The Authentic Classroom:
Where Problem Solving
Drives Content
Creativity
Factory Model
The twentieth century saw the growth of the United States as an industrial power and
a powerful factory economy. Disciplined workers churned out products for a growing
consumer economy.
Factory Classroom
Schools were designed to produce two kinds of citizens; obedient factory workers,
and independent professionals. Children sat in rows and worked on individual tasks
in preparation for a repetitive work life.
Problem Solving Model
Today's businesses are less and less factory centered. We are returning to smaller
independent companies that specialise in one field or another but all of them strive to
solve the problems facing our society. Learners will only find success in these
environments if they possess critical thinking and innovation skills that allow them to
invent their own ways of working.
Problem Solving Classroom
In order to train kids to work in this new economy we must train them to be problem
solvers. Therefore, they must learn in problem solving classrooms. Straight line
seating and bulleted notes do not promote engagement and discovery. No matter
what a learners age level appropriate authentic problem solving allows them to
develop their minds.
Empty classrooms don't
excite minds
Classroom spaces are as vital to education as any book that teachers can buy or any
technology that can be placed in the room. An intellectually empty space that does
not excite a learner's mind will not engage learning. School is no longer a training
space it is Research and development space. If you are an educator in the 21st
century you now work in the R&D department. Whatever subject you taught is gone.
You now lead an R&D team where creativity is the currency of the age.
Classrooms are meeting places
Learning, like so many other things in our lives, does not take place in a vacuum. A
classroom is a meeting place and as such it should be treated a a space where
everyone has the opportunity to work and produce to the best of their ability. In order
for a classroom to be a collaborative environment all stakeholders must have an
equal opportunity to contribute on a level playing field regardless of their age. The
learning leader must be able to step back and allow all other learners to develop and
create their own knowledge in this learning place.
Freedom to Experiment
Learners need the freedom to experiment with communication, design, technology.
Grading rubrics must be rigorous enough to challenge learners and flexible enough to
allow them freedom of responsible expression.
Digital Communication Design Space
Design space is not limited to the physical, digital communications are key to global
communication and learning. Learners need to understand that anything they can
create with there hands can be augmented through digital media. They must be able
to bring new things to their learning leader. This is a two way street
Engagement comes from activity
Engagement arises from activity. Just existing in a classroom space and working on
memorization activities is not enough to engage inquiring minds. The classroom
leader must provide the stimulus and structure to enable learners to construct their
own knowledge around the content of the course.
Lab Space
Hands on labs are not only the domain of the science classroom. Learners always
become more engaged when they can touch and feel the concepts that they are
learning.
Build A World
At the end of the past year we gave our learners a task. "Build a World" Using a
modified business design activity from www.gogamstorming.com We gave them a
basic set of supplies (paper, glue, sticky notes and markers) and a set of
requirements. Each homebase had to create and manage a country that included all
of the details above and had to create a pseudo-realistic wikipedia page from a
shared template in google docs. before it was over we had maps of all of the
countries, demographic information, spies, counter intelligence agencies, two
international hacking incidents, and the knowledge that our entire grade was on their
way to running the future, which direction they would take us we are still not sure.
Don Tapscott has named the coming era "the Age of Networked Intelligence" value in
this era comes from ideas and skills that are shared to create "a sum as greater that
its parts" product. The model for the classroom that engages learners toward this
must be a business model, but not that which we used in the industrial and corporate
ages. The classroom is a meeting place and planning place we must create for our
learners an R&D model. A space and framework that allows them to safely push the
limits of a curriculum that they plan for themselves. Working within the requirements
of the state guidelines and the Common Core learners should be allowed to develop
their own pathways to the objectives and goals. Innovation comes from exceeding
the problems and challenges learners face. Individual and collaborative solutions in
borderless classrooms that are peer reviewed and taught by learners with learning
leaders monitoring and mentoring, approving and facilitating leads to creative and
engaged students.
Visual literacy
Our minds are capable of reading an image faster than anything else. The visual
pathway is the largest doorway into your mind. And although it's incredibly important
for learners to read and write, we need to realize that we are trying to push the largest
amount of information through the smallest pathway. Visual literacy does require a
sense of design but there is such a great opportunity to foster creativity through
design that it becomes a pedagogical gold mine for learners.
Let Information Find You
People ask me all the time "When do you Sleep?" The answer is I only have to look
for tools if I have a specific project or skill that I need to accomplish. All of the rest of
the "stuff" that I use is brought to me on a daily basis through Reader feeds. Think
about creating your own magazine for all of the things that interest you, from your
favorite sources. Sharing information is the keystone of collaboration. Once you
have developed your own resources don't stingily parcel them out to learners. Offer
the same resources to them. Teach them to develop and curate their own interests in
the same manner. It won't be long before they are finding, constructing, distributing
knowledge for others.
Self Efficacy
Learners need self efficacy more than they need to memorise basic facts. We have
to return to a system in which learners create and find their passions. If we stop
telling learners what they need and start helping them find out what they need and
want we can produce responsible citizens. The great shifts in our history have come
from strife and trouble. It has always been a sense of responsibility that has moved
us forward both ethically and technologically. Our economy responds to these
positive movements not the push and pull of the markets. Learners need to
understand the expectations that they will face in the future. Set reasonable
deadlines and stick to them. Enable learners to set their own deadlines and enforce
them stringently.
Modeling the Skills They Will Need in Life
Mr Williams 6th Grade Science Class -Boston
Learners must develop the skills that they will need later in life. Inquiry is the basis of
learning. If learners are not curious about what they are doing they will not forward
information into long term memory. By enabling learners to model different real world
skills they will be assuredly select their own passions and make connections between
those activities that they may not prefer and those that they do which will enable them
to master a more diverse skill set.
Invest in Learners
District spend tens of thousands of dollars investing in software packages and
resources packs for teachers to use for building classroom activities for learners to
do. Stop investing in prefabricated programs and invest in learners. There are
hundreds of free apps and online programs constructed everyday that learners can
use to construct activities that enable them to demonstrate their knowledge.
professional development should be targeted toward training learning leaders to
select the best 21st century technologies that learners can actually use. Districts will
save money and help create an environment of innovation rather than a factory
school.
Learn for Learning's Sake
Most Massive Open Online Courses will not provide direct credit for learners, but
that's OK. Online class work such as Google Power Search improve learners
abilities. Encouraging learners to work through the lessons offline or through local
connections demonstrates that learning itself can be a reward. Learning Leaders
need to be a part of the experience rather than just an aloof monitor. Learners
become more engaged when their leader is an active engaged participant.
7Ps Framework
Object of Play
Every meeting deserves a plan. Note that a great plan cannot guarantee a great outcome, but
it will help lay down the fundamentals from which you can adapt. Sketch out these
fundamentals by using the 7Ps framework.
Number of Players: Individual
Duration of Play: 20 minutes to 2 hours
How to Play
Use these items as a checklist. When preparing for a meeting, thinking through the 7Ps can
improve focus and results, even if you have only a few moments to reflect on them.
Purpose: Why are you having this meeting? As the leader, you need to be able to state this
clearly and succinctly. Consider the urgency of the meeting: what’s going
on, and what’s on fire? If this is difficult to articulate, ask yourself if a meeting is really
necessary.
Product: What specific artifact will we produce out of the meeting? What will it do, and how
will it support the purpose? If your meetings seem to be “all talk and no follow-through,”
consider how a product might change things.
People: Who needs to be there, and what role will they play? One way to focus your list of
attendees is to think in terms of questions and answers. What questions are
we answering with this meeting? Who are the right people to answer the questions?
Process: What agenda will these people use to create the product? Of all the 7Ps, the agenda
is where you have the most opportunity to collaborate in advance with the
attendees. Co-design an agenda with them to ensure that they will show up and stay engaged.
Pitfalls: What are the risks in this meeting, and how will we address them? These could be as
simple as ground rules, such as “no laptops,” or specific topics that are
designated as out of scope.
Prep: What would be useful to do in advance? This could be material to read in advance,
research to conduct, or “homework” to assign to the attendees.
Practical Concerns: These are the logistics of the meeting—the where and when, and
importantly, who’s bringing lunch.
Strategy
●
Each of the 7Ps can influence or change one of the others, and developing a good
plan will take this into account. For instance, if you have certain participants for only
part of a meeting, this will change your process.
●
Get others involved in the design of the meeting. Their participation in its design is the
quickest route to its effectiveness.
●
Recurring meetings can take on a life of their own and stray from their original
purpose. It’s a healthy activity to revisit “Why are we having this meeting?” regularly
for such events.
●
Make the 7Ps visible during the meeting. These reference points can help focus and
refocus a group as needed.
●
Have a plan and expect it to change. The 7Ps can give you a framework for designing
a meeting, but they can’t run the meeting for you. The unexpected will happen, and as
a leader you will need to adapt.
The 7Ps Framework was designed by James Macanufo.
http://www.gogamestorm.com/?p=263
Make products not artifacts
What we call artifacts today are the products of the past. No cultures dedicated work
for the sole purpose of someone digging it generations later just to puzzle over.
Learners should not be producing artifacts for storage or the waste bin they should be
designing and producing products for the edification of others and themselves. Digital
media enables learners to utilise design skills to produce, objects that are well
imagined, planned, reinvisioned and constructed deserve to be shown to the world.
Active Vertical Planning
Your learners will not master everything in 180 days. Mastery must be developed and
practiced through time. Leaders need to communicate across levels. What were the
expectations for the previous year? What will the following years expectations be?
Planning expectations between learning levels is essential to successful progress.
It always nice to see parallel work that leads to the same conclusions. If we design
schools for the future instead of reiterating the past we will lead learners toward
success.
"Slide ology"
Nancy Duarte
What should education look like? Set down in as a diverse group as you can put
together and plan this. Bring as many stakeholders to the table as you can.
Books
Resources
Basic Design 08: Design Thinking
Go Gamestroming
Business Model Generation
Teaching Creativity
Creativity in Education and Learning
Design Thinking for Educators
Developing More Curious Minds
Design Thinking
Gamestorming
Google Reader in Plain English
How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci
Organizing for the Creative Person
Slide:ology
The 7 Habits of Highly EffectiveTeens
Unleashing the IdeaVirus
A Whole New Mind
Contact Me: sfreeman@rock.k12.nc.us