Reboot Learning

8/14/2019 Reboot Learning

1/14

The snow had barely melted from the Rockies when a small group of innovators descended

on Vail mountain village to brainstorm a vision for 21st century learning. Brought together

by the Charter School Growth Fund with support from a number of leading foundations, the

diverse cross section of thinkers ranged from educators, parents, politicians and youth advo

cates to entrepreneurs, social change agents and futurists. Tasked with addressing the ways in

which learning and our understanding of it are changing for 21st century youth, participant

explored how education should transform as a result.

This is a key time for this group, said Gov. Bob Wise. We need to further our disruptive

thinking. Wise was referring to author Clayton Christensens theory of disruptive innovation

in which an innovation transforms a market with complicated and expensive services into one

where simplicity, accessibility and affordability are the rule.

As they entered the meeting room, the two-dozen participants knew immediately that the

gathering would focus on learners and on revolutionizing education. Large posters of bright

eyed, hopeful children lined three walls. Across the fourth, a graphic artist had begun creat-

ing an evolving pictorial tableau to reect the groups emerging ideas. (Click here to see the

illustrations.)

The world has changed. Our schools have not . . .

We need to further our

disruptive thinking.

Gov. Bob Wise,

Alliance for Excellent Education

THE CHARTER SCHOOL GROWTH FUND: A Breakthrough Retreat on 21st Century Learning

June 4 - 6, 2008 Vail, Colorado

Reboot Learning!


2/14

The World Has Changed, Our Schools Have Not

Within the rst few minutes, consensus on one topic became clear: while the world ha

changed, our schools have not. Too many students drop out of high school, and too few

graduates have the skills they need to succeed in college or obtain a decent job. Designed more

than a century ago, todays education system is failing our children.

Because of ongoing immigration from around the globe, the United States is a heterogeneou

country of diverse learners with unique educational needs, learning styles and objectives. Re

search presented by participants suggests that learners develop behaviorally and intellectually

in different ways and at different rates, which accents the importance of instruction tailored

to the individual.

In order to move beyond the conventional mass delivery of instruction, some proposed lever

aging new technologies that support a customized approach focused on each learners need

and goals. Virtual learning forums, online coursework, e-books, multimedia, multi-user games

interactive forums and social networking sites can enhance each individuals learning experi

ence. Of course, new technologies emerge at an accelerating rate and offer their own set of

challenges. As one technology gives way to the next, we must be at the ready to adapt.

Participants also noted that learning one set of skills for a lifelong occupation is no longer a

viable option for most young people. Students today look forward to many jobs and differen

careers during their lifetimes.

With these and other issues in mind, the group spent two days brainstorming the skills, knowl-

edge and learning experiences children need to succeed in the 21st century. Early in the discus

sion, everyone agreed on breaking away from preconceived notions of student, teacher and

school, choosing instead to use such concepts as learners, guides, advisors, mentors, domain

experts and learning environments. They also agreed on the potential of leveraging widely

distributed technologies, such as cell phones and laptops, to disrupt old ways of learning.

Leveraging Technology in all Facets of the Education Process

Initial discussions among participants centered on the necessity of intelligently utilizing tech

nology and recognizing that its impact reaches far beyond simply enhancing the individual

learners experience. Existing technologies allow for adaptive digital content with rapid, inexpensive updates in place of costly, hard copy textbooks and a static curriculum. The interne

open source movement is advancing rapidly, and the free content it provides can be supple-

mented by a commercial content marketplace.

Technology also holds promise in tracking and assessing each learners progress. The stu

dent academic record becomes a portable portfolio, and assessment delivery is easily adapted

to what parents, guides and community councils need to understand learners strengths and

challenges.

Who Was There?Retreat Participants

Larry Berger, CEO, Wireless Generation

Kevin Carroll, Katalyst Consulting

Michael Carter, Director of Special Projects,

MITE

David Coleman, CEO, Student Achievement

PartnersThomas Frey, Executive Director and Senior

Futurist, DaVinci Institute

Mike Gelhausen, COO, Charter School

Growth Fund

Anastasia Goodstein, Founder and Editor,

Ypulse

Gerald Harris, Senior Consultant,

Global Business Network

Michael Horn, Co-Founder and Executive

Director, Innosight Institute

Gerald Huff, Technology Innovation Architect,

Intuit

Mindy L. Kornhaber, Associate Professor,

Pennsylvania State University

Katherine Lewis, Independent Consultant

and Mother

Nick Nagel, Senior Developer and Architect,

Grid Institute

Larry Rosenstock, CEO, High Tech High

Bror Saxberg, Chief Learning Ofcer, K12 Inc.

Roger Schank, Executive Director and

Founder, Engines for Education

Tom Vander Ark, Trustee, The X Prize

Foundation

Aaron E. Walsh, Founding Director and Lead

Architect, Grid Institute

Observers

Kevin Gentry, Director of Special Projects,

Koch Industries

Gisle Huff, Executive Director, Jaquelin HumeFoundation

Benjamin Lindquist, Partner, Charter School

Growth Fund

John Lock, CEO, Charter School Growth Fund

Kellie Peters, Lovett & Ruth Peters Foundation

Jennifer Stern, Partner, Charter School

Growth Fund

Gov. Bob Wise, President, Alliance for

Excellent Education

Financial Support Provided By

Lynde & Harry Bradley Foundation

Jaquelin Hume Foundation

Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation

Lovett & Ruth Peters Foundation

Its the best way to get rid

of the old stuff: classrooms,

standards, competence tests,

and lectures.

Roger Schank,

Engines for Education

2


3/14


4/14

Learner Scenarios Fuel Disruptive Thinking

The next morning, participants divided into small groups again and were asked to imagine a

day in the life of a 21st century learner. The four scenarios that the groups came up with were

as varied as the types of learners they hoped to reach. The rst learner went to a project site in

stead of a classroom. The second had an individual work plan, created during a home visit by

an educational guide, which reected the learners interests and goals. The third scenario was

set in the year 2020 and featured a fully synthesized real and virtual educational experience. For

the fourth child, who was learning English as a second language and living with a large family

in a one room home, a typical day involved working on a documentary lm and collaborating

with peers online. (Click here to see synopses of the full scenarios.)

Reections

At the end of the three-day retreat, participants had explored a wide range of perspectives

debated signicant points of dissent and experienced a unique learning environment of thei

own making. The shared vision was one where more innovative educational options are made

available to meet diverse learners educational needs, learning styles and objectives.

The gathering also led to unexpected collaborations between people who otherwise might not

have met. Well done, said philanthropy leader Gisle Huff. I havent had this much fun

since graduate school.

Participants agreed on several next steps for themselves, the Charter School Growth Fund and

the eld, such as documenting and sharing stories about successful, scalable school models

Finding and supporting education leaders, parents and youth who can implement the vision

will be an ongoing challenge. With this in mind, participants called for a follow-on retreat

Were considering hosting other forums where diverse groups of participants can explore

what education could look like for 21st century children and youth, said venture philanthro-pist John Lock.

In the brief moment of spring, high in the Colorado Rockies, this small cadre of innovator

focused on a vision for the 21st century learner, and they left with a strong message that they

created together on the last day of the retreat:

The world has changed. Schools have not. Reboot learning!

4

I havent had thismuch fun since

graduate school.

Gisle Huff,

Jaquelin Hume Foundation

Charter School Growth FundThe Charter School Growth Fund is

a social venture investment fund that

makes grants and loans to high-

quality charter management and

support organizations in order to

increase the number and scale of

innovative, highly effective education

options for children and families.

Writing:RebeccaK.Rowe,Photography:ToryRead,GraphicIllustratoin:SherylNigro,

Design:MonicaPettyAielloProducedbyToryReadStudioInc


5/14

A Breakthrough Retreat on 21st Century LearningJune 4 - 6, 2008

Vail, Colorado

Graphic Illustrations by Sheryl Nigro


6/14


7/14


8/14


9/14


10/14


11/14

Charter School Growth Fund:

A Breakthrough Retreat on 21st Century Learning

Vail, Colorado

June 4-6, 2008

Scenario Synopses A Day in the Life of a 21st Century Learner

Scenario 1

Group Members:Kevin Carroll, Tom Frey, Anastasia Goodstein, Gerald Huff, Tom Vander Ark, Kevin Gentry(observer), Todd Kern (facilitator)

The year is 2020, and our student is 12 years old. A new economy delivers effective education to students with differentneeds and interests, keeping the best and most relevant parts of 2008 public education, but also including incentives toproduce new and improved educational options.

Our student chooses from a diversity of learning experiences, because the new economy acknowledges that differentstudents bring different strengths, weaknesses, interests and preferences to their own education. Our student leverages apanoply of technologies including computers, immersive environments, hand-held devices, cameras and others. Thesetechnologies play a key supportive role in education. They do not replace people. Adults play a number of critical roles

in our 12-year-olds development, including those of coach, guide and mentor.

On any given day, our student learns in a range of different environments. For example, she can work on her own in acustomized, immersive computer environment where game-like design engages and motivates her, and avatars lead heron interest-based learning experiences. Game-like design facilitates our students engagement and motivation.

Our student also has regular opportunities to work with others in groups - online and in the real world - engaging indiscussions and team-based project work. An adult guide plays a supportive and facilitative role. Our student also hasactive learning experiences out in the world, on nature walks and other field trips.

Our 12-year-old uses a vast technology platform that supports student online learning profiles. This universal platformenables her and her teachers and parents to view her educational progress online. She regularly collects and uploadsevidence of her progress along a range of dimensions, including academic performance, leadership skills, character traits

and special talents. She earns points or currency that enables her to purchase various benefits and helps raise her statusamong peers. The online student profile makes it possible for her to move at her own pace, rather than moving throughcurriculum based on age or grade.

The education system overall has been dramatically restructured, and communities are organized to support thedevelopment and delivery of high-quality educational experiences to all children. The state still has a fundamentalobligation to provide a high-quality education to all young people. It is responsible for providing funding, defining corelearning objectives, certifying eligible providers and meeting the needs of specific student groups such as ESL andspecial needs children. Funding follows the student.

A local community council representing a broad set of community stakeholders has replaced the school board and hasassumed responsibility for delivering a range of options to match the needs and interests of students and families in thecommunity. The council has adopted a portfolio approach to managing schools to ensure that it provides the right mixof learning options, extra curricular activities and student and family supports.

Incentives encourage the creation of high-quality content (including lessons, modules and full curricula), which isavailable online in an iTunes for educational content. Our 12-year-old has a range of places to learn, including athome, in group learning centers and in traditional school buildings.

These synopses were edited and prepared by Tory Read, based on reports submitted to the Charter School

Growth Fund by the small-group facilitators at the retreat.


12/14



Vail, Colorado

June 4-6, 2008


Scenario 2

Group Members:Michael Carter, Michael Gelhausen, Nicholas Nagel, Roger Schank, Gov. Bob Wise (Observer),Romana Vysatova (facilitator)

There are no classrooms, no lectures and no standardized tests. Students and teachers across the country are mobilizedwithin their communities to solve problems. Every day, students gather with their project team at its team headquarters,located at a local learning center that is accessible by public transportation. Every child has a place to go each day, withthe services and resources they need, such as adult mentors, healthy meals, computers and other technology, art studiosand access to sports facilities.

Project teams work on important community issues and problems, with support from local professionals. Each studenthas a learning plan and schedule, developed with the assistance of parents and adult mentors. Teams are made up of

students based on geographic proximity and interests. They are guided by mentors, who remain with a project teamthroughout the life of the project, whether it is two weeks or two years. Experts interact with project teams in person oronline to guide the project. Periodically, mentors check in with students to review their work, project plans and goals.Curriculum developers, who help plan projects, work with mentors and administrators who allocate funding andresources and assist with scheduling.

The world itself becomes the classroom. To cite an example, the local marina in a coastal city makes an ideal project site.One project team is designing and building a boat, another is working with university marine biologists to plot thebiodiversity of local marine species, and yet another is working with the coast guard on boat traffic patterns using tidalcharts, maps and satellites. Projects involve hands-on experience and analysis, and students document their work toshare with the broader community.

Every child engages in a cultural ambassadors project, in which they describe themselves, their family and their

community for a group of students on the other side of the globe or somewhere else in the U.S. The teams employ arange of multimedia and communication technologies, and they work with a variety of creative professionals, such asjournalists and filmmakers. Students judge and comment on each others work, providing inspiration and motivation. Inthe course of the project, students learn a range of important research and communication skills as they explain theircommunity and culture. Partner groups may decide to plan a trip to visit each other, working out a plan and budget andeven raising money for an exchange.

Universities and employers accept students based on what they have accomplished and what they know how to do. Astudents work and projects are available online, creating a virtual, living portfolio. Technology - including desktops,digital cameras, hammers and nails, laptops and cell phones - is used every step of the way for communication, self-expression and research, linking students to each other and to experts to get the job done.


13/14



Vail, Colorado

June 4-6, 2008


Scenario 3

Group Members:Larry Berger, Gerald Harris, Mindy Kornhaber, Larry Rosenstock, Aaron Walsh, Kellie Peters(observer), Mara Rose (facilitator)

Michael Martinez is a capable but shy 14-year-old. He lives in Los Angeles in a 450-square-foot apartment with eightfamily members. Michael, who moved to the United States from Mexico when he was eleven, is undocumented, and hismother is a single parent. Michael works hard to learn, but he has some linguistic challenges because English is hissecond language.

For the first time in his life, Michael is learning outside of the context of traditional schools or grade levels. Instead, helearns with guides, with whom he has learning agreements, and he progresses through numerous long-term projects tomaster new skills. Michael has stopped learning in order to pass. Rather, learning has become a lifelong enterprise that

feels relevant and useful to him. He learns almost anywhere and anytime, and his new learning community exists bothvirtually and in the real world. Technology plays an important role in Michaels experience, and he has easy access tonecessary tools, including broadband, a current laptop or desktop computer and a cell phone.

Michael is developing essential skills and habits that will increase the chances of his success in the 21st century as both astudent and a citizen. These skills include inventiveness and empathy, the ability to manage and evaluate multipleperspectives, delight and wonder in the face of ambiguity, perseverance, the ability to work in solitude on somethingdifficult and building, modeling and simulating.

Michaels learning experiences are project-based and include a sustained relationship with a mentor or guide, highexpectations, challenges, significant support, fear of failure, community involvement, public presentations, feedback andrecognition of successes. Michael has two home visits per calendar year from his metaguide, an adult who has asustained relationship with him throughout his teen years. The metaguide facilitates Michaels overall learning

experience, acts as Michaels champion and helps him identify and achieve his learning goals.

The home visit serves three purposes. First, the metaguide learns about Michaels family and his home environment, aswell as about who Michael is, what motivates him and what kinds of activities interest him. Second, the metaguide workswith Michael and his family to develop a learning agreement for the next phase of Michaels education. Finally, the homevisit engages Michaels mother in setting learning goals and high expectations for her son.

The learning agreement - the tangible outcome of all home visits - is between Michael, his mother and Michaelsmetaguide. The agreement will later be reviewed by an outside source. As the learning agreement is fulfilled and projectsare completed, the agreement is revised and new projects are initiated. Literacy and math standards are integrated intothe agreement. In the agreement Michael makes a commitment to show up and have high expectations of himself, takeintellectual risks and participate in virtual and real-world collaborative environments. In turn, the metaguide makes acommitment to have consistently high expectations, provide high-level and dependable support, recognize Michael as anindividual and celebrate his successes.

Once the agreement is established, the project-based learning begins. Each project is managed by a guide with relevantsubject-area knowledge. To jump-start Michaels learning process, the guide proposes the first topic. Subsequently,Michael identifies his own project topics. Each project includes four stages: observation, reflection, documentation andexhibition. A project agreement includes a clear statement of the problem Michael is examining, expectations aboutresearch and documenting work and a list of possible resources.

Throughout the learning process, Michael will need to choose the ways in which he will use a wide array of tools tolearn. With support from his guide, Michael will determine when its time for him to be alone with a book, collaborate

with others or spend time in a virtual world. A key to the success of this project-based approach is that we are goingthrough Michael to get to the content, not through the content to get to Michael.


14/14



Vail, Colorado

June 4-6, 2008


Scenario 4

Group Members:David Coleman, Michael Horn, Katherine Lewis, Bror Saxberg, Gisele Huff (observer),Cat Alexander (facilitator)

Dylan is a 12-year-old only child who lives with his father in a U.S. city. His father has lost his job, and, as a result, hemust move to another city to find work. Until his father finds housing and a permanent job, Dylan will stay behind andmove in with his grandmother on the other side of town. Dylan realizes that he and his mentor will need to makeadjustments to his educational plan during this stressful transition.

Dylan arrives at the learning center to meet with his mentor. He has participated in these work planning meetings sincehe was five years old, so he finds comfort in the familiar process. Dylan and his mentor review his online individualized

work plan, which includes his most recent assessment results and his next set of content learning goals. The work plan

lists his academic goals as well as his personal interest goals, such as improving his sight-reading so that he can playkeyboard in a band and his ball control so that he can try out for a soccer team next season. In the comments sectionof the work plan, they see that his father and his grandmother have just logged into his plan to review and comment onhis most recent assessment results and projects.

Dylan works on his individualized learning at home and at the learning center. Activities can range from critical readingto math drills and science labs. At this point in his education, Dylan is able to have decision-making authority over 50%of the learning content in his work plan. By the end of high school or the equivalent, Dylan will have decision-makingauthority over 99% of his learning content.

Dylan and his mentor agree to adjust his goals during the difficult transition, and they decide that he will do most of hiswork for the next few months from his grandmothers house, on his personal terminal. He will stay in touch with hisinstructors via email and instant messaging. Dylan and his mentor also discuss virtual projects like science lab

experiments and video game sessions that he will complete with other students who are assigned to and logged into thesame online sessions.

After meeting with his mentor, Dylan spends the rest of the day in customized learning blocks. Since his concentration isat its peak in the morning, he begins with deliberate practice, a daily two-hour block of time in which he engages insolitary, undisturbed learning. Deliberate practice is required of all students.

After deliberate practice, Dylan sees a friend from soccer practice and they go together to a learning center for a guidedlearning block. At the center, Dylan logs into his work plan and then clicks on math. His remote math instructorsphone lights up, and he knows that he is on call for any questions or guided instruction that Dylan may require duringhis math session. Once Dylan completes his math assignment, he writes an essay on leadership, which summarizes thecritical reading and analysis he did during his deliberate practice session earlier in the day.

Once he has developed his thesis statement, Dylan clicks on his ELA instructors instant messaging icon and pings him

to see if he can verify that he is on the right track. They chat on the phone for half an hour. Then Dylan takes a lunchbreak where he socializes with a group of his friends before returning to his terminal to finish up the essay.

After Dylan logs off for the day, the database analyzes the work he did earlier. Once this data is processed, the systemsends an e-mail to the people who subscribe to Dylans work plan, including his father, his grandmother, his mentor andhis instructors. With this information, each stakeholder is able to give feedback and stay engaged in Dylans learningprocess.

Documents

Reboot Learning