CoSN Conference 2012
Reimagine Learning
March 5-7, 2012
Omni Shoreham | Washington, DC
I was invited to speak at the CoSN 2012 conference for their “Great Ideas Session – Visions of Transforming Education.” My session: What happens when learning is turned on its head? I spoke about how and why I started implementing the flipped model of instruction in my AP Calculus class, what the flipped classroom means to me and what it looks like in my classroom, how my students and parents have received the flipped model, and the results I have seen. I spoke about the shift from a teacher-driven classroom to a student-centered space that the flipped classroom has allowed me. And also about the differentiated, customized lecture experience that video enables. There was good interest and a productive Q&A to close the session. Success!
I also did an interview with JDL Horizons. Well, it wasn’t only me. It was me and my mom! My mom has implemented the flipped class in her AP Calculus class, using the videos that I have made, and has had great success this year. (Yes, I’m very proud of her!) I’m looking forward to seeing how the video comes together and will share it once it’s complete.
I also had the opportunity to listen to the closing session and will outline some of my notes.
Arana Shapiro (Quest to Learn – NYC)
- Learn more about Quest to Learn here
- People thrive when learning is irresistible
- Students are introduced at the beginning of the semester to a complex challenge
- Everything in a game is interconnected – this integrates the curriculum
- Game is a system. Change is constant. Keeps you motivated.
- Purposeful use of technology used to deepen students’ understanding
- When you play a game, feedback is immediate and ongoing!
- Used principals of gaming to design the school
- Challenge is constant
- Approach content in a kinesthetic way
- Immediate and ongoing feedback; embedded assessment
- Students participate in a mission; embed assessment in the mission! Don’t give assessment at the end, make it DURING the process
- Example: engineers making a town – task: to teach standard units of measurement; students create video tutorial within the mission to teach townspeople the importance of standard units of measurement
- It’s all about the kids! – give students the opportunity to create (instead of just consuming), they become designers of games / responsible for
- Students are responsible for making their own games too (systems of thinking, how games can engage)
Travis Allen – iSchool Initiative
- iSchool Initiative
- Becoming a mobile learner
- 1. Birth of iSchool initiative
- 2. How I am a mobile learner
- 3. Three things you can do to change the world
- Social media – allows you to interact with the “bigger world”
- Problem: education vs real world; no connection between the two
- Real world = cell phones + internet + social networking
- Frustration with the education system: don’t use your cell phone in the classroom – but this was Tyler’s main source of learning in the real world!
- Movement: a series of actions intended toward a particular end
- We need to re-imagine learning
- The power of an idea can spread like wildfire
- To solve a problem in modern world, it’s not about memorization; skills to solve modern problems: find, filter, and apply
- We don’t need to store all of our information in our brains anymore; the more important thing is being able to find information quickly, be able to filter it, and answer a question
- Student led conference – where is the student voice in the typical conference or professional development?
- Kearns High School – iPod touch to every student
- Google Zeitgeist
- Key points:
- 1. Work hard, fail a lot, but learn more!
- 2. A love of learning leads to a life of significance.
- 3. Lead the way – challenge yourself first before you teach others, so that you’ll have the experience and words of wisdom to share with them when they have questions and need help.
John Seely Brown
- Entrepreneur – pick up new ideas constantly around us
- Dispositions of an entrepreneurial learner:
- Curiosity – curiosity amplifier: iPhone, iPad, etc
- Questioning – seeking. unconvering, probing
- Connecting – listening to others, engaging (peer-based learning, mentor-based learning)
- Dusty Payne – surfer, world-class status
- Passion to achieve excellence
- Willingness to FAIL
- Analyze frame by frame the best surfers around; deconstruct the individual moves
- Use video tools to capture and analyze each of their own improvisations
- Pulling the best steps from adjacencies – you always need new, innovative moves
- Dusty Payne Surfing
- Look at: wind surfing, skate boarding, mountain hiking, motor crossing (so look at obvious connections, but also things you wouldn’t think of immediately)
- Accessing spikes of capabilities around the world – leveraging networks of practice
- Learn, collaborate, and educate
- Deeply collaborating and competing with each other
- A belief – in a world of constant change, entrepreneurial learners must also be willing to regrind their conceptual lenses
- We need to be willing to play – and willingness to thrive on change
Nichole Pinkard – Digital Youth Network
- http://digitalyouthnetwork.org/team_members/2-nichole-pinkard
- Continuum of youth involvement
- How do we assure all kids are going to be engaged and powerful consumers and users of media?
- School can’t be the main place of learning, it is a node, but must span before/during/after school
- What makes youth engaged? There is a continuum – from people who are at school only for the social aspects, to those who are intrinsically engaged and there because they want to be learning
- People are motivated because they want to: be, make, or do
- Technology alone is not the solution
Bailey Mitchell
- Engage me PLEASE!
- Personalizing learning
- To make change, you need to be: an advocate, relationship architect, venture capitalist, information steward, lobbyist
- Power shared is power multiplied
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