Radical Transformation: Unmaking School by Design

Radical Transformation: UnMaking School by

DesignAlbemarle County Public Schools

bit.ly/JMUTLT16 (this presentation)

#JMUTLT@csratliff

Follow up session...

Unmaking School: A View From the Classroom3:00-4:00 Festival Conference Room 3 http://sched.co/8NDE

Mae Craddock @imcraddockStephanie Passman @PassmanACPSGabrielle Schoppa @gschoppaEric Bredder @ebredder

“Essential Knowledge” (SOL VS.6a)

James Madison, a Virginian, believed in the importance of having a United States constitution. He kept detailed notes during the Constitutional Convention. His skills at compromise helped the delegates reach agreement during the difficult process of writing the Constitution of the United States of America. This earned him the title “Father of the Constitution.”

“What spectacle can be more edifying or more seasonable than that of Liberty and Learning, each leaning on the other for

their mutual and surest support.” -James Madison

Donald Robertson, Progressive EducatorAn educated scotchman and enlightened individualist...Ventured to the colonies to seek his fortune, and to freely teach his beliefs in independent thought...Influenced by John Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding

From Donald Robertson’s School

He was...“...an extraordinary teacher and likely the first to expose the minds of his pupils to the ideas of the Enlightenment, the political questions of the age, the classics and the boundless capabilities of the human spirit”From Molding a Founding Father

On Donald Robertson...

“All that I have been in life I owe largely to that man. -James Madison

Two Types of Education

"We want one class of persons to have a liberal education, and we want another class of persons, a

very much larger class, of necessity, in every society, to forgo the privileges of a liberal education and fit themselves to perform specific difficult manual tasks." -Woodrow Wilson, 1909

"Our schools are . . . factories in which the raw products

(children) are to be shaped and fashioned.. . . And it is the

business of the school to build its pupils according to the

specifications laid down." -Elwood Cubberly, 1922

Making in the public schooling context

First, this is not a wholly new idea...

but it is a new opportunity.

“The Maker approach encourages people to understand how things work, to experiment, invent and redesign things through multiple iterations, to democratize and understand processes of engineering, science, and innovation, and to commercialize new products....” -National Science Foundation

"While innovation and STEM tend to be the buzzwords associated with the maker movement, when you talk with maker educators working in schools and maker spaces, the real news is what kids are learning about collaboration, about community, about complexity, and about themselves." - Shari Tishman, Harvard University

A note about technology...

Technology is neutral -- or is it?

Educational technology can be used to reinforce, intensify, and perpetuate obedience-focused education or it can be used to amplify and unleash the child’s

potential.

One question...

Can this technology amplify the capability of the child and is it being used it in that way?

“The role of the teacher is to create the conditions for invention rather than provide ready-made knowledge.”-Seymour Papert

How might we create the conditions for invention?

The Maker Ed Opportunity

Albemarle County26 Schools726 Square MilesTop 3% of US Counties in income inequality

A 10-year journey of designing toward educating for life, not for

school.

Lifelong-Learner Competencies(our common core)

Accelerated by Maker Ed-- which we believe...

allows us to reconceptualize the public schooling experience...

democratizes access to the time, space, tools, materials, and community necessary for creative production and

invention...

starts with the child…

adds content to student-generated context...

is hands on and minds on...

empowers the learner...

isn’t a special event in a special place at a special time only for

certain kids....

But don’t just take my word for it...

How might we ensure every child has an open window to the

boundless capabilities of the human spirit?

Connectmake.k12albemarle.org

Seven Pathways to Changing Schools

Life Long Learner Competencies (“our Common Core”)

Edutopia visits ACPS (videos and blogs)

Chad Ratliff Blogs: Venture Pragmatist and Medium

Ira Socol Blogs: SpeEdChange and Medium

Pam Moran Blogs: Space for Learning and Medium

References and Further Reading (to just name a few…)Makeology: Makers as Learners

Makeology: Makerspaces as Learning Environments

Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom

MakerEd.org

Agency by Design (Harvard)

Transformative Learning and Technologies Lab (Stanford)

Creativity Labs @ IU (Indiana University)

Related ACPS Articleshttps://www.edsurge.com/news/2016-05-02-albemarle-county-schools-journey-from-a-makerspace-to-a-maker-district

https://www.edutopia.org/blog/assessment-in-making-stephanie-chang-chad-ratliff

https://www.edutopia.org/school/albemarle-county-public-schools

http://deeperlearning4all.org/deeper-learning/making-an-impact-one-districts-approach-to-deeper-learning

http://www.nbc29.com/story/24201428/albemarle-schools-maker-spaces-program-gets-national-attention

Related Articles and References http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/classroom_qa_with_larry_ferlazzo/2012/12/response_using_ed_tech_to_create_deep_meaningful_experiences.html

http://www.kingandqueenmuseum.org/project/donald-robertsons-school/

http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/sol/frameworks/history_socialscience_framewks/2008/2008_final/framewks_virginia_studies.pdf

http://www.jmu.edu/montpelier/2003Spring/MoldingAFoundingFather.shtml

https://www.montpelier.org/learn/the-life-of-james-madison

http://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~abatko/interests/teaching/essays/Against_Schools/