Education Innovation

Un-learning Creativity and Innovation

Gordon MacKenzie is sort or a personal hero of mine. Though he has now passed away, I still turn to his book Orbiting the Giant Hairball for inspiration. In his book he relates a famous and oft repeated story about a trip to visit an elementary school.

by cobalt123

As he meet with each grade level, he related to them that he is an artist. He would look around the room and notice all the student work and then wonder aloud who had created all the wonderful artwork.

He would then ask, “How many artists are there in the room.”  “Please raise your hands.”
The responses were very telling. In kindergarten and first grade class rooms, every student threw their hand up in the air. In second grade classrooms, about three-fourths raised their hands in response. In third grade, only a few students help up their hands, some very timidly. So it went, each grade a little worse than the one before it until he finally reached sixth grade. In response to Gordon’s question, most students looked around to see if anyone would admit to being an artist, as if such an admission was a violation of group norms.

In the span of Kindergarten to sixth grade, students had un-learned their naturally tendency to be an “artist.” Why?

Sir Ken Robinson has been the rage lately on the web. He gave a talk at the T.E.D conference several years ago about how schools systematically kill student creativity. I posted a clip of his talk several months back. You can find it here (Is Creativity As Important As Literacy). I am hoping to finally get to his book one of these days.

But there are so many people who seem to get it. I was very interested in what Doreen Lorenzo had to say at frogblog in his post Innovation Needs to be Nurtured Early.

He says…

“I believe that the emphasis on this frantic search for innovation is a result of our inability to foster this concept starting at the elementary school level. Shouldn’t we all be innovators? Part of what makes us human is our ability to think and reason. With that in mind, innovation should be part of our fiber. Why can’t children maintain their creative innovation past the 2nd grade? At some point the concept of innovation is ripped out of their souls. They are told to follow the rules, prepare for the standardized tests and think about getting a good job that pays well.”

In an age where standardized tests are the measuring stick by which schools and students are measured, we are creating an environment where we can’t afford to spend the time necessary to allow children to be as creative as they can be. We focus on getting the one right answer for each question because this is what the system has forced us into.  Politicians do not brag about the quality of educational programming, or how school X has made growth over time. Newspapers can’t print growth over or quality teaching. They can print a test score. The can print it next to the scores of other schools. It is very neat and orderly. Who is good and who is bad is a matter of running your finger up and down a column of scores.

Doreen goes on to say…

“Finding great creative talent continues to be the biggest issue in our world where in reality it should be the easy part. However, since schools begin to dismiss the notion of creativity once a child leaves kindergarten, the pool of applicants gets very small by the time they actually enter the workforce. How can we shift the focus to allow kids to explore, think bigger, reward their drive and ambition as not just an anomaly but a must-have in today’s world? Instead, creative kids are often labeled ‘creative,’ which means ‘different.’ And different is too often not a good word for a child.”

Education is beginning to have the conversation, but with much in education, the wheels turn very slow. Doreen’s voice is another to add to the growing call for change. I for one believe in Tom Peters call for NO INCREMENTALISM. But that is the prerogative of the idealist. I hate to wait.

The New Educational Reality: Part 2

What does a book on New Marketing, consumer communication, scarcity of attention, the book Think Better, individualized instruction, and YouTube have to do with education? They don't, but I really tried hard to find one.

by DailyPic

In his book Meatball Sundae, Seth Godin describes 14 Trends of New Marketing. I put these trends under the lens of education and call them the New Reality. See yesterday's post for Trends 1-7

Trend 8: Infinite Channels of Communication
The New Reality requires that you have great ideas. If you want to continue to attract students to your schools and your district your ideas and programs need to be good, interesting, or original. It is not enough to hope that your schools continue to get a steady stream of new students. Technology will allow for students and parents to learn everything there is to know about your school or district. But first they have to want to know about your school and your district. If your school or district has innovative programs and ideas in place, it is key that the marketplace of education knows about it. Technology will allow you to reach out to those who might be interested in your programs ideas. The key is to use the channels of communication to target the types of students and parents who would be interested in the programs you offer. You want to get to the people who care about what you are doing and offering. Without those people, you are just sending out white noise. Target your group. Channels of communication used correctly will help you be more specific in which you target, and reach even more of those who care; those who want to know.

Trend 9: Direct Communication And Commerce Between Consumers and Consumers
Parents have power. Unions have power too. Imagine the power parents would have if they organized themselves like unions. The new reality is that technology is allowing for more direct communication between parents and parents and students and students. Technology lowers the barriers to communication. Parents don’t have to be at the P.T.A meeting or on the school site council to organize and have a voice. Further, one individual and the right technology can do what formerly only groups of people could do. Namely, spread their voice and ideas about what is happening at your schools. Networks built this way can easily connect with networks at other schools, other districts, counties, or states. Direct communication is putting your parents and students in touch with their peers and allowing them to organize with almost no effort. So even apathetic parents and students can easily click to join the movement and add their voice to the discussion.

Trend 10: The Shifts In Scarcity And Abundance
The New Reality is that things once common are becoming scarce, while scare things are now becoming common. What used to be scarce was access to technology, information about you and your schools, outside sources of teaching. What are now scarce is attention, spare time, trust, and cutting edge programs. In the old reality location mattered. In the new reality, learning can happen anywhere, so location does not matter to students. Spare time is scare, so learning that takes place on the student’s time table will become more available and students permitting themselves to locked into your will become scarce. Your new reality focus should be how to begin to eliminate distance and schedules and empower students, parents, and teachers to connect anywhere at anytime.

Trend 11: The Triumph of Big Ideas
According to Seth, “In factory-base organizations, little ideas are the key to success. Small improvements in efficiency or design can improve productivity…”  The new reality demands of education something bigger. Tim Hurson, author of Think Better, describes this as Kaizen vs. Tenkaizen. Small improvements in what is currently done vs. totally new ideas of how to do things. Education has chosen to organize around the small idea. The new reality rewards organizations that organize themselves around new ideas. Big ideas. People are looking for the big idea. Think of online learning. That is a big idea. People are attracted to it. You don’t have to advertise it, that experience of learning from anyplace, at anytime, and at your own pace embeds the message of the idea into the experience. A big idea like this, pursued relentlessly is a giant killer.

Trend 12: The Shift From “How Many” To “Who”
Think of this as differentiated instruction in the new reality. This means bringing the right information or instruction, to the right person, who is focused on what you are teaching, at the right time.  The new reality demands this sort of individualized instruction. Technology makes this possible.

Trend 13: The Wealthy Are Like Us
The gap between rich and poor continues to widen. Despite this gap, there are more wealthy people than ever before. The market for education that can be custom built for the individual student is going to arise. Why go to ordinary schools when you can get a custom built education suited to your exact needs, at your pace, and focused on your interests. The same technology and educational model that can deliver this to the wealthy will eventually be able to deliver it to all students. The wealthy and the poor can both benefit from the models and practice that develop to meet the need of wealthy parents buying customized education.

Trend 14: New GateKeepers, No GateKeepers
YouTube can allow virtually anyone on the planet to make a movie with his or her message and share it with the world. They don’t need a movie studio or a distribution contract. All they need is an idea. Now, if anyone can spread a message to anyone else with ease, what makes you think that education, your school, or your district is in control or immune from that?  Think of the power that your students could wield. They could reach out to the entire globe, share their ideas and thoughts about any subject (including you) and they don’t need you are a school to do that. The same technology that allows students to share ideas globally allows them to interact with teachers, tutors, and instructors from around the globe as well. They can learn from people all over the world without your permission, authorization, or control. They don’t need you to learn. Teaching is not the school or the districts private domain anymore. The students are going to bypass the educational gatekeepers.

Catalytic Questions:

How might you stand out in the market place of education? In what ways are you communicating your message to connect to potential students?

How might your school be impacted if parents and students organized through online networks? Might impact might this have on your school or district?

Would organized student or parents networks be a partner or an advisory to your school or district? How might you engage these networks?
In what ways might your educational model change if you focused on learning, which can happen anywhere and anytime, as opposed to teaching in the classroom?

What might this look like at your school?

What big idea have you implemented lately?  How would you change your approach to your educational model if you developed completely new ideas instead of making slight improvements to existing models?

What big idea would you implement?  Who could help? Who else?

In what ways do you see technology being able to individualize to each students’ needs?

In what ways could models of education that wealthy students have access to be made available to all students?  What sort of things might you adapt or modify?

If students don’t have to rely on the teacher in the classroom, how does this change your view of our current educational model? How might you adapt to a future educational model based on the Open Model of Education?

Recommended Reading: 

14 Trends Of The New Educational Reality (Part 1-Trends 1-7)

Think Better blog

The New Educational Reality: Part 1

What do you get when you combine a meatball sundae, home/school communication, brand management, the long tail, the New York Times best sellers list, Google, homework, outsourcing, and the definitions of literacy? Let’s put them in the Education Innovation blender and find out.

by puppethead

In his book Meatball Sundae, Seth Godin describes 14 Trends of New Marketing. I put these trends under the lens of education and call them the New Reality.

Trend 1: Direct Communication and Commerce Between Producers and Consumers
Consumers demand speed. Businesses need to respond quickly to consumer demands or the consumer will go elsewhere. Consumers can now connect directly to the top of an organization. They expect a response. Technology is changing the way organizations and customers interact.

Our students and parents live in a world with the ability to communicate with an organization and expect a quick response. Is the use of technology in your school changing the way you interact with students and parents? Are you responding to the needs of your students and parents and communicating that response effectively? If students and parents can communicate directly with the school, how important is the response you give back? How quick do you respond? Do you view it as a burden or an opportunity to spread your educational vision and message?

Trend 2: Amplification Of The Voice Of The Consumer and Independent Authorities.
Every interaction with a consumer is an interaction with a critic (or potential critic).
Everybody, student, parent, community member has a voice that can be amplified through technology. What are they going to say about your school?  What are they going to say about your educational brand? (You do have a brand, whether you like it or not.)

The web remembers forever. A poorly written email can be posted in minutes to the web.  Blogs allow students, parents, and community members into instant publishers. YouTube allows them to become movie producers. What are the publishing or producing about you? You may have a point of view on an issue, but who is better able to get their message out, you or the student run blog posting pictures, YouTube videos, and podcasts? Your schools reputation is always on the line and on-line. What is being said about you?

Trend 3: Need For An Authentic Story As The Number Of Sources Increases
Stories spread, not facts. So what stories are being told about your school and your teachers? A story is a symbol of who you are. Do you know your symbol? Do you care? Why would anyone want to go to your school? What makes your teachers so great?

Technology is allowing for students and parents to share their stories about you. Are you sharing your own stories? Do you have an educational brand that you trying to spread? What kind of message is your school trying to spread? There is a story about your school, the question is, is it your story or somebody else’s version?

Trend 4: Extremely Short Attention Spans Due To Clutter
There is a multitude of choices and a deluge of interruptions for students and parents. Commercials went from a minute to thirty seconds to, in some cases, three seconds. A bestseller was on the New York bestsellers list for 22 weeks, now it’s on the list for two. Books are shorter. Not enough time to read the book, listen to the audio version in the car. YouTube has over 7 million video. Most are only watched for less than 10 seconds. If it’s not good we move on.

That is the world you student is living in. If the don’t like it, the switch it, drop it, or change it. They don’t have to wait for something better. They are in control.

What about in the classroom? How much time do you get to grab their attention, make it meaningful, and engage before they drop you? They may be forced to sit there, but they aren’t forced to learn. The world is catering to their desire to move on. Your teaching can’t afford to be good enough. It must be great or it won’t cut through all the clutter or the world they are living in. You can’t count on their attention and engagement. You have to compete for it and win it.

Trend 5: The Long Tail
“Any market of people with sufficient resources will get very pick on you.”
People want choice. Students and parents want choice. Education does not have to provide that choice. (For now) Students have to go to school. They have to go to school in your district. They may be allowed to move within your district, but for the most part, they are assigned to you. You didn’t have to earn them, they were just sent to you. But you can’t rely on that forever.

Your students and parents live in a world where they can find nearly any book they want at Amazon. More of them are watching YouTube videos than the top ten television shows. Online they can find a hundred times more inventory than a retail store. You can find nearly anything on Google. The digital world means products are easy to store and easy to customize to the individual need.

So, if they can find nearly anything they want or need online and have it customized to their needs, what makes you think they need your school? They can find the learning they want online, learn what they want, when they want, where they want, and at the pace they want. So why should they want you? What is it about your educational brand or story that makes them want to choose you?

Trend 6: Outsourcing
You assign the project or the paper and then your student goes home and out sources the work online to some student in India or Sri Lanka. Why not? A report you want, a report you shall get. It costs your students and parents to connect with people in any part of the world to share skills, abilities, and resources. Homework for sale via the Internet is a reality. There is not sense trying to stop it, it’s already out there. The question is how can you adjust your assignment to make them meaningful and engaging so the student won’t outsource the work. Disruptive Technology is going to allow for all sorts of changes like this.

It’s not just assignments. When I can hire online tutors, watch educational videos, or get language lessons through my web cam, outsourcing teaching is here too. What are you doing about that reality?  Maybe just you are just going to rely on the old model of, “You have to go here. You live here.”  That may work for you, but that is not the world your students are growing up in.

Trend 7: Google And The Dicing Of Everything
Having the teacher in your classroom is no longer a reason to believe that is where the teaching and learning is going to happen. Students are a few clicks away from being connected to people all around the world who are willing to teach and tutor.

Google has allowed us to find any piece of information or facts we would ever want to know. In fact, in the new reality, it is not the piece of information or fact; it’s how to find it. Students don’t want to memorize names, dates, formulas, etc., that they can just look up in Google. Why? Why memorize what is right at my fingertips? They key is learning how to find the facts or information. Google has changed literacy? It not longer memorizing the “what”, but knowing where and how to find the “what.”

We will look at Trends 8-14 tomorrow.

Catalytic Questions:

How might your view of parent/student communication change if you knew it was being used to judge your school or yourself?

In what ways are you using technology to communicate with students and parents to spread your educational vision and brand? 

Is it effective? What might you change, add, or subtract from what you are currently doing?

Do you know what is being said about you and your school online?

Do you have an educational brand and are you managing it effectively?

In what ways are you or might you leverage technology to communicate your educational brand and your school’s story?

What is your school’s story?

How might your teaching change if you understood that you must compete and win your students’ attention?

What might this look like in the classroom?

Are you relying on the current lack of choice parents and students have, or are you thinking and preparing yourself for the power of choice they will soon demand?

If students and parents could choose, why would they choose you?
How might your thinking on assignments change based on the knowledge that students can outsource the work?

What might you do differently?

In what ways might the definition of knowledge and literacy change based on what Google has provided to every student?

Recommended Reading:

Literacy in the 21st Century

Why My Gym Is The Future of Education

The Questions We Choose To Ask and Answer: The Open Model of Education

The Future of Education

The Future of Education: Send the Lecture Home

Disruptive Ideas For School Change

What does General Motors, alternative fuel, The Ken Burns Effect, Clayton Christensen, education have in common? Nothing, until they were put into the Education Innovation Blender.

by Cayusa

You may have heard of the Ken Burns Effect. But have you ever heard of the Larry Burns Effect?  Probably not, because I just made the term up. Larry Burns is a vice-president at General Motors in charge of alternative fuel-source research and development.

For the last decade, Larry’s job has been to figure out how to find a new way to power GM cars and do away with car’s reliance on the internal-combustion engine. His task is monumental and disruptive, because he job is to figure out a way to move General Motors away from gas-powered vehicles. Think about that, his job is to figure out a way to change what all his peers are doing and working on everyday.

Instead of getting into the internal organizational difficulties of trying to convince General Motors to give up making gas-powered vehicles, he has reframed the question. He asks himself each day, “If we were inventing the automobile today, what would we come up with?” 

So too, those of us who see clearly the need for education to change, can struggle to make internal organizational change, or we can ask, “If we were inventing the education system today, what would we come up with?”  I call that the Larry Burns Effect.

Clayton Christensen  wrote a book titled Disrupting Class. The premises that disruptive technologies can and will fundamentally change education due to the demand for individual instruction that could be met through infinitely customizable online computer-based instruction.

What education needs is Disruptive Ideas.

We need to combine Christensen’s disruptive technologies with disruptive ideas. We need disruptive methodologies, disruptive systems, disruptive strategies, disruptive innovations, disruptive imagination, disruptive creativity, disruptive visions, and disruptive initiatives.

The time has come for the Larry Burns Effect. We need to unleash these "disruptions" onto our education system and answer the questions, “If we were inventing the education system today, what would we come up with?” A reinvention of education!

That's Education Innovation

Cluetrain Manifesto: Clues to Change In Education Too

Cluetrain Review

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: web 2.0 cluetrain)

The 4th Way For Education

If you haven’t seen the Nokia video on YouTube, you really should take a look. (Thanks to Wesley Fryer for sharing via Twitter.)  In the video Nokia shares the idea they call the “Fourth Screen.” 

The First Screen was the movie screen. People gathered in the public space of the movie theater to see the world presented to them through the lens of the movie camera. History and entertainment were all brought to the big screen. People, together in public, were able to laugh, cry, cringe, cheer, and share emotions together. 

by Roloff

Just as moviegoers watch together, so too, do students learn together in the classroom. But the First Screen and the classroom share some flaws. Both require the people it serves to come to it. Both function off a set schedule. A both limit their offerings. Choice, time, and location are the limitations of the First Screen and the classroom.

The Second Screen was the television screen. People were connected to the outside world through a menu of television programs. People could learn about the world around them and talk about what they were watching. Television was able to reach more people. Those people required a greater variety of programming. But, instead of sharing the screen with the public, the Second Screen was shared in privacy of the home alone or with family and friends. Strangers were not part of the Second Screen experience like it was in the First Screen experience. 

by allhails

The Second Screen and the classroom still shared some limitations. The participant was required to be in front of the television in a fixed location, just as the student is required to be in fixed classroom. While television increased the choice and variety of its offerings compared to the movie screen, the content was still decided upon by others. Just as the variety of subjects students are required to learn has increased, those subjects are still decided upon by someone other than the student. So called experts controlled programming just as so-called experts control curriculum.

The Third Screen was the computer screen. The computer screen changed the way we work and play. The Internet allowed people from all over the world to pursue their particular interests and to form virtual communities on-line. The Third Screen allowed people access to more information than they could have imagined. It opened up access to new types of media and allowed people to participate in creating, sharing, and talking about all types of media. But, though they belonged to “communities” they were still virtual communities. Choice had never been greater and the ability to participate in the creation, consumption, commenting on, or collection of information and media was available to many. 

by Yves Janse

The Third Screen seemed to be the penultimate in screen evolution. However, the Third Screen and the current model of 21st Century Education still share some limitations and flaws. Participants of on-line communities and students are still limited to access to the Internet access, either hard-wired or wireless. The Third Screen is limiting in that much of the community is virtual. No true person-to-person interaction. Virtual space will never match touch space in the most powerful aspect of human interaction. In education, the technology that exists for students is still limited by access for all, the need for the majority of students to be present in the classroom to use the technology, and for education to focus the technology on the individual instead of creating communities.

The Fourth Screen, according to Nokia, is the screen that you take with you. The Fourth Screen allows the user to leave the virtual community behind and take the technology out into their actual community. The Fourth Screen allows the user to take advantage of the ability to create, share, collect, and comment, with their virtual or real community. It takes the user back in the realm of the First Screen, back out into the public. Fixed location, limited choice, being virtual, or being forced to create at a certain location unbinds users. POD's (Personally Owned Devices) as David Truss would call them.

The Fourth Screen is the Open Model of Education. Users and students can be in public, interacting with the world or their communities. They can be both can exist in both virtual space and touch space. They can introduce their virtual community to their touch space community. And it can happen anywhere, at anytime. Choice, unbound by time and geography, accomplished with portable technology. Information and knowledge unfiltered by experts and content created, consumed, collected, and discussed without limitations. This is the Fourth Screen and this is the Open Model of Education. Learning at anytime, from anyone, in anyplace, and is meaningful to the student. It’s the fusion of the in person and in public First Screen, with the at home in private Second Screen, and the virtual space of the Third Screen. The Open Model of Education and the Fourth Screen are the future and it’s going to change everything.

It is the 4th way of education. The remix of the previous 3. The 4th way is the power of the remix, the blend, the fusion of all elements.

I found this great picture from David Armano's amazing blog, Logic+Emotion. His is one site I cant' do without. David asks Have We Come Full Circle? 

This picture touches nicely on this evolution of education. People using all of the tools of technology and networks is the 4th way, the Open Model of Education.

That is most definitely Education Innovation.

Recommended Reading:

PODs

The Ugly Side of Open Education?

Is there such a thing as “too open”?

Failure Is An Option In The Open Model of Education

The Open Model of Education

14 Trends Of The New Educational Reality Part 1

14 Trends Of The New Educational Reality: Part 2

Open Education blog

Mankind Is No Island

Powerful.

Sheepwalkers At School

I have previously blogged about Sacred Cows.
Education's Sacred Cows
and
Death To All Sacred Cows

But instead of cows, let's talk about Sheep.

In his new book Tribes, Seth Godin talks about Sheepwalkers. What is a sheepwalker you ask?

^{Bēn on holiday ;-)}

“ I define sheepwalking as the outcome of hiring people who have been raised to be obedient and giving them brain-dead jobs and enough fear to keep them in line.”

“It’s ironic but not surprising that in our age of increased reliance on new ideas, rapid change, and innovation, sheepwalking is actually on the rise. That’s because we can no longer rely on machines to do the brain dead stuff.”

Sheepwalkers are on the rise. Why?

“We’ve mechanized what we could mechanize. What’s left is to cost-reduce the manual labor that must be done by a human. So we write manuals and race to the bottom in our search for the cheapest possible labor. And it’s not surprising that when we go to hire that labor, we search for people who have already been trained to be sheeplike.”

So where are all these sheepwalkers coming from? Who creates sheepwalkers?

“Training a student to be a sheep is a lot easier than the alternative. Teaching to the test, ensuring compliant behavior, and using fear as a motivator are the easiest and fastest way to get a kid through school. So why it surprise us that we graduate so many sheep?”

Obviously, not all schools or teachers are creating sheepwalkers, but there are a lot who are. And sadly, we know it. The educational system likes sheepwalkers. You many not like sheepwalkers, but the system does.

“And graduate school? Because the stakes are higher (opportunity, cost, tuition, and the job market), students fall back on what they’ve been taught: to be sheep. Well-educated sheep, of course, but compliant nonetheless.”

Education is full of sheep, sheepwalkers, who spend all their days teaching compliant little sheep themselves. Sheepwalkers, who spend their days defending the status quo.

Bah, bah.

 ^Binkiexxx

My Literature Footprint: What Does It Say About Me?

^{Note: The following post should be read in your best Andy Rooney voice. Feel free to comb up your eyebrows to add to the effect.}

Everybody is talking about Digital Footprints, and what they might say about who you are. I wanted to take things old school.

I was wondering what my literature footprint says about me. I decided to take stock of what I have sitting around me and let you have a peek into my mind.

From the side table next to my favorite leather chair

Stack 1
The Pirate’s Dilemma- Matt Mason
Crowdsourcing- Jeff Howe
The Collaborative Administrator- The whole DuFour gang
Smart Kids, Bad Schools- Brian Crosby
A proposal to help a group of friends get an organization off the ground.
Here Comes Everybody- Clay Shirky
The Starfish and The Spider- Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom
Generation Digital- Kathryn C. Montgomery

Stack 2
OnCue Journal- current edition
Educational Leadership magazine from ACSA- current edition
Click- Bill Tancer
The Wisdom of Crowds- James Surowiecki
Data Driven Dialogue- Bruce Wellman and Laura Lipton

Stack 3
Innovative Whack Pack- Roger Von Oech
Creative Whack Pack - Roger Von Oech
Thinkpak- Michael Michalko

Stack 4
Idea for a book project
Tribes- Seth Godin
Wired magazine- current issue
Macworld- current issue
Education Next- current issue
Large blank journal for ideas and mindmapping
The Age of Speed- Vince Poscente

In a Barnes and Noble bag on the floor (no, really, still in the bag)
Born Digital- John Palfrey and Urs Gasser
The Cathedral and the Bazaar-  Eric S. Raymond

TV Stand
Current issue of Discover magazine
Several past issues of Macworld magazine
           Maximum PC magazine
           Car and Driver magazine
           The American magazine
           Automobile magazine

Bathroom
Two past issues of The American magazine
A past issue of Kiplinger’s magazine (obviously no good now!)
A past issue of Educational Leadership from ACSA
The current issue of Instructor magazine from Scholastic
What’s Next: 21 Ideas for 21st Century Learning by Charles Leadbetter

Nightstand
Life Application Study Bible
The Message
The Purpose Driven Life- Rick Warren
Jesus Want to Save Christians- Rob Bell and Don Golden

So, what do you think my literature footprint says about me? Something interesting, something innovative, something creative, something catalytic, I hope.

What does yours say about you?

The Brain Rules Guide to School Design

If John Medina, author of Brain Rules, ran your school it might look something like this.

Teaching School
The school would be a combination of regular school, teacher preparation school, and a research school that combines educational theory with brain theory. Think of a teaching hospital. Teachers who are currently teaching, aspiring teachers learning and interacting daily with students and teachers, and educational researchers working with brain researchers to develop new teaching theory.

Great relationships between student and teachers
Great relationships enhance learning and reduce stress which decreases learning.

Students are taught to love learning
Students learn that learning is about intrinsic curiosity and desire. Students love to learn because they see the intrinsic value of it, and not to earn a grade.

Parallel schedules
Because some brains are more effective during different parts of the day, there would be two schedules to match the needs of teachers and students who work better early or late.

Exercise
Recess would be held twice a day. In the morning, 20-30 minutes of aerobic activity, followed later in the day with 20-30 of strength training and stretching. Students would wear gym clothes all day. Tread mills would be installed in classrooms to further increase opportunities for students to exercise while learning.

Small Class Sizes
Small class sizes allow teacher to better understand the inner motivation of their students, easily seeing if a student is engaged or confused and if the teaching is being transformed into learning. Teachers would think of themselves as managers of minds, and the fewer minds to manage the better.

Technology
Adaptive software that adjusts to the needs of each student would be used to better individualize and differentiate for student needs.

Lecture and Lesson Design (1)
The introduction is key. How the teacher introduces the material has a huge impact on learning. Lesson would be broken into 10-minute blocks, each of which focuses on a single subject or objective, the gist of which can be explained in 1 minute. In between each 10-minute block an Emotionally Competent Stimuli (ECS) will be place to grab the student’s attention by triggering emotion and make the subject matter relevant. During the lesson blocks, the teacher will provide a mental map of the lesson and will check with the students to ensure that they know where they have been and where they are going in the lesson.

Lecture and Lesson Design (2)
Lesson or lectures will be highly visual. Many photos and computer animations will be made use of. Lesson will be multi-sensory to the extent possible. Heavy use of real world examples will be used to help make meaningful connections.

Lesson Review
After lessons, students will be given time to talk and think about the learning. Reviews of material would be scheduled every 3-4 days. These reviews would be multi-sensory as well.

Teacher Evaluation
Teachers would be screened for their ability to manage minds, understand their students, and create brain focused lesson plans.

So there you have it. The ultimate guide to the Brain Rules school design.

For more info I suggest:

No Such Thing As Learning Styles

Tips and Techniques for Memory Enhancement

Working Memory Capacity, Encoding, and Retrieval from Long-Term Memory

Learning About Swimming Takes Place Best At A Pool: Brain Rules Part 8

The Golden Moment of Learning: Brain Rules Part 7

Great Teaching and Presentation with the Brain Rules Lesson Plan: Brain Rules Part 6

Are You Paying Attention? -- Brain Rules Part 5

Theory of Mind-- Brain Rules Part 4

Billions of Intelligences? --Brain Rules Part 3

Student and Teacher Relationships: Brain Rules Part 2

 Increase Test Scores with Exercise:Brain Rules Part 1