Real Need or An Excuse? Is Less More?

In The Evolution of Education Is Less More?

"There is something to this idea of less is more. For a teacher that can’t prioritize, organize, or integrate, more isn’t helpful or supportive, but rather an endless, wide-open and formless space."

I worry about "there's an app for that" syndrome. Which seems related to the need to constantly move on to the next cool tool.

Similarly I worry about always searching for the next book/article/post/tweet to read, thinking it might have "the" answer.

If we are consumed by consuming those apps or readings, what will we produce ourselves?

I like the idea that if a teacher/facilitator/administrator cannot easily show what they AND their students have created (ideally published on the internet), even if it isn't polished/final, then they are victims of their own mindset. How do we help ourselves distinguish whether it is a real need, just a perceived need, or an excuse for not getting on with the job?

How do these overlap or express unique ideas?

Betty Flowers describes four roles related to the writing process: madman, architect, carpenter, and judge.

Roger Von Oech describes four roles related to the creative process: explorer, artist, judge and warrior.

HT to Stephen Abram to get me thinking ...

Questions & "Starts"

“Questions are places in your mind where answers fit. If you haven’t asked the question, the answer has nowhere to go. It hits your mind and bounces right off. You have to ask the question – you have to want to know – in order to open up the space for the answer to fit.” Clayton Christensen via Jason Fried

Combine that with Grant Wiggins' Beginnings, and their educational importance.

How good are our "starts"? Do our units start with kid questions enough? Is starting with a challenge as good?

And Extrovert Kids Need to Learn to Listen at School

Jessica Lahey has an article that explains why she feels Introverted Kids Need to Learn to Speak Up at School.

I've been thinking through those issues on and off for years, especially as I design my own lessons and work with other teachers. I look for articles and books related to the topic, like Susan Cain's Quiet. Below is a link to a Thinking Space about that book and introverts as well as a page that looks at the affordances and constraints of group work and individual work. Finally there is a link to a related rubric. A part of the rubric gets at listening.

I find it interesting that the "communication" Lahey mentions seems to only go one way with introverts needing to learn to speak up. Shouldn't we at the same time be working with teaching extroverts to listen?

Thinking Space - Quiet

Affordances & Constraints - Group/Individual Work

Teamwork Rubric

What is the balance we need to strike between letting kids work in their comfort zone and educating them in areas that may be less comfortable (both groups)?

Future Ed Tech Conference Direction?

When will Ed Tech conferences move to incorporate more of the content and ethos of a Maker Faire? We need more sessions like Mitch Resnick's precon at BLC. Conference organizers are missing an opportunity to connect the making their presenters already promote (storytelling, videomaking, blogging, community building, textbook creating, etc.) with that of the Maker movement. It would also be a natural connection with inquiry, design thinking, problem-solving, etc.

For now I'll just imagine myself getting invited to a retreat or unconference with Mitch Resnick, Amy Smith, Marco Torres, Dale Dougherty, Gever Tulley, Neil Gershenfeld, Regina Dugan, William Kamkwamba, Paulo Blikstein, and the Raspberry Pi folks. Who else should be invited?

I'll be curious if Will Richardson pushes down this path in the future. Are any of the Usual Suspects of the ed tech conference circuit moving in this direction?

Mini Maker Faire

Another project I'm excited about trying again this year is our Mini Maker Faire. Mini Maker Faire is designed to get students making with found materials, documenting the process, tweaking/hacking someone else's design, and reflecting throughout. Check out the possible projects and let me know if you have some others third/fourth graders might enjoy!

Multimodal Vocabulary

I'm back teaching seventh/eighth grade social studies this year! Can't wait for students to use a full range of possibilities for their Multimodal Vocabulary this year. Got any other ideas for us?

12 Most Genius Questions

Never got the evil DISQUS to work on Angela Maiers' blog and forgot about these 13 (baker's dozen) additional genius questions in response to her post, 12 Most Genius Questions In The World. Having a class or set of teachers complete a Top X list of genius questions would be a good exercise. Then they could compare theirs to Angela's.

1. Is this interesting?
2. Why does/doesn't this work?
3. What does this connect to?
4. Where might this lead?
5. What if ...
6. Is this worthwhile? (Compared to my other options.)
7. Does this fit my moral compass?
8. How long will this take? Should this take? Would I like this to take? How much time do I have?
9. How is it going? How could it be done better?
10. How do I share this?
11. How would I teach someone this?
12. How does this look to others (fortunate/unfortunately depending on how I use it)?
13. How can we learn from this failure?

#ScaleFail

I'm worried about how often educators quickly try to "scale" initiatives without thinking through which elements can scale, which might scale, and which will be a ScaleFail. A prime example would be my district's !gnite program. Some elements scaled well, others, such as co-teaching, were a ScaleFail. To that end, I'm going to start collecting links in my Diigo account and posting them to twitter. Here's the first, Our New Value Proposition.

Two Questions

Will Richardson posts Two Questions he uses the frame conversations on change in Education,

1. What can technology do better than we can when it comes to educating kids?
2. What can we do that technology can’t?

They are important to consider, but I'd add at least 1 more (maybe it's two). What can we do with technology that's better than just the technology by itself or better than just us? But, these questions beg a lot of other questions before we can address them with any nuance.