaces that engage students using a concept he calls “radical flexibility”. This interview was shared in the January/February 2006 edition ofEducause Review.
A THOUGHTSHOT is simply a reflection, thinking or opinion around a current topic.
When considering a redesign of LEARNING SPACES leaders should always start by clarifying the behaviours that they wish to see.
Learning space design does not start with a catalogue of fixtures and furnishings.
This is different from starting with a browse through a furniture catalogue or a conversation with an architect.
Once the new behaviours/ preferred behaviours are clear, then is the time to consider how the physical spaces and fixtures reinforce the behaviours that are desired.
When contemplating the design or redesign of physical spaces, always focus on student success.
Mark Sparvell
We need to do more than just teach kids information. We need to invest in teaching them how to relate to others and how to handle the things they’re feeling inside.
A promising piece of research correlates the behaviours demonstrated in kindergarten children with their successes in life and learning 19 years later.
For full details on the study, you can read it in its entirety in the American Journal of Public Health.
Here is the research abstract
Objectives. We examined whether kindergarten teachers’ ratings of children’s prosocial skills, an indicator of noncognitive ability at school entry, predict key adolescent and adult outcomes. Our goal was to determine unique associations over and above other important child, family, and contextual characteristics.
Methods. Data came from the Fast Track study of low–socioeconomic status neighborhoods in 3 cities and 1 rural setting. We assessed associations between measured outcomes in kindergarten and outcomes 13 to 19 years later (1991–2000). Models included numerous control variables representing characteristics of the child, family, and context, enabling us to explore the unique contributions among predictors.
Results. We found statistically significant associations between measured social-emotional skills in kindergarten and key young adult outcomes across multiple domains of education, employment, criminal activity, substance use, and mental health.
Conclusions. A kindergarten measure of social-emotional skills may be useful for assessing whether children are at risk for deficits in noncognitive skills later in life and, thus, help identify those in need of early intervention. These results demonstrate the relevance of noncognitive skills in development for personal and public health outcomes.
