1) The document discusses how the abundance of information, tools, and networks available online is changing the nature of learning and education. 2) It argues that in this new environment, where content and teachers are no longer scarce, the primary value of school must shift from knowledge acquisition to developing skills like creativity, problem solving, and lifelong learning. 3) For education to be effective, it asserts that we need to "unlearn" traditional approaches focused on delivery, competition, and assessment, and instead embrace more collaborative and self-directed models of learning.

1. Learning in a Networked World
For Ourselves, and For Our Students
Will Richardson
will@willrichardson.com
willrichardson.com
willrich45
bit.ly/KyQb6E

2. todaysmeet.com/EVSCREV12

5. “It was the best of times, it was
the worst of times, it was the age
of wisdom, it was the
age of foolishness...”
Charles Dickens

6. 2011 NY State Regents Exam for World Geography:

7. 2011 NY State Regents Exam for World Geography:
Which geographic factor affected the development of
the Gupta Empire?

8. 2011 NY State Regents Exam for World Geography:
Which geographic factor affected the development of
the Gupta Empire?
a) island location
b) volcanoes
c) monsoons
d) permafrost

9. 2011 NY State Regents Exam for World Geography:
Which geographic factor affected the development of
the Gupta Empire?
a) island location
b) volcanoes
c) monsoons
d) permafrost

11. CHANGE

12. “The change we are in
the middle of isn’t minor
and it isn’t optional.”
Clay Shirky

13. Scarcity

14. Scarcity
ABUNDANCE

15. ABUNDANCE OF...
Information
Tools
Opinions
People
Data
Resources
Media
More...

16. ABUNDANCE OF...
(Kids’ Version)
Games
Videos
Networks
Texts
Hangouts
All Sorts of Other Interesting Stuff
They Don’t Have Access to In School

17. ...WHICH IS CHANGING
Media
Politics
Journalism
Medicine
Books
Business
Music...

18. ...WHICH IS CHANGING
...Education

19. ...A world marked by “ubiquitous computing,
ubiquitous information, ubiquitous networks, at
unlimited speed, about everything, everywhere,
from anywhere, on all kinds of devices that make
it ridiculously easy to connect, organize, share,
collect, collaborate and publish.”
Michael Wesch

20. ...WHICH IS CHANGING
Examples

24. ABUNDANCE
Will Change Us.

25. bit.ly/MZmNDy

26. Information ≠ Education
bit.ly/MZmNDy

27. NEW REALITIES
1. Content and Knowledge is Everywhere

33. NEW REALITIES
1. Content and Knowledge is Everywhere
2. Teachers are Everywhere

38. NEW REALITIES
1. Content and Knowledge is Everywhere
2. Teachers are Everywhere
3. Data is Everywhere

41. NEW REALITIES
1. Content and Knowledge is Everywhere
2. Teachers are Everywhere
3. Data is Everywhere
4. Networks are the New Classrooms

42. NEW REALITIES
Individuals
(Apprenticeships)

43. NEW REALITIES
Individuals
(Apprenticeships)
Groups
(Classrooms)

44. NEW REALITIES
Individuals
(Apprenticeships)
Groups
(Classrooms)
Networks
(VLEs)

49. “Networked Individualism”

50. NEW REALITIES
1. Content and Knowledge is Everywhere
2. Teachers are Everywhere
3. Data is Everywhere
4. Networks are the New Classrooms
5. Learning is On Demand

51. bit.ly/LQ85go

54. change

55. CHANGE

56. KEY QUESTION
What is the primary value of school when
content and teachers are no longer scarce?

57. KEY QUESTION
The answer to that question starts with:
“What do we want our students to learn?”

58. KEY QUESTION
“And what do you mean by ‘learning’?”

59. KEY QUESTION
“Higher student achievement?”
“Improved student performance?”
“Better student outcomes?”
“College readiness?”

60. KEY QUESTION
“And what do you mean by ‘learning’?”
Discuss.

61. LEARNING IS
creativity
passion to know
application of knowledge
inquiry
seeing patterns
posing and answering questions
understanding the world
acquiring knowledge
curiosity
finding and solving problems
making something
understanding something you previously didn’t understand
making connections
changing your perspective on something
synthesizing ideas
adding new knowledge

62. "Productive learning is the learning
process which engenders and reinforces
wanting to learn more. Absent wanting
to learn, the learning context is
unproductive or counterproductive."
Seymour Sarason

63. LEARNING IS
creativity
passion to know
application of knowledge
inquiry
seeing patterns
posing and answering questions
understanding the world
acquiring knowledge
curiosity
finding and solving problems
making something
understanding something you previously didn’t understand
making connections
changing your perspective on something
synthesizing ideas
adding new knowledge

64. REMEMBER:
If we don’t assess what we value,
we will value what we assess.

65. “The illiterate of the
21st Century will not be those
who cannot read and write,
but those who cannot
learn, unlearn, and relearn.”
Alvin Toffler

66. NEW REALITIES
1. Content and Knowledge is Everywhere
2. Teachers are Everywhere
3. Networks are the New Classrooms
4. Learning is On Demand

67. UNLEARNING
So, given these new realities,
what do we have to “unlearn”?

68. UNLEARNING
Five Part Process

69. UNLEARNING
1. Understand: The contexts for change

71. UNLEARNING
1. Understand: The contexts for change
2. Feel: Anger, grief, excitement

74. “Today, instead of teaching them information, I was
teaching them how to learn. And yet, I’m not sure
what my new role in this is. I’m not sure how to
connect to my students and their learning process
while doing this. I’m not sure how to laugh and
enjoy them. And I was not expecting the profound
sense of loss and the pain accompanying it.”

75. UNLEARNING
1. Understand: The contexts for change
2. Feel: Anger, grief, excitement
3. Reflect: Examine your own learning practice

76. ARE YOU LITERATE?
• Develop proficiency with the tools of technology
• Build relationships with others to pose and solve
problems collaboratively and cross-culturally
• Design and share information for global communities
to meet a variety of purposes
• Manage, analyze and synthesize multiple streams of
simultaneous information
• Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-media texts
• Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these
complex environments
bit.ly/nctelit

77. UNLEARNING
1. Understand: The contexts for change
2. Feel: Anger, grief, excitement
3. Reflect: Examine your own learning practice
4. Act: Innovate, Change, Connect, ReLearn

80. UNLEARNING
1. Understand: The contexts for change
2. Feel: Anger, grief, excitement
3. Reflect: Examine your own learning practice
4. Act: Innovate, Change, Connect
5. Provoke: Engage others, Advocate

83. “…We can’t merely call for a set of
broken institutions to work slightly
better, to restore the present
to the state of the past. We’ve got
to redefine ‘better’;
to redesign the future.”
Umair Haque

84. UNLEARNING
Three Things to Unlearn

85. UNLEARNING
Three Things to Unlearn
1. Delivery

86. UNLEARNING
UnDelivery Idea:

87. UNLEARNING
UnDelivery Idea:
Let Students Design One Unit

88. UNLEARNING
Three Things to Unlearn
1. Delivery
2. Competition

89. UNLEARNING
UnCompetiton Idea:

90. UNLEARNING
UnCompetiton Idea:
Share Everything

91. UNLEARNING
Three Things to Unlearn
1. Delivery
2. Competition
3. Assessment

92. UNLEARNING
UnAssessment Idea
Not Open Book Test
Not Open Phone...

93. UNLEARNING
UnAssessment Idea
Not Open Book Test,
Not Open Phone...
...Open Network

94. BE BOLD

98. 2020?

102. “We need to move beyond the idea
that an education is something that
is provided for us, and toward the
idea that an education is something
that we create for ourselves.”
Stephen Downes

103. KEY QUESTION
What is the primary value of school when
content and teachers are no longer scarce?

104. “In times of change, learners
inherit the Earth, while the learned
find themselves beautifully
equipped to deal with a world that
no longer exists.”
Eric Hoffer

105. THE END
Thanks!
will@willrichardson.com
@willrich45
willrichardson.com