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School Districts Are Standing In The Way Of Public School Edtech. No gymnasiums, no cafeterias and no administrators. That’s school policy at AltSchools, a chain of private, for-profit schools backed by the likes of Andreessen Horowitz and Mark Zuckerberg. At the location I visited, the school schedule was written on a white board and could be changed in real time.

Students flowed between grade levels and classes based upon what they wanted and needed from teachers. To me, it seemed a bit like a 21st-century version of a one-room frontier schoolhouse. But no matter — AltSchools “has been anointed by the top minds in Silicon Valley as the best hope for the future of education,” according to WIRED. The reason why is AltSchools’ use of technology. Instead of textbooks, students in AltSchools’ mixed-grade classrooms work through “lesson playlists” on iPads or Chromebooks that are tailored to their proficiency level and learning style. Before we revolutionize the classroom or the school, we need to revolutionize the school district. How Technology Should Have Already Changed Your Teaching. How Technology Should Have Already Changed Your Teaching by Terry Heick A little bit of technology doesn’t change much. Can make things a little easier by automating them.

It could make a lesson here or there gee-wiz flashy, or even engage hesitant students. Tacked-on learning technology can do this. But deep integration of technology–real at-the-marrow fusion of learning model, curriculum, and #edtech? That changes everything. 10 Ways Technology Has Changed Education: The Iconic Actions #edtech Should Disrupt 1. You may need appreciate the way gamification can improve the visibility of the entire learning process. This is okay. You can still give letter grades–the parents will revolt and the children may be confused if you don’t. 2. Concerns of bulletin boards, rows versus clusters of desks, and where your desk goes change with the full integration of learning technology. Of more pressing concern is the signage on the walls that focuses on learning strategies and digital citizenship. 3. 4. List of Exemplar Schools. The 21st Century Learning Exemplar Program identifies what 21st century educational practices look like and where they are being implemented, providing educators and communities with a variety of models to replicate, and offering policymakers and P21 State Partners local examples to help encourage their support.

This is the list of schools P21 has thus far identified as Exemplars. Completed case studies have an active link. Click here to download an overview of our initial exemplar schools. Wheeling High School: A P21 21st Century Learning Exemplar. Spirit Lake High School: A P21 21st Century Learning Exemplar. Not Old School: Architecture in Support of Learning. 5 Big Ways Education Will Change By 2020. We asked the world’s most innovative companies in education to school us on the future of the classroom, with predictions for the next five years. Here's what we found out: Students Will Interact With Others Remotely Why do classrooms today look nearly identical to those 30 years ago—minus a few upgrades to the modern chalkboard, and sneaking texts in class instead of notes? "With some exciting exceptions, public schools are one of the few institutions in modern life that have not seen radical changes spurred by technology," says Joe Williams, executive director of Democrats for Education Reform.

"I’m not talking about having computers in classrooms, but rather a lack of any seismic shift in the way things are done because technology is making the work easier or more efficient. " Williams predicts that education tech will continue the push towards individualized instruction for students. The Success Of Tech Will Still Rely On Skilled Teachers We’ll Think Differently About The Diploma.

Redesigning Schools For Learning, Discipline, And Safety. "Redesigning Schools - Redefining Education" “Redesigning Schools - Redefining Education” by Dr. Jon Wiles In most nations the new communication technologies are forcing institutions to adapt by altering their form and function. In business, transportation, communications, agriculture, the military, and health agencies, organizational and procedural change has been pervasive for over two decades. Schools, by contrast, have not been an active player in such adaptation and now find themselves in an undesirable condition of growing obsolescence.

In both form and function, schools are failing to keep up with the pace of change in the 21st century. As a curriculum planner and consultant for over three decades, the author has searched diligently to discover why schools are soresistant to change. Students who come to school possessing hand-helds, PC tablets, flash-drives, iPods, and cell phones cannot reasonably be asked to sit in a small space for five hours a day while a teacher talks about the past and present. So What is Our Status? Dr. 10 Things in School That Should Be Obsolete. Flickr: Corey Leopold By Greg Stack So much about how and where kids learn has changed over the years, but the physical structure of schools has not.

Looking around most school facilities — even those that aren’t old and crumbling — it’s obvious that so much of it is obsolete today, and yet still in wide use. 1. COMPUTER LABS. Students are connected to the Internet everywhere except in school. At Northern Beaches Christian School students learn everywhere. 2. 3. 4. 5. Corridors at Machias Elementary are used for informal learning 6. 7. 8.

Learner Centered Classroom at Riverview Elementary School. 9. 10. Greg Stack is an architect for NAC Architecture and specializes in developing best practices for the planning and design of educational environments. Modern learning environments / Technologies. Space, whether physical or virtual, can have an impact on learning. It can bring people together; it can encourage exploration, collaboration, and discussion. What is a MLE? | Creating a MLE | School stories | Community discussion | Research and readings | Resources What is a modern learning environment?

Modern learning environments support strengths-based teaching and can offer students and teachers flexibility, openness, and access to resources. A modern learning environment reflects and supports what is current in terms of pedagogical practice. A modern learning environment is capable of evolving and adapting as educational practices evolve and change – thus remaining modern and future focused.

" What is a Modern Learning Environment, Ministry of Education Creating a modern learning environment Modern learning environments are about giving students maximum flexibility in their learning. The most important first step when considering learning environments is to start with learning. Resources. Modern School Interior | Constructing Kids. New learning theories make their way into designing school interior and architecture.

Howard Gardner and Rita Dunn has already changed the school of tomorrow, today. Malou Juelskjaer, phd. at Aarhus University, Denmark, believes that learning landscapes tend to empathize the students learning styles, and the results are astonishing beautiful constructions. But the evaluation difficulties worries her, because schools around the globe invests a lot of money in this right now. “Multiple intelligences”, by the American psychologist Howard Gardner, is a theory based on studies of a lot of historical personalities and what made them succesful. Rita Dunn, professor at St. In a micro perspective, the two theories together (“Multiple intelligences” and “learning styles”) says, that if a kid is having concentration problems, give him a bean bag to sit on, or maybe a set of headphones, depending on what learning style suits the kid best.

The hall, Hellerup School, Denmark Malou Juelskjaer Like this: What Would Be a Radically Different Vision of School? There’s no shortage of different opinions about how the education system should adapt to a shifting world and a future with unknown demands, but for the most part, only two dominant narratives of education reform have emerged. “The predominant narrative is that schools are broken,” said veteran educator and author Will Richardson recently at a gathering of teachers at Educon.

“Our test scores aren’t great and kids aren’t learning what they need to be successful.” This narrative is dominated by those who believe schools need to be organized and funded differently, but Richardson claims that the essential outcomes of improved test scores and other measurable results are the same as the current system. “Different isn’t really different,” Richardson said. “It’s the same outcome, but maybe different paths to get there.” The other dominant narrative holds that schools aren’t broken — they just need to do what they’re already doing, but better.