I’m really looking forward to joining in at the DLTV DigiCon for 2015 on 24 – 25 July at Swinburne University campus in Hawthorn. I’m doing two sessions on Saturday.
Session F (11:45) – Leading Schools in a Digital Era (AKA R U Ready for Next Era Ed?)
- This will be a very interactive and personalised session where you can perform a readiness check on your own school.
- Here is a Word doc to be used to review your school: Next Era Ed Checklist: Designing Your Version (or a PDF version if you want to mark it up)
Spark Talk – “Let’s Make New Mistakes”
- These 12 minute sessions are meant to stimulate thinking and discussion. I hope to inspire action.
Vision
Does your school have a vision of student success that is aspirational and includes articulated descriptors?
- Melbourne Declaration’s Successful Learners
- 21st Century Skills – 4Cs
- Michael Fullan’s Moral Imperative Realised Handout
Evidence
Using backward design, does your school have a continuum of rich performance tasks that validate the vision and prompt interdisciplinary demonstrations of students’ understandings that require their transfer to new contexts?
- Understanding by Design – Wiggins and McTighe (research base)
- Backward Design for Forward Action – and article by Jay McTighe
- Characteristics of a Performance Task – McTighe and Defined STEM
Learning Theories
Given the student performances your vision describes, what learning theories – and their research findings – are most likely to generate the desired evidence of your achievement as a school?
Here are few favourites:
- Self-Determination Theory (Intrinsic Motivation) (Deci & Ryan) (or Daniel Pink’s animated version)
- Flow (Csikszentmihalyi)
- PERMA (Seligman)
- Cultures of Thinking (Ritchhart, et. al.)
- Visible Learning (Hattie)
- Self-Organizing Learning Environments (SOLE) (Mitra)
- High Reliability Schools (Marzano)
Curriculum 2.0
Are your teaching and learning practices founded on the Learning Theories and lead to student demonstrated evidence of the vision? Also, in an age of rich digital resources and personalised devices, are ICTs used to engage students in personally meaningful accomplishments?
- Review the CEQ•ALL rubric and use it with students
- Explore the Web 2.0 Tools Panel
- Look to Learns: Samples, About, stream (and the Thinking Routines / Prompts Page)
- Read about ClassPortals and brainstorm topics you might choose
- Explore Tom’s WebQuests
Review
Do you have systemic reviews embedded that “close the loop” for continuous improvement?
- Action Research
- Professional Learning Communities
- Review in Curriculum Mapping – Heidi Hayes Jacobs
- Schooling by Design – Wiggins and McTighe
(Smart Digital Environments)
What technology platforms or software does your school use to support teaching, learning, curriculum development, student learning profiles, etc.?
- I started working for Edumate in 2015 because I saw it as the best smart digital environment available in the Asia Pacific. I’m happy to discuss how it supports all aspects of Next Era Ed or use this contact form if you’d like someone to get in touch and visit your school.