Curriculum 21: Essential Education for a Changing World
Heidi Hayes Jacobs, EdD
curriculum21.com
Paper is over.
Prezi is an example of the deliberate use of new genre for specific purposes - great for attention and rapid eye movement, not great for sustained work.
In your schools, as we are looking at curriculum and instruction, choose your century.
Can't think of a better time to be an educator (She has been an educator for 40 years)
Essential Questions:
- How can we prepare our learners for their future?
- Who owns the learning?
Technologies are tools that go with teaching and learning. The tools do make a difference. The point isn't the tools, it's how we engage them. The tools we use impact learning. New tools and new literacies. They do, on some levels, support each other.
10% of the 21st Century is over.
If you look at your curriculum as an artifact, if you look at your schedule as an artifact, how you're grouped, etc., what year are you preparing your students for?
[To be honest, I think our School of Education is "good" in traditional terms, but not preparing the educators that we NEED for today's students. We are not training our students in collaborative, problem-based, authentic models using modern tools and resources, so why would they teach this way?]
The tools we use impact communication.
[This woman is HILARIOUS! A great presenter! Check out her stuff, people. She's got a great perspective and outstanding ideas.]
The way we share curriculum has changed, because the portals are open.
I don't want students going online and playing with kids all over the world, and then coming into our dated classrooms.
The use of these tools should not be extraneous to curriculum - they should be supporting the central points of curriculum.
Skype and a National Geographic documentary or a diorama in a shoe box?
These tools get kids to search again. They get YOU to search again. An engaging instructional tool isn't an enrichment, it's essential.
When it makes curriculum and instructional sense, students should be collaborating with people all over the world and engaging in authentic tasks.
It's not just about what we do with the kids, it's about what WE are doing.
The curriculum in this country is roughly 1985. Not just talking about the tools we use, but about what we study.
Curriculum is not just tools and skills and technology - it's choice-making! We choose, you see, and what we choose is either engaging or an imposition.
What do we cut? What do we keep? What do we create?
The US has the shortest school year, the shortest school day, and the least amount of contact with each other.
Our school system was created in 1896, based on the agrarian calendar. The schedule is 6 hours with 8 subjects based on the factory schedule.
Are children and youth processing information differently?
Social Production (e.g., Wikipedia (now as accurate as Encyclopedia Britannica) - Learning to do, knowledge creation
Social Networks - Learning to be, defining our identities, how we connect with each other determines how learning occurs (relationships, not technologies) - How many of you are members of professional social networks? Do you know what a live binder is?
Semantic Web - Learning to know, organization, interpretation, connections & distribution of information
Media Grids - Learning to be and do, gaming embeds Gardner's Five Minds for the Future, Content not confined to linear structure
Non-linear Learning - Disciplines are interconnected
A new kind of learner needs
- A new kind of teacher
- A new pedagogy
- Upgraded curriculum
- A new kind of classroom
- New roles
Three literacies worth exploring
- Digital literacies - use and selection of the right Web 2.0 technologies
- Media literacy - ability to be a critical responder to media, know how to make QUALITY media to express themselves. We haven't been trained on it, and many of our kids don't know how to create quality products
- Global literacy - recognize the relationship between place and people
Leading with teaching and learning....or is it that the technologies are stretching the possibilities for teaching and learning????
Can you imagine going to a doctor who says, "I know about technology! I've heard of X-rays!"
How do we begin to transition out of our 19th century structures for 21st century learning?
Versioning - 4 key school structures
- Schedules (short-term (daily, yearly) and long-term (graduation))
- Student grouping patterns (by age? why?)
- Teacher configurations (too much isolation)
- Space
What are the basic elements in designing curriculum that need upgrading?
- Content - what is essential given the time I have? Science teachers have the same amount of time to teach science as they did in 1896!!! Think about that!!!
- Skills - multiple literacies
- Assessments - change your assignments! Kids are great at notetaking - think text messaging! Mock FB pages for historical figures - what would status updates, friends, etc. look like? Zooburst - 3D pop-up books. MuseumBox. Share and Self-publish! The Grandmother Project. Video Trailers for units - use them for review, use last year's as teasers. Create a podcast channel. CAD blueprints. Etc., etc., etc.
But where do we start? There's so much out there! Clearinghouse on curriculum21.com. Visual Thesaurus. Gapminder. Google Art Project (using this tool, 9th graders created a virtual tour, chose 5 paintings that they felt best represented transition period in art, made a podcast about them). Tag Galaxy (teacher had kids compare and contrast iconography in images from different world religions to compare the religions). WolframAlpha (try searching on Boston!). Oh, holy cow!
At the end of every curriculum objective, we need to add the adverb "independently." We want our students to be able to do these things without us!
Video: Technology at PS 101. In that school, every student has a teacher who is willing to learn something. Special Ed was the first to get iPads.
Teachers aren't reluctant, they just don't know where to start and they want to do it right.
Curriculum is not antithetical to the new genre.
NOTICE new forms of assessment and experiences.
She did a TED talk. Look it up! But she challenges us to do TED talks ourselves at our own school. What are you playing with and exploring? What is on your mind in your field right now?
Every child in America should create an App before they graduate.
Follow Med Kharbach. He posts at least one new tool every day.
Start with one thing. We don't want to overwhelm - just whelm, for now.
You know what Piaget said - people are only learning if they are experiencing disequilibrium. The goal of this conference is for you to leave emotionally discouraged. :)
Check out the backchannel on Twitter at #LB30
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