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15. Moving From Courses to Networks, with Tom Vander Ark
Our guest today is Tom Vander Ark, an education advocate, and adviser for better learning. He is the author of “Getting Smart: How Personal Digital Learning is Changing the World”, “Better Together”, “Smart Parents” and “Smart Cities”. Tom is the Founder and Executive Editor of “Getting Smart” - a learning design firm helping education and learning-focused organizations increase their impact with strategy, design, growth, publication, and learner experience services. Tom has written more than 800 blog posts for Education Week and is a contributing author to Forbes Magazine. He is here with Enrollhand today to share some thoughts on the direction that innovation is going in education.
In this episode, Tom shares some ideas on how even small schools can begin to take steps to move towards personalized learning and competency-based learning, some of the challenges that they might face, and how to overcome those. He gives specific strategies for school leaders to consider as they enter a time of great innovation in education.
Listen and take note of how the entire model of education is changing from “course-based learning” towards “platform networks”, and what that might mean for schools as they plan their value proposition.
Quotes:
1:10 “A community conversation that leads to a few important goals is the way to start.”
3:00 “By starting small, iterating, and learning as you go, you can minimize your risk (as you adopt change).”
19:00 “We think that school visits are the way to go. You can watch a video or read about a school, but there is nothing short of visiting a place to see how it actually works.”
19:20 “Look for schools that stand for something and that focus on a few core ideas with a common intellectual mission that creates coherence for teachers and kids.”
25:35 “I’m bullish on platform networks as being super scalable.”
29:25 “Courses - as both the architecture of and the way we measure learning - have been a useful construct in education, but we’ve reached the limits (of their usefulness), and courses are now blocking innovation and integration, and are a lousy form of measurement.”
Here are some resources mentioned in our discussion:
Forbes Magazine article by Tom Vander Ark:
Organizing Your School as a List of Courses Doesn't Work for Learners
Malcolm Gladwell - “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference”
Seth Godin podcast: How to get into a famous college
David Frank - Executive Director of the New York State Education Department Charter School Office and 2016 National Association of Charter School Authorizers Leader.
Shelley Kurth - School Director at Thrive Public Charter Schools in California
Smart List: The 100 middle and high schools worth visiting - https://www.gettingsmart.com/2017/03/100-middle-high-schools-worth-visiting/
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By Andreas Marinopoulos
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Our guest today is Tom Vander Ark, an education advocate, and adviser for better learning. He is the author of “Getting Smart: How Personal Digital Learning is Changing the World”, “Better Together”, “Smart Parents” and “Smart Cities”. Tom is the Founder and Executive Editor of “Getting Smart” - a learning design firm helping education and learning-focused organizations increase their impact with strategy, design, growth, publication, and learner experience services. Tom has written more than 800 blog posts for Education Week and is a contributing author to Forbes Magazine. He is here with Enrollhand today to share some thoughts on the direction that innovation is going in education.
In this episode, Tom shares some ideas on how even small schools can begin to take steps to move towards personalized learning and competency-based learning, some of the challenges that they might face, and how to overcome those. He gives specific strategies for school leaders to consider as they enter a time of great innovation in education.
Listen and take note of how the entire model of education is changing from “course-based learning” towards “platform networks”, and what that might mean for schools as they plan their value proposition.
Quotes:
1:10 “A community conversation that leads to a few important goals is the way to start.”
3:00 “By starting small, iterating, and learning as you go, you can minimize your risk (as you adopt change).”
19:00 “We think that school visits are the way to go. You can watch a video or read about a school, but there is nothing short of visiting a place to see how it actually works.”
19:20 “Look for schools that stand for something and that focus on a few core ideas with a common intellectual mission that creates coherence for teachers and kids.”
25:35 “I’m bullish on platform networks as being super scalable.”
29:25 “Courses - as both the architecture of and the way we measure learning - have been a useful construct in education, but we’ve reached the limits (of their usefulness), and courses are now blocking innovation and integration, and are a lousy form of measurement.”
Here are some resources mentioned in our discussion:
Forbes Magazine article by Tom Vander Ark:
Organizing Your School as a List of Courses Doesn't Work for Learners
Malcolm Gladwell - “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference”
Seth Godin podcast: How to get into a famous college
David Frank - Executive Director of the New York State Education Department Charter School Office and 2016 National Association of Charter School Authorizers Leader.
Shelley Kurth - School Director at Thrive Public Charter Schools in California
Smart List: The 100 middle and high schools worth visiting - https://www.gettingsmart.com/2017/03/100-middle-high-schools-worth-visiting/