Shaping the Vision

An interesting take on applying for employment caused me to pause and wonder whether or not the skills that students are learning will take them beyond a traditional resume. This Wall Street Journal article (January 24, 2012) indicates that some firms are looking for more than words on paper to describe the talents and interests of prospective employees.

Randy Nelson, Dean of Pixar University, supports this premise when he discusses the importance of the “Proof of the portfolio versus the promise of a resume” in an Edutopia video.

Thanks to my colleague, Jim, I read this article about a California study of Algebra I achievement (Barseghian, Mindshift, 1.23.2012) supported by an iPad app.

The study showed that 78 percent of students who used the HMH algebra iPad app scored “proficient” or “advanced” on the California Standards Test, compared to 59 percent of students who used the textbook version.

Another colleague, Kit, pointed out that CK-12 FlexBook site that offers free, online, flexible curriculum that is customizable by teachers. Kit has a great point,

I’d like to see a future when the content within digital textbooks could be mixed and matched and blended with teacher created, student created and professionally created content.

Great point! Wouldn’t it be great to take advantage of free content that could be easily customized for student learning needs? Will we ever see the day?

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.    Margaret Mead

Stay involved. Learn about SOPA and PIPA. http://www.sopastrike.com/numbers

Many opinions are afloat tonight re: the possibility of Apple iBooks. See post by Fast Company’s Anna Kamenetz, 1/19/2012.

Be careful when you talk about subjects that can’t be taught virtually. I’m not so sure that there is anything that falls within the category of “unteachable via Internet.” Consider this article in the New York Times, With Enough Band Width, Many Join the Band (Saint Louis, January 10, 2012).

A Cyberlearning Research Summit will be held January 18, 2012 from 8 AM to 5 PM. According to the official website, the summit will include TED-style presentations with the following goals:

• Discuss big ideas on at the intersection of emerging technology and research on learning;
• Articulate the “transformative potential” of a direction or approach;
• Communicate a sense of the broad research on this topic;
• Engage, inspire, and stimulate thinking in this new program area.

Leading change is hard work. Whether you are in business, industry, health care, human services, government or education; whether your from the public, private or non-profit sector, building capacity to lead significant change – the kind reformers envision – takes skill, determination, passion and persistence. I must confess that last night, in an exchange with a long-time colleague, I lamented that I am questioning the significance of my own impact on teaching and learning over my career that has spanned 25 years in education. She reminded me of the challenges of change and I set off to reflect on some of the more significant efforts I initiated or helped lead.

• Collaboration with my colleagues at Owen-Gage High School to create interdisciplinary learning experiences for our students that brought the real world into our classrooms; and opportunities for the students to reach out to others in service learning projects. We did this over 25 years ago because we knew it made more sense for our students to be connected beyond the classroom walls – not because someone told us we should.
• Partnerships with Michigan Mathematics and Science Center Network across the State of Michigan to communicate the importance of the gem we have in Michigan – unique in the nation. Through this network, 33 centers collaborate to offer leadership, support for curriculum, instruction and assessment, student programs and high-quality teacher professional development. Every school in the state has access to a center. Though the budget was cut 75%, we worked with partners like the Kellogg Foundation and the state’s Department of Education to create awareness and support for the network. Our rallying cry began over 9 years ago and today the Network remains strong and vital in leading STEM work in our state.
• Support for 21st century learning has been a critical focus for the past five years. Working with a forward-thinking superintendent, Dan DeGrow, my colleagues and I have been able to create learning opportunities for local administrators and teachers to work with some of the best thought leaders nationally and internationally. We have collaborated to design structures for sustained support of teachers, and continually work to find ways to fund innovation.
• Partnering with our community in St Clair County KnowHow2GO initiative to create a college-going culture that equips students and their families with information and resources to navigate the path to post-secondary education has been very rewarding. We are making a difference in the lives of students and we are forging stronger bonds in our community that are creating a critical mass of people invested in our mission.

I realized now that I’m probably being hard on myself. But I’m not willing to stop learning how to better lead. Expressing these sentiments to another colleague, I was referred to the work of an amazing company IDEO. I’m hopeful that I can learn from IDEO how change leaders in other fields work together to create solutions. IDEO works with many types of organizations, but their work with schools recognizes my introspective insecurity. This video captures the story of a teacher who points out that, while educators practice hope and optimism when it comes to students, we often are hard on ourselves as we try to change.

Why Design Thinking? from Design Thinking for Educators on Vimeo.

The teacher’s story inspired me and challenged my thinking.

Optimism is not lacking in schools, but it’s all reserved for our students. You know what it means for a student to have someone who believes in them. Consider how many times you’ve pleaded with a child not to give up after one bad day, or one bad grade; but who believes in us? Do we believe in ourselves?

Of course I have pled with students to keep on trying. And I’ve encouraged teachers and school leaders as they make incremental steps toward their desired vision. I am inspired to keep believing in what I can do to effect change – along with my amazing team of talented colleagues. I’m anxious to study the Design Thinking for Educators resources created by IDEO and see where they will lead us.

Thanks to a tweet by Will Richardson (@willrich45) tonight, I discovered this article, Big Study Links Good Teachers to Lasting Gain, (Lowrey, 1.6.2012, NY Times).

My colleague, Pat, sent me an E-mail announcing a real-world, or rather out-of-this-world, learning opportunity for students. This is the kind of learning experience that can turn kids on to science and discovery. I had the opportunity to witness first hand the excitement and energy created when a group of middle school students connected via amateur radio with the International Space Station back in 2002. The experience led to my son and me becoming involved in amateur radio, eventually obtaining our General license.

A teacher can never tell how far reaching his or her influence will extend to touch and potentially change a life.  I am hoping that a “few good teachers” will take on the challenge of getting their students involved.

For any teacher interested in learning more, the full text of the invitation from Dr. Jeff Goldstein is as follows:

To: Education leadership across Michigan
January 6, 2012

Last November, the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) sent you an announcement of opportunity for a STEM education program that engages typically hundreds of students (grades 5-12) across a community in real science aboard the International Space Station (ISS). It is called the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) and it is truly changing the way students and teachers view science, science education, and the process of learning. This is an authentic, immersive experience that embraces ownership in learning for the learner, and garners very significant media attention. We have flown on the final two Space Shuttle flights and now on ISS.

For the current opportunity – SSEP Mission 2 to ISS – each participating community is provided all launch services to fly a real microgravity research mini-laboratory on Space Station from September 28 to November 12, 2012 via Soyuz 32, and a kit for assembly of their mini-lab. An 8-week experiment design competition, which includes your student teams writing and submitting real experiment proposals is held Spring 2012 (March-April). These teams are all
designing real microgravity experiments and are vying for your community’s reserved mini-lab slot on Space Station. The process precisely mirrors how professional researchers design a research program and submit proposals to acquire the limited and necessary resources. This is student immersion IN REAL SCIENCE, with the opportunity to fly a real experiment on the INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION – AMERICA’S NEWEST NATIONAL LABORATORY – AS THE CARROT.

The flight opportunity I am writing you about is called Mission 2 to the International Space Station.

Yesterday, January 5, 2012, we announced the selection of 15 flight experiments representing the 12 communities participating in Mission 1 to ISS. From across the 12 communities, 779 student team proposals were received.

You might want to read the Press Release.

My Center, a 501c3 non-profit, oversees the program. The program costs very real money, which is a hurdle in today’s economic climate. We are therefore committed to assist in finding funding for interested communities, we have found
funding for 28 of the 39 communities that have participated thus far, and have established a national network of funders. But fundraising needs time, and for you to have a Mission 2 to ISS program start on March 5, 2012, we need to fundraise right now, hence this email is a final call.

Also, if your community does want us to fundraise, we would need to see a plan that engages at least 200 and more likely 300 students in experiment design. Funders will ask how many student experiences will my funding provide, and for us to assign our precious labor hours to fundraising, we need to have a high expectation of success.

URGENT! If you are interested in SSEP, then ASAP have someone with authority over a team of teachers capable of carrying out this program in your community give me a call directly on my cell phone: 301-395-0770. NOTE: SSEP IS NOT DESIGNED FOR PARTICIPATION BY A GROUP AS SMALL AS AN INDIVIDUAL CLASS OF 30 STUDENTS.

The SSEP program home page.

PS: (if you’ve not seen it) For the new year, as a shot in the arm for your teachers in tough times, a 3-min Symphony of Science music video produced for teachers. It’s a remix of my National Science Teachers Association keynote address last March.

Best wishes,

Dr. Jeff Goldstein, Center Director and SSEP Program Creator
Cell: 301-395-0770
National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE),  PO Box 3806  Capitol Heights, Maryland 20791

KEY SSEP PARTNERS:
National Center for Earth and Space Science Education NanoRacks, LLC
Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum
Carnegie Institution of Washington / Carnegie Academy for Science Education

This on-orbit, real research opportunity for students is enabled through NanoRacks LLC, which is working in partnership with NASA under a Space Act Agreement as part of the utilization of the International Space Station as a
National Laboratory.

I applaud Dr. Goldstein who, though he is a scientist with many responsibilities, still takes time to reach out and touch the lives of teachers and their students. I trust that many will accept his invitation and his efforts will not be in vain.

Thanks to a tweet from Connect all Schools, I learned about Teachers’s Guide to Exchange 2.0 Technology-Enabled International Interaction.