Learning to Change

It's been a while since our last podcast, partly by design and partly due to travels to islands during hurricane season. (Smart move.) But regardless, we're back with our 23rd episode!

If you haven't noticed, we want to push the conversations that we're having about education to a higher level, and so much of that revolves around the language that we use to talk about our work. Way, way, way too often, we use key words and phrases without testing their inherent assumptions against the realities of the modern world or the beliefs we hold about learning.

So Bruce and Will are back at it in this episode where the explore the irony of a number of comments made in recent posts online, including this one: "We need to design student-centered learning experiences." Um, really?

It's a great example (and there are literally millions of others) of how our language gives us away when we talk about change. At it's core, most conversations are about how we (the teachers) can make learning happen. The reality is that we can't. Only learners make learning happen.

Have some thoughts about that? Use our SpeakPipe app below and maybe we'll include your voice in our next podcast coming, with any luck and barring any hurricanes, next week.

Enjoy!

It's been a while since our last podcast, partly by design and partly due to travels to islands during hurricane season. (Smart move.) But regardless, we're back with our 23rd episode!

If you haven't noticed, we want to push the conversations that we're having about education to a higher level, and so much of that revolves around the language that we use to talk about our work. Way, way, way too often, we use key words and phrases without testing their inherent assumptions against the realities of the modern world or the beliefs we hold about learning.

So Bruce and Will are back at it in this episode where the explore the irony of a number of comments made in recent posts online, including this one: "We need to design student-centered learning experiences." Um, really?

It's a great example (and there are literally millions of others) of how our language gives us away when we talk about change. At it's core, most conversations are about how we (the teachers) can make learning happen. The reality is that we can't. Only learners make learning happen.

Have some thoughts about that? Use our SpeakPipe app below and maybe we'll include your voice in our next podcast coming, with any luck and barring any hurricanes, next week.

Enjoy!

So, what does work look like for our kids:

A career means a string of jobs at different companies. So workers respond in kind, thinking about how to shape their career in a world where you can expect so little from employers. In a society where market rules rule, the only way for an employee to know her value is to look for another job and, if she finds one, usually to quit.

That's the conversation that Bruce and Will have in the 22nd edition of the Modern Learners Podcast. What are the larger trends when it comes to work in the future, and what are the ways in which schools and educators need to respond to those changes?

We also take some time to reflect on Cohort 2 of Change School which ended last week.

Don't forget to leave us a comment or a question using our SpeakPipe app.

Show notes:

The Quitting Economy

Fivver ad

Jane Hart's post on Modern Learning Advisor

John Clements

The "Big" news

So, what does work look like for our kids:

A career means a string of jobs at different companies. So workers respond in kind, thinking about how to shape their career in a world where you can expect so little from employers. In a society where market rules rule, the only way for an employee to know her value is to look for another job and, if she finds one, usually to quit.

That's the conversation that Bruce and Will have in the 22nd edition of the Modern Learners Podcast. What are the larger trends when it comes to work in the future, and what are the ways in which schools and educators need to respond to those changes?

We also take some time to reflect on Cohort 2 of Change School which ended last week.

Don't forget to leave us a comment or a question using our SpeakPipe app.

Show notes:

The Quitting Economy

Fivver ad

Jane Hart's post on Modern Learning Advisor

John Clements

The "Big" news

Is it now riskier for some people to go to college right out of high school than instead to take some time off, do apprenticeships, or create a unique path to expertise? That's the question that Seth Godin asked in a recent podcast, and the core of this week's Modern Learners podcast conversation between Bruce and Will.

Specifically, Seth's quote was "I can clearly show you that going $200 in debt to go to a standard college, to get a standard education, to learn how to do average stuff for average people is way riskier than a motivated, intelligent person spending those same four years doing something else."

While college is still a viable and useful path for many students, we explore the ramifications of the expense, the depth to which the college narrative is engrained in our expectations, and what some of the alternatives might be.

Don't forget to leave us a comment or a question using our SpeakPipe app.

Links from this episode are below.

Don Wettrick's interview with Seth Godin.

Bryan Alexander on doomsayers in higher ed.

Is the college degree outdated?

Deep partisan divide on higher education.

The impact of student debt on the economy.

DIYU

Is it now riskier for some people to go to college right out of high school than instead to take some time off, do apprenticeships, or create a unique path to expertise? That's the question that Seth Godin asked in a recent podcast, and the core of this week's Modern Learners podcast conversation between Bruce and Will.

Specifically, Seth's quote was "I can clearly show you that going $200 in debt to go to a standard college, to get a standard education, to learn how to do average stuff for average people is way riskier than a motivated, intelligent person spending those same four years doing something else."

While college is still a viable and useful path for many students, we explore the ramifications of the expense, the depth to which the college narrative is engrained in our expectations, and what some of the alternatives might be.

Don't forget to leave us a comment or a question using our SpeakPipe app.

Links from this episode are below.

Don Wettrick's interview with Seth Godin.

Bryan Alexander on doomsayers in higher ed.

Is the college degree outdated?

Deep partisan divide on higher education.

The impact of student debt on the economy.

DIYU

What norms do you have in your school, not just for behavior, but for learning? In most schools, norms exist, but they are not as clearly articulated as these five at Mount Vernon Presbyterian School outside of Atlanta, Ga.:

* Start with questions

* Assume the best

* Fail up

* Share the well

* Have fun

Those norms form a powerful guide for learning at MVP, according to Headmaster Brett Jacobsen, interviewed in this week's podcast. Originally recorded three years ago, there's still a lot of learning for those interested in changing culture, raising student engagement, doing real work in the world, and much more, such as:

* Crafting a unique, intentional mission statement

* Developing a culture for learning

* How to read as a school community

* The importance of common language

* What transformation really means

* How to ship ideas in school

* How relationships are foundational to learning

In addition, Brett goes into detail about his interest in design thinking and how it manifests itself through classrooms and culture across the school. It's a great look at how one traditional school has tried to reinvent itself through a very intentional process.

Bruce and Will will be back next week with their regular conversation about learning and education in the modern world.

We'd love to hear your voice in our next podcast. If you have any questions or comments, just use the SpeakPipe app below to record up to 90 seconds of audio thoughts.

What norms do you have in your school, not just for behavior, but for learning? In most schools, norms exist, but they are not as clearly articulated as these five at Mount Vernon Presbyterian School outside of Atlanta, Ga.:

Start with questions

Assume the best

Fail up

Share the well

Have fun

Those norms form a powerful guide for learning at MVP, according to Headmaster Brett Jacobsen, interviewed in this week's podcast. Originally recorded three years ago, there's still a lot of learning for those interested in changing culture, raising student engagement, doing real work in the world, and much more, such as:

Crafting a unique, intentional mission statement

Developing a culture for learning

How to read as a school community

The importance of common language

What transformation really means

How to ship ideas in school

How relationships are foundational to learning

In addition, Brett goes into detail about his interest in design thinking and how it manifests itself through classrooms and culture across the school. It's a great look at how one traditional school has tried to reinvent itself through a very intentional process.

Bruce and Will will be back next week with their regular conversation about learning and education in the modern world.

We'd love to hear your voice in our next podcast. If you have any questions or comments, just use the SpeakPipe app below to record up to 90 seconds of audio thoughts.

First, some context for the 19th episode of the Modern Learners Podcast: Kids cheat in school. In high school. In college. Do a quick Google search and you'll find all sorts of research that bears this out. Ask a kid, and even if he doesn't admit to it himself, he'll most likely roll his eyes at the suggestion that it doesn't happen in almost every class at some point. Cheating, writ large, is a "problem," no doubt, though the problem takes on different guises depending on who you talk to. There is the ethical problem, which says, rightly, that we shouldn't cheat out of respect to our teachers or fellow students. But there's also the dis-engagement problem, which argues, rightly, that many students don't see the relevance or importance in "learning" much of what they are delivered in school which leads them not to take the work or the assessments very seriously at all.

But the third problem is the "real life" problem, as in why shouldn't students be able answer questions on tests in school the same way they would answer them out of school? And that's where things get really sticky, especially with the advent of the Web and smart devices and apps and...well, you get the idea. This was raised again this week in an interesting Wired article on the topic of whether or not using Wolfram Alpha to do homework or take tests in math class (and, increasingly, other classes) is cheating or not. And that's the discussion that Will and Bruce raise in this podcast.

Want to guess as to the gist of the conversation?

We'd love to hear your voice in our next podcast. If you have any questions or comments, just use the SpeakPipe app below to record up to 90 seconds of audio thoughts.

First, some context for the 19th episode of the Modern Learners Podcast: Kids cheat in school. In high school. In college. Do a quick Google search and you'll find all sorts of research that bears this out. Ask a kid, and even if he doesn't admit to it himself, he'll most likely roll his eyes at the suggestion that it doesn't happen in almost every class at some point. Cheating, writ large, is a "problem," no doubt, though the problem takes on different guises depending on who you talk to. There is the ethical problem, which says, rightly, that we shouldn't cheat out of respect to our teachers or fellow students. But there's also the dis-engagement problem, which argues, rightly, that many students don't see the relevance or importance in "learning" much of what they are delivered in school which leads them not to take the work or the assessments very seriously at all.

But the third problem is the "real life" problem, as in why shouldn't students be able answer questions on tests in school the same way they would answer them out of school? And that's where things get really sticky, especially with the advent of the Web and smart devices and apps and...well, you get the idea. This was raised again this week in an interesting Wired article on the topic of whether or not using Wolfram Alpha to do homework or take tests in math class (and, increasingly, other classes) is cheating or not. And that's the discussion that Will and Bruce raise in this podcast.

Want to guess as to the gist of the conversation?

We'd love to hear your voice in our next podcast. If you have any questions or comments, just use the SpeakPipe app below to record up to 90 seconds of audio thoughts.