Mindsets and STudent Agency Deeper learning requires students to think, question, pursue, and create—to take agency and ownership of their learning. When they do, they acquire deeper understanding and skills, and most important, they become more competent learners in and out of school. They become better prepared to succeed in academics, but also in 21st century careers and in life. We can’t force students to develop agency and drive their own learning. Hierarchy of Learner Needs A large body of research in psychology and education, focused on areas such as motivation, mindset, college & career readiness, grit, non-cognitive factors, and 21st century competencies, is uncovering the critical elements needed for students to drive their own learning. Before diving in, let’s acknowledge that just like any other human being, students need to meet their physiological needs such as food, safety (physical and emotional), and connection with others. A growth mindset can be learned. We must teach kids how to learn. Dweck.
The Other 21st Century Skills Schooling and institutionalized education have become removed from true, instinctual, and human/humane learning. Humans have been learning since the beginning of time with major discoveries and innovations historically and currently emerging in spite of school. This is the biggest problem I have with schools – most are contrived and coercive and do not honor the innate human need and desire to learn, discover, and evolve. If order to fully understand the purpose of school, the history of its evolution as an institution needs to be understood. If we want to understand why standard schools are what they are, we have to abandon the idea that they are products of logical necessity or scientific insight. From the Time Magazine article, How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century There’s a dark little joke exchanged by educators with a dissident streak: Rip Van Winkle awakens in the 21st century after a hundred-year snooze and is, of course, utterly bewildered by what he sees. Like this:
21st Century Skills Explore these powerful tools to help reach your goals. Tony Wagner’s Seven Survival Skills “The idea that a company’s senior leaders have all the answers and can solve problems by themselves has gone completely by the wayside…The person who’s close to the work has to have strong analytic skills. You have to be rigorous: test your assumptions, don’t take things at face value, don’t go in with preconceived ideas that you’re trying to prove.” —Ellen Kumata, consultant to Fortune 200 companies “The biggest problem we have in the company as a whole is finding people capable of exerting leadership across the board…Our mantra is that you lead by influence, rather than authority.” “I’ve been here four years, and we’ve done fundamental reorganization every year because of changes in the business…I can guarantee the job I hire someone to do will change or may not exist in the future, so this is why adaptability and learning skills are more important than technical skills.” “The biggest skill people are missing is the ability to communicate: both written and oral presentations.
Teaching Students to Embrace Mistakes For the last ten years, we've worked one-on-one with students from elementary school through graduate school. No matter their age, no matter the material, when you ask what they're struggling with, students almost universally name a subject: "math," "English" or, in some instances, "school." Doubting that all of school is the issue, we then ask to see their last test. To a teacher, this should be incredibly frustrating. The Science Behind Mistakes Telling students they need to take advantage of the feedback they get isn't just good advice -- it's established science. Picture a classical violinist rehearsing. Mistakes are the most important thing that happens in any classroom, because they tell you where to focus that deliberate practice. So why don't students view their mistakes as a valuable asset? Changing your students' perspective on mistakes is the greatest gift you can give yourself as a teacher. Credit: Hunter Maats and Katie O'Brien A Fresh Take on Mistakes
~ Stephen's Web Revised and Updated (minor corrections and typos only) and placed in MS-Word Document form, November 27, 2007. Click here. The version that follows below is the original (uncorrected) version). Yet another article, describing new forms of knowledge as probablistic, has crossed my desk today, and consequently it seems appropriate at this time to type a few words on the nature of distributed knowledge. It should go without saying that these are my own thoughts, and this discussion should not therefore be considered an authoritative reference on the subject. a. You probably grew up learning that there are two major types of knowledge: qualitative and quantitative. Distributed knowledge adds a third major category to this domain, knowledge that could be described as connective. This is more than just the existence of a relation between one entity and another; it implies interaction. This is why it is incorrect to represent distributed knowledge merely as a type of probabilistic knowledge.
Locus of Control Explanations > Preferences > Locus of Control Internal | External | So what? Locus of Control as a principle was originated by Julian Rotter in 1954. Note that, like other preferences, this is a spectrum. Internal People with a high internal locus of control believe in their own ability to control themselves and influence the world around them. Rotter (1990) describes the internal locus of control as: 'the degree to which persons expect that a reinforcement or an outcome of their behavior is contingent on their own behavior or personal characteristics' Their belief in their ability to change things may well make them more confident and they will hence seek information that will help them influence people and situations. They are more likely to have expectancy shifts, where a sequence of similar events are expected to have different outcomes. A downside of an internal locus of control is that, in accepting responsibility, the person has to also accept blame for failures. External Stability
Constructivism | online learning insights The Web as a classroom is transforming how people learn, is driving the need for new pedagogy; two recently launched courses at Coursera highlight what happens when pedagogical methods fail to adapt. Divided pedagogy I wrote recently about the Fundamentals of Online: Education [FOE] the Coursera course that was suspended after its first week and is now in MOOC hibernation mode. Over thirty thousands students signed up for the course hoping to learn how to develop an online course. It was a technical malfunction when students were directed to sign-up for groups through a Google Doc that shuttered the course, along with hundreds of student complaints about lack of clear instructions, and poor lecture quality. The course was suspended on February 2, and there has been no word yet as to when it will resume :(. The Tale of the Two What made e-Learning and Digital Cultures successful and FOE not? Our current higher education system is grounded in behaviorist and cognitive theories. References
Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge - Seven Principles for Cultivating Communities of Practice In a new book, Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge, the authors offer a practical guide to making knowledge work inside an organization. In this excerpt, the authors detail seven design principles for cultivating communities, everything from "design for evolution" to "combine familiarly and excitement." by Etienne Wenger, Richard McDermott, and William M. Snyder Seven principles for cultivating communities of practice In Silicon Valley, a community of circuit designers meets for a lively debate about the merits of two different designs developed by one of the participants. Because communities of practice are voluntary, what makes them successful over time is their ability to generate enough excitement, relevance, and value to attract and engage members. How do you design for aliveness? Design for evolution. 1. The dynamic nature of communities is key to their evolution. 2. 3. A large portion of community members are peripheral and rarely participate. 4.
How Do I Get a PLN? What is a PLN? Will Richardson was the first person to clearly explain to me about six or seven years ago what a PLN was. Back then, PLN stood for Professional, or Personal Learning Network. A better label today, one that might quiet the nitpickers, is Personalized Learning Network -- the shift in nuance maintains that participants are both personal and professional learners. Each individual educator becomes a potential source of information. PLNs Develop Thought Leaders Many early adopters of the PLN have gone on to become thought leaders in education, not surprising given that PLNs seem to promote a great deal of reflection and collaboration. Barriers to Mass Adoption There are three deterrents to educators using PLNs as a tool for learning and professional development (PD): The PLN is a mindset, not the outcome of a workshop or the PD offered annually by many school districts. We must remember that lifelong learning requires effort. PLNs Are Collaboration What Can PLNs Do for You?
Wiki:Main Page Instructor: Howard Rheingold Stanford Winter Quarter 2014 Mondays, 11:15-2:05, Room TBA Course Description: Today’s personal, social, political, economic worlds are all affected by digital media and networked publics. Viral videos, uprisings from Cairo to Wall Street, free search engines, abundant inaccuracy and sophisticated disinformation online, indelible and searchable digital footprints, laptops in lecture halls and BlackBerries at the dinner table, twenty-something social media billionaires, massive online university courses -- it’s hard to find an aspect of daily life around the world that is not being transformed by the tweets, blogs, wikis, apps, movements, likes and plusses, tags, text messages, and comments two billion Internet users and six billion mobile phone subscriptions emit. Learning Outcomes: Diligent students will: Cultivate an ability to discern, analyze, and exert control over the way they deploy their attention.Learn to use social media tools for collaborative work.
Connectivism: Connecting with George Siemens | Educational Discourse See on Scoop.it – Educational Discourse George Siemens, a main proponent of connectivism and a social media strategist with the Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute (TEKRI) at Athabasca… Kelly Christopherson‘s insight: I’ve been doing a great deal of reading and thinking about digital citizenship. One of the main ideas that I keep thinking about is that digital citizenship, and to an even larger degree citizenship, it is about connections. See on www.youtube.com If you enjoyed this article, Get email updates (It’s Free) Michael Hyatt | Intentional Leadership