Education Innovation

Dynamic Learning Alignment

If you want to your organization to be able to adapt and change, then your organization needs to get all people “learning” in the same direction. You need to achieve Dynamic Learning Alignment.

Dynamic Learning Alignment- DLA is reached when the people in your organization are all simultaneously learning what the organization needs to know to succeed in an ever-changing environment.

DLA is learning for the current environmental needs while at the same time learning to prepare for future challenges and opportunities.

DLA requires TriDextrous Learning. Learners prepare for their work, projects, and challenges by learning before directly addressing the work, learning during the work, and learning after the work has been completed. The learner learns about past problems and solutions, current problems and solutions, and also learns about potential future problems and solutions.

When DLA is reached in your organization, all your people will be learning for current and future success in an ever-changing and increasingly complex environment.

DLA enables an organization to become and remain incredibly flexible and adaptable. If your organization is built to change then it is built to learn –

Ability to CHANGE = Ability to LEARN

 

TriDextrous Learning

TriDextrous Learning

Learn Before

Learn During 

Learn After 

and 

Learn about the Past

Learn about the Present

Learn about the Future

TriDextrous Learning is a key to the Learning Organization

Saddleback Church Harnesses Social Learning

Take “on-the-job” training and learning combine with the exchange of ideas, insights, and wisdom that only comes from living in a community of fellow learners, add some expert teaching and instruction, then a dash of social media, and you have the ingredients for a social learning environment. And that is just what Saddleback Church aims to achieve with a new school for church leadership.

"Resident Interns" will live in a campus community, attend focused practical classes together, get hands on learning in the context of a church planting, ministry, and personal leadership development, and use their social media networks to share and extend the learning with their personal networks.

This is social learning.

In their book “The New Social Learning” authors Tony Bingham and Marcia Conner explain that social learning is, “participating with others to make sense of new ideas…”

Social learning helps us gain perspective and it helps us make better decisions because it expands our perspectives. “…learning happens with and through other people, as a matter of participating in a community, not just by acquiring knowledge.”

While to book focuses on the role of using social media true social learning is more. It’s not just adding social media, but the blend of social media and personal or group interaction that develops a learning community. Community brings collaboration. In our fast paced, ever-changing world, we need to collaborate to meet the challenges of fast moving quick developing problems. As the authors point out, “Training gives people solutions to problems that have already solved. Collaboration addresses challenges no one has overcome before.” Church planters and ministry leaders can benefit from the blend of both.

When we share a workplace, when we share a living space, when we share a virtual space, we collaborate and learn at a much higher level. That is benefit of an environment like the Saddleback Church School of Church Leadership. Resident Interns receiving hands-on learning in context during the day and then return each evening to share, empathize, and collaborate. They share not only with their fellow residents, but with their virtual networks (Facebook, Twitter, etc.).  This enables each learner to become a teacher and the campus to become a community learning laboratory. To harness the lateral wisdom available to them.

The blending of contextual real-time learning, with the personal and group proximity of living on a campus together, combined with sharing through their social media networks, creates a rich learning tapestry.

On our social media networks, there is no copyright on personal learning. Learners are free to share it, repurpose it, borrow it, copy it, remix it, use it, reinvent it, and give it. This makes us all teacher and learner.

Bingham and Conner describe the 70/20/10 learning concept. “In what is known as the 70/20/10 learning concept, Robert Eichinger and Michael Lombrado, in collaboration with Morgan McCall of the Center for Creative Leadership, explain that 70 percent of learning and development takes place from real-life and on-the-job experiences, tasks, and problem solving; 20 percent of the time development comes from other people through informal or formal feedback, mentoring, or coaching; and 10 percent of learning and development comes from formal training.”

Most settings allows for either on-the-job training (learning in context) or formal training (learning, but without context). The Saddleback model will provide both with the added benefit of the social learning that comes from interns sharing and receiving feedback from their fellow interns with whom they share a community living setting, and encouraging residents to share on their social media networks. 70/20/10 at work each day.

In an interview with the authors, learning industry analyst Ellen Wagner is quoted as explaining that, “Today we assess personal learning mastery of knowledge and skills with how well people can leverage their interconnected networks of connections to resources, information, and subject matter specialists. Workplace success has shifted from individual accomplishment to teams, communities of practice, and collaboration.”

Saddleback Church’s School of Leadership is leveraging these facts by connecting resident interns to other resident interns, to knowledgeable and wise leaders, and to their virtual social media networks; all in the context of the learning---getting the learner closer to the doing.

It’s not just about training...it’s about learning…it’s about community…it’s about extending the learning to our community and our social networks. Harnessing the lateral wisdom all around us.

This is the social learning model of church planting/ministry..and it's on its way to Saddleback Church.

Could Your School Use Some PEACE?

 

Some years ago, Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church introduced what he called the PEACE Plan. Pastor Rick explained that the PEACE plan would be a massive effort to mobilize Christians around the world to address what he calls the “five global giants” of spiritual emptiness, corrupt leadership, poverty, disease, and illiteracy by promoting reconciliation, equipping servant leaders, assisting the poor, caring for the sick, and educating the next generation.

The PEACE plan seeks to

• Promote Reconciliation
• Equip Servant leaders
• Assist The Poor
• Care For The Sick
• Educate The Next Generation

The power of the PEACE Plan lies in tapping into the local communities and the people who live there. As Pastor Rick explained, not every village has a school or a hospital, but most have a church. The local church would a hub from which PEACE could serve the needs of the community by attacking the global giants.

It struck me that here in the United States, that our schools deals have similar needs. Nearly every one of the identified global giants is present in some form at many of our schools. Most schools have students and parents that need reconciliation, servant leadership, assistance, care, and education.

The neighborhood school can be made into the de-facto community center, health clinic, food bank, and source of adult education. For every student, there is a family that can be affected through the needs meet and services delivered through the school. The school is an island in a sea of needs and problems. But, a micro-PEACE initiative can make a difference.

So I developed a plan that identified needs and plugged in resources to address them.

Promote Reconciliation

“Reconciliation” has a role at a school site, though not in obvious way most think of reconciliation. The difficulties poverty, lack of access, limited education, and language barriers creates a need for reconciliation in varying ways. Parent to Student: Parent education classes to aide parents in dealing with the difficulties of raising a student, often when the student speaks English and the does not. Networked with local community organization to provide parent counseling/education classes for free to the parents of students at the school. Parent to Parent: Used local county and community resources to get parents with relationship difficulties counseling. Often, counselors meet the parent(s) and held the session at school. When home life is unsettled, it creates a difficult environment for students. Parent to Country: Set up a relationship with a local organization that provided Immigration classes and citizenship classes for parents at a reduced rate. Classes were held at the school at night.

Equip Servant Leaders

Parents are often lacking in the knowledge to navigate the educational system and to play an active part in their student’s education because of this lack of knowledge. Schools are desperate for parents to take a greater role in leadership. The school-parent relationship is absolutely key and providing parents the knowledge and skills to become servant leaders at the school is important. For parents to become involved servant leaders at their school site they must have the knowledge. Community Parent Workshops: Contracted with local community organization to provide parent workshops. The parent workshops were designed to assist families in strengthening the ties between the academic, emotional, physical, psychological, and social components that emphasize healthy communication and thus improve academic skills and parent involvement in the school and educational process. Parent-and-the School Workshops: Conducted various workshops on how parents could participate in the school-parent relationship. Topics included how to participate in a School Site Council, English Learner Advisory Council, school PTA, school district board meetings, etc. Junior High and Beyond Workshops: Coordinated workshops that explained various topics in looking forward for their student. Topics included explaining the CAHSE (California High School Exit Exam), Junior High and High School Grading Policies (i.e; what is a GPA, how many Units are needed to graduate, etc) what financial aide is, etc.

Assist The Poor

It is hard to understate the needs of many of the families, even in Orange County. Students are often lacking in the basics of food, clothing, and shelter. Students often cannot afford the small fees for field trips and other school opportunities, and so miss out on these valuable experiences. Back Pack Food Program: Coordinated with a local neighborhood church to provide weekly deliveries of backpacks of food so students would have food enough for the weekend, when they do not receive the free breakfast and lunch they normally get at school. Back to School Supplies: Coordinated through Grace Ministries, another local church the putting together and delivery of free bags of school supplies for students. Operation School Bell and Knitting Guild Provides free clothing to the school’s most needy students. Medical Insurance: Coordinated representatives of Healthy Families to get students signed up for health insurance. Christmas Present Donations: Worked with local organizations to get Christmas presents donated to school. Had volunteer dress like Santa Clause and pass out presents to students. Field Trip Scholarships: Collected donations to help fund filed trips and camp fees for the needy students. Shelter: Worked with community agencies and local hotels to get homeless families shelter.

Care For The Sick

Schools provide some necessary health screenings for students, such as vision and hearing, but the need is so great the outside resources need to be brought into the school to meet the needs of the students and their parents. AYUDA Dental Clinic: Coordinated the free USC AYUDA dental clinic to provide dental exams, checkups, and necessary dental work for students. Gary Center: Provided free dental check exams for preschool students American Heart Association: Coordinated classes for parents on heart health and free heart checks, and healthy nutrition. American Diabetes Association: Coordinated classes for parents to learn about diabetes and prevention of diabetes, which is having an impact on students. Healthy Cooking: Coordinated volunteers who held classes on buying, preparing, and eating healthy meals. Early Morning Exercise Club: parents meet on the athletic field before school and stretched and walked with a volunteer leader. Educate The Next Generation and The Illiterate Parents are often desperate for educational opportunities but lack the knowledge or access to these opportunities. When parents are provided the opportunities, they empower themselves and provide an excellent role model for their children. English as a Second Language (ESL): Coordinated the delivery of free classes taught by instructors from local North Orange County Community College District. Book Donation: Elks Club and other service clubs donating books After School Volunteer Tutoring Program: Using community volunteers, local college students, retired teachers, etc, set up an after school tutoring program that helps students with homework or targeted skills needed by students.   A School Based PEACE Plan for schools simply frames the many issues schools face into the 5 categories or "global giants" and taps into groups, organizations, and individuals to provide solutions and resources...the community's Lateral Wisdom.

See Also:

Can "The Least Of Us" Disrupt and Change Education for "The Rest Of Us?"

 

 

Waiting For Any Man

Last week my school had a baby shower...I didn't go.

It's not that I have anything against baby showers. I just didn't want to be the only man in the room.

I have been thinking about that a lot lately. Being the only man in the room is starting to wear on me a bit. The people I work with are incredible. They are the sorts of teachers we all hope and wish for. I just wish I wasn't the only man.

But I am usually the only man.

I have been thinking about my near decade in education. I have worked at 3 different schools. I have worked for and with 6 different principals 5 of who were women. I have worked with nearly 100 different teachers over my time in education. Of those 100 teachers only 9 others were men.

At some I just got used to the fact that when I would attend at meeting at the district office, or a staff development session somewhere, or served on a school site council, etc. I was going to be the only man in the room.

I love everyone I have had the chance to work with during my time in education. I just wish that there were some more men to work with, bond with, and share the male experience with. I don't think it is healthy to always be void of that connection that comes with being men. (And vice-versa for women) To go day after day without a "Hey brother, did you catch the game?" or handshake, or some just some general guy commiseration, bonding, friendship, and perspective.

While the rest of the nation debates Waiting for Superman, I have been silently been debating the impact on education and myself from having so few men in elementary education.

I don’t need superman. I am waiting for any man.

Changing Education Paradigms- Sir Ken Robinson

Student Cheating and Plagiarism or Creativity and Innovation?

During a recent conversation with my #ecosys Twitter friends, the topic turned to a recent BBC article about how Danish students were being allowed to use the Internet during exams. Danish pupils use web in exams

What followed was a thoughtful conversation about the advantages and disadvantages of allowing students access to the Internet during exams and if this amounted to cheating or plagiarism.

Phil Hart (@philhart) wrote an excellent and thoughtful piece on his blog (A techie’s view) titled “Is Using the Internet Cheating?

Phil notes that, “People now have access to levels of knowledge that was inconceivable 20 years ago. Rather than having to carry thousands of facts around in one’s head, what is needed today is an understanding of the context in which the question is being asked and being able to place the answers within that context.”

In terms of cheating during an exam Phil clearly points out that, “So when we see somebody ‘cheating’ in an exam, what are they doing? They are taking information from another source, in this case a fellow assessee. Is it legitimate to do so? Probably not, but … accessing the Internet with the correct question and being able to use the resulting answers when responding to an exam question requires an understanding of the context. In other words: “How well is the assessee able to remember the context (and everything that goes into making a context) rather than being able to merely regurgitate facts?”

I agree with Phil’s points and conclusions.

But beyond having access to the internet to answer test questions is the the larger question of taking existing ideas, research, work and “pirating” it into other “improved” or “reinvented” works.

Is if this is an actual skill that should be developed and encouraged in our students?

Is it piracy and plagiarism, or is it creativity and innovation? 

Which do you suppose we should be teaching our students to do?

We live in an age where anybody can produce, mix, or re-purpose information and ideas.

When we pirate information and ideas, we may just be innovating new ideas and creating new ways of doing things.

Thomas Edison invented the phonograph and musicians viewed it as piracy. He was pirating their music, recording it, and selling it. They feared the end of live performances, instead an entire industry was born, the music industry.

MP3 players existed prior to the iPod, but the iPod pirated that technology and created it’s own phenomena. Music lovers, wanting to share music with each other without paying, created digital music sites like Napster. They were pirating their way around and outside of what the music industry existed to do. Steve Jobs figured out that to beat the pirates he had to compete with them and built iTunes. The pirates ideas had become mainstream and put old music sellers out of business. It is piracy or innovation? Is it plagiarism or creativity?

The iPod itself is just a combination of pre-existing ideas; the battery, operating system, hard drive, screen, MP3 technology, etc.

Reggae, Disco, and Hip-hop music demonstrate that we can repurpose music into something new. The pirate old songs and create new and innovative versions. These versions become so popular that they create entirely new music genres. It is piracy or creativity?

Moviemakers, not wanting to pay high fees in New York pirates their way around the system by setting up studios in California. Today we call it Hollywood.

India reverse engineers drugs for the poor pirating what they themselves could not afford to do. Drug companies, sensing the good public relations they can benefit from, begin selling their drugs at huge discounts an in some cases giving them away. They respond to the pirates by creating an entirely new approach of serving the poor of the world. Piracy or creativity?

Teachers pirate great lesson plans and instructional ideas from other teacher all the time. It helps them to be more effective and learn new ways of instructing their students.

So, is piracy and plagiarism just another way of being creative and innovative? Are they a source of new ideas, methods, and models? Are there links to each other or are they mutually exclusive? 

A senior business executive needing the most current research on a company or economic trend asks his junior executive to find the best and most current information. The junior executive doesn’t start his or her own research project, rather he or she Googles the information looking for the most current research on the topic that has already been done by the most respected and knowledgeable experts. He or she copies it, rips it, digitizes it, scans it, re-purposes it, integrates it, synthesizes it, and puts into a usable document to give the senior executive. This is what we call good research.

In the classroom we call plagiarism.  So, it is plagiarism or creativity?

Most of the examples I shared, which come from Matt Mason, would be examples of plagiarism and cheating if they happened inside a classroom.

Doesn't there seem to be a disconnect from what we do in the classroom and what the real world expects of them? I know most of you are saying it's about the process. But if that is true, then why do we spend so much time evaluating and grading the result?

If it really is about process then Pat Dixon has an idea;

• Give the students a question they know nothing about.
• Give them 30 minutes to put together a 3000 word report on that question.
• Grade for Correctness in the answer
• Authoritativeness of sources used
• Uniqueness of of the pieced together report. 

Catalytic Questions:

In what ways could you re-purpose your research report assignments to develop real world skills that focus on the process, the correctness, the authoritativeness, and uniqueness of synthesis?

What might that look like in your classroom or school?

How does your current understanding of technology, business, and innovation impact your thoughts?

How might your students be better served with the assignments they work on?

In what ways have you been successful in the past in adjusting assignments to meet the changing needs of the students and the world they live in? How might you draw upon that experience?

In what ways does the discussion of plagiarism and pirating vs. creativity and innovation force you to think in new ways?

What are the underlying principles at work in this discussion and how does it/they impact your approach to education?

What if you were to reverse the process and have students examine existing reports and determine how well they meet the criteria for a good research report?

Which assignments could you substitute with these new ideas?

Recommended Reading: 

Plagiarism and Pirates

Plagiarism Is A Good Thing?

Where's the Respect? A 21st Century Learning Question

The Dangers and Benefits of Piracy and The Pirate's Dilemma

 

The Digitzed Classroom

You may have heard of the digital classroom, but what about the digitized classroom.

Imagine taking every idea or word spoken, each question asked and answered, every word written, every sketch, every chart, every lesson, every example, etc. digitized.

The entire history of your classroom could become a permanent record.

Everything in your classroom indexed and tagged...

Searchable

Syndicated

Shareable and social.

That’s Education Innovation

Education's 21st Century "Double Down"

The 18th Century was the time of the "Enlightenment."  In response, education created the essential subjects.

The 19th Century was the time of the "farm." In response, education calendared and timed itself to planting and harvesting.

The 20th Century was the time of the "factory." In response, education became a system and process to be managed and measured.

The 21st Century is the time of the idea. In response, education doubled-down on the previous three centuries with common core and national standards, committment to limited school day and summers off, and nationalized standardized testing (NCLB, RTTT)

Here's to innovation!

The Neighborhood School

What if, instead of a school being a reflection of the neighborhood the neighborhood was a reflection of the school?

What if, instead of school conditions being the result of the neighborhood, the neighborhood conditions were the result of the school?

By Rick Elkins

What would that mean to education?

What would that mean to you?