Cities: Learning Redesigned for the 21st Century

Editor's Notes

1. Introduction: We are facing complex global challenges … that will not just require knowledge, but it will require passion, persistence, social/collaborative skills, and creativity.
2. Yet in a recent Gallup Poll Survey we find U.S. High School students disengaged. 40% Engaged 33% Not Engaged 27% Actively Disengaged Note: *Jeff recently forwarded me this information… thought it might be useful.
3. We really need to start looking at why this is. We would argue that it is because there is a large disconnect between the experience of school and what young people are experiencing in their daily lives.
4. They live in a culture where technology, the internet, mobile devices have become completely embedded in their way of living.
5. They exist in a culture that is about participation, making things, creating content, hacking, self-publishing
6. And they exist in a culture that is providing constant feedback…. Likes, views, followers, yelp ratings, scores…fitbit and apple watch will begin giving you feedback on various aspects of your lifestyle….you can always find your location on a map, you have cta bus trackers, you call an uber and literally watch your ride find their way to your location.
7. Yet our educational institutions lag far behind. While there is a rush to bring technology into the classroom, the actual classroom itself and our approach to learning itself has not changed. Everyone in this room has a laptop, yet they are still sitting in a lecture hall.
8. Things like Khan Academy are great in using the platform to make learning content easily accessible, but even that is still in the same mode of pedagogy as sitting in a lecture room receiving content. It just happens to be in virtual space. YOU CAN’T just replace new technology into old pedagogy.
9. All of our reforms and solutions seem geared towards focusing in one area, one program. Whether it is No Child Left Behind or Common Core… it seems that the trend is towards more standardization, a more linear approach.
10. All of our reforms and solutions seem geared towards focusing in one area, one program. Whether it is No Child Left Behind or Common Core… it seems that the trend is towards more standardization, a more linear approach.
11. We need a new pedagogy – that transitions from linear 19th century industrial production – to something that represents more accurately today how learning happens and how a 21st century economy works.
12. It needs to take into account a learning ecosystem where our most important learning experiences are just as likely to occur outside of school and formal education systems as it does our formal systems.
13. Introduce Connected Learning …. This slide is CL VIDEO that can be played when clicked on . PLAY CONNECTED LEARNING VIDEO
14. Explanation of Connected Learning…I’m always still unsure though, should “opportunity” be “academics”, “relevance”. I’m starting to like “relevance”.
15. How does this play out in terms of a change to pedagogies? Considering this is a tech audience, might be good to use an CL approach that has its roots in something more techy like gaming. You can talk about how principles learned from Game design were translated into an academic setting at QTL. From Mimi slides for her SXSW presentation – she uses Q2L Boss Level to talk about CL Design Principles…
16. From Mimi slides for her SXSW presentation – she uses Q2L Boss Level to talk about CL Principles…
17. From Mimi slides for her SXSW presentation – she uses Q2L Boss Level to talk about CL Principles…
18. From Mimi slides for her SXSW presentation – she uses Q2L Boss Level to talk about CL Principles…
19. How can we talk about trying to create Connected Learning Experiences across a learning ecosystem … or city? How do we design for engagement? How do we design for social engagement? How do we design for relevance to the needs of young people and the needs of our communities and cities?
20. Perhaps use quote from Cities 3.0 speech to establish why Cities are the vehicle for change?
21. Introduce CITIES OF LEARNING
22. COL of learning is about building upon the abundant learning resources that already exist in every city. In their civic institutions, community centers, non-profit orgs… all of the places throughout a city that are offering valuable learning experiences to young people.
23. COL is about creating an networked infrastructure. This networked infrasctructure 1) connects all of the learning resources in a city
24. This infrastructure becomes interfaced through a portal such as Chicago City of Learning website that allows kids to search for learning opportunities based on their interests.
25. But the COL infrastructure is more. Through digital badges learning throughout a city is recognized and captured. It becomes the currency of a citywide learning ecosystem. How does it do this?
26. Badges are embedded with important data about the learner, the learning provider, and information about what was learned.
27. Badges can be viewed and shared… allowing for exchange.
28. Version of this graphic without the pathways or graphics….
29. This leads to Badges being able to create learning pathways across a city. *I think you were supposed to send me graphic that Rob had developed for showing learning pathways.
30. USE ROBS GRAPHIC….
31. This finally leads to #3 of what COL will eventually offer. Because COL organizes and connects learning resources, because it captures learning data through digital badges… COL can potentially capture real-time learning data city wide… *Note: Is data thing more potential than current reality of COL??
32. This data is not just to provide evidence and measurement of learning, but could be used to lead to recommendations. If you are a parent or student…it is about being able to get real-time data on your learning progress, but it should also be able to recommend and point you to new learning opportunities.
33. But data from COL engine could also be used by city leaders and education developers to make better informed decisions about where and how to allocate resources, better design and meet learning needs of cities learners. CREATE A SLIDE ABOUT PROGRAM DESERTS…USE OF DATA…..
34. CREATE ANOTHER SLIDE ABOUT NUMBERS OF PROGRAMS OFFERED…..
35. .HARRY POTTER – SORTING HATS…
36. ENDING WITH IDENTITY…LEARNING IS A LIFESTYLE IMAGE…