think:lab

Perhaps the Perfect Visual of "Digital Natives"

All "But what about Dan Meyer's ice cream spilling over the top of his half-shirt depiction?" reactions aside, I continue to believe there is better. Really.

Have you checked out the mae shi's "Run to Your Grave" video?

IMHO, it is the absolute best, bar none, hand's down, and spot-on depiction of what we really mean when we say "digital native". [cough, cough]

Why?

Watch for yourself and then scroll down for my reasons:

Run to Your Grave from the mae shi on Vimeo.

Here's a smatterin' of quick idea-hits just for starters:

seemingly messy and chaotic, but organized

open source mindset

give it away to get something back attitude re: vid posting

leader and yet no leaders

easy-to-use title/chorus to tease the age-gap issue

playful video antics in terms of the post-production editing riddle (can you figure it out?! - he smiles)

Yup, I really, really, really want to use it as a playful way to kick off my upcoming conference presentation. Because it will give the audience:

A burst of hard-to-forget, hard-to-not-shimmy-to music.

A what-am-I-seeing? sort of reaction from the audience.

An unexpected metaphor of sorts.

At least a guarantee that they'll have one wait-until-I-tell-my-kids moment to share when they return home later that week.

I did so at an all-day keynote presentation/workshop I gave this summer.

Thinking about doing it again.

What do you think? Will the school design types enjoy it? Or frown?

Like Those Little Wooden Russian Dolls

Disclaimer: This post is for 1% of 1% of 1% of people who 'might' wonder.

***

For what it's worth, I'm starting to "comment inside comments". Check out a recent post's comment thread to see what I mean if you'd like a visual.

What?

This essentially means that instead of writing my own comment as as separate 'entry' in the sidebar and comment thread, I'm going to simply 'edit' my comment into the bottom of anyone who leaves a comment here.

More time consuming, I suppose.

But I've been doing it this way with my students in our classroom blog all year and it works really well in that context. Feels more personal to me, too.

Plus, I just added the tag features inside my blog. What took me so long? Hey, I'm a tech luddite at best. Smart things under the hood take me longer.

So, feel free to add formatting tags if you'd like to use bold or italicize, etc.

Or don't. It's your call.

Oh, and look for any of my future comments to be located/found 'inside' your original comment rather than hogging space as its own separate island in the comment thread ocean. Note: Suppose if I had WordPress...

Hope that's cool.

If not, leave a comment so I can [wink, wink] return favor with a "commnet inside a comment" to tell you why I disagree [he smiles like Cheshire Cat].

Image link

School Designers: Where Do We Go Next?

Note: 

There is a video (I'm planning on showing at a school design conference in 3 weeks) at the end of this post that I'd love feedback on by anyone with time/interest. Thanks ahead of time.

***

Preparing my keynote presentation for the CEFPI (Council of Educational Facility Planners International) Southeast Regional Conference in early April in Myrtle Beach, SC, I've been re-working my "Designing School 2.0 --Agile Environments for Tomorrow's Learners" slide deck this week.

One of the unique opportunities is to re-think the entire premise of designing schools and 'learning spaces' that will be relevant for our collective futures. 

Needless to say, this demands we balance 2 sides of our wish-list:

practical issues of construction costs, safety concerns, enrollment projections, long-term maintenance questions, funding strategies, traditional views of what 'school' looks like, etc.

vs.

opportunities to design 'schools as center of community', partnerships, new ideas re: learning styles & brain science, 'green' design, 'flex-spaces', emerging technologies, customizing learning opportunities for tomorrow's 'digital natives', etc.

With that in mind, I have been playing around with a variety of ways to engage a large conference keynote audience filled with architects, builders, and educational leaders -- that I won't be able to 'workshop' or casually talk with due to the size of the room -- that manages to speak to how learning in the future will be affected by both physical spaces and emerging technology/ideas

Less about providing specific answers, my keynote tries to provoke new questions for all of us who are racing to grasp what the future of school design & education will look like, no matter our roles. 

Furthermore, I hope to try to bridge the gap that often arises between differently-focused experts working on design projects in an effort to foster a shared future-think language that ultimately supports learners & communities.

Now I come to the part where I'd love feedback from anyone w/ time:

During the opening 10 minutes of my presentation, I'll be showing the following video of a single toddler classroom.  I'll then ask my audience to use their professional expertise to:

a) take notice of what they literally see design-wise inside this toddler classroom

and

b) to make design/construction suggestions as if the toddler classroom actually belonged to a client or a colleague. 

Towards the end, I'll shift gears suddenly -- the 'Designing School 2.0' set-up -- in an effort to ask my audience to consider 'how' they're even able to watch these kids.  Ultimately, this opens up the door for the design concept of 'school' as a 24/7, transparent, 2-way 'hub' of collaboration and interaction.

The rough time-line for this 10-minute video goes as follows:

Note: There is no soundtrack as I'll be talking with my audience and also asking them to idea-storm with folks sitting near them.  Feel free to fast-forward (esp. during the 1-2 minute segments where you watch the kids move around the room without sound). 

0:00   Let's visit Toddler Room #1.
0:11   As designers, builders, educators: what do you notice about this space? (1+ minute watch-n-notice)
1:51   As designers, builders, educators: what changes would you suggest if this were a client's or colleague's space? (1 min watch-n-brainstorm)
3:02    Share ideas with your group. (2+ min discussion @ your table)
5:57    How are we even able to 'see' these kids, 'see' this classroom?
6:12    The epiphany: whenever we want, wherever we are.
6:20    As designers, builders, educators: how does this change your view of the project?
6:45   If you could connect this easily to your child, how would it change your relationship?
6:58    Let's reverse the idea:  Imagine if your students could connect this easily to the world of 21C ideas, 21C experts, 21C opportunities
7:14    What would the impact be on their futures?  What would the impact be for your leadership?
7:24    Idea-storm (1min discussion)
8:29   These are the questions we must begin to ask ourselves, we must begin to ask our partners, we must begin to as our communities
8:45    Beckett, class of 2024, expects nothing less from us; same with his classmates. (note: a this-is-personal papa moment)
8:58   So...where do we go next? (1 min discussion before the slide deck and heart of the presentation actually begins)

The remainder of the presentation -- approx 45 minutes -- is a slide deck with a focus on emerging technologies & a re-imagination of what it means to 'learn' in the future.  Ultimately I'll ask my audience how these ideas/examples CAN/WILL shape the buildings & campuses we will design & renovate over time.

Thanks in advance for any feedback on this opening video. 

Still plenty of time for me to re-think & edit.  Just keep in mind that 90% of what will matter most will be the conversation happening as the video sparks questions and plays in the background for my audience and me.

Nothing Better Than A "Food Court Musical"

I'm way, way, way out of touch with most of my students pop culture deities.

Why?

Oh, I've never seen High School Musical.  Nor its peppy pop culture sequel. 

[insert old guy out-of-the-loop shoulder shrug here]

However, how many of my students have seen Food Court Musical? Huh?

This gem -- and many others -- are brought to you by the ever-impressive underground improv group called Improv Everywhere.  They're based out of NYC since 2001 and are infamous for sending 'agents' into unsuspecting public spaces to conduct improv experiments called 'missions'.

Here is a list of every 'mission' they've ever launched. 

Good stuff: some of it quirky, some of it delicate, some of out outrageous.  All of it good fun in the name of unexpected good fun.

Re-Catchin' My "i"-Attention

As I wait for Saturday Night Live to start, my channel clicker took me to Mad TV where I had the good fortune to be re-introduced to the mock Steve Jobs product announcement for the "iRack". Loved this the first time I saw it; even funnier the 2nd time around.

As a new Mac guy, it does make me smirk to see how I'm already getting iCrazy for my little MacBook crush.

Note:

This is NOT a political statement of mine by showing this.

You're all big boys and big gals and can decide what you think about the war, et al.

It's funny no matter what side of the political fence you're sitting on because when comedy can be so socially timely on multiple fronts, then funny really is funny.  My brother, a Marine who served 2 terms in Iraq recently, would laugh, too.

"Do You Know Who I Am?" (Chomp, Chomp)

The joy of networks, tight and loose?

Hadn't spoken with fellow blogger Harold Jarche in a long, long time.  Months.  Maybe a year? 

Not sure why.  Always enjoyed his writing and ideas.  But time is a wry critter.

In any event, his name suddenly pops up in a comment on my blog this afternoon.  I then notice -- 2 min later -- that he's in my Skype contact list.  Send him a quick thank you.  He replies seconds later. 

And then he sends me this video gem called "How To Cheat on an Exam". 

Sure, it's a cheeky title.  But the final take-away in the closing seconds of the short video is classic.  Especially the apple bite.

Think you'll like it, regardless of what side of the apple-on-the-desk you claim.

BTW: The video code is found at "5 Min - Life Videopedia", a great little site that is built on the premise of people submitting up-to-5min-long videos for "practical questions" and for people to "share their knowledge".

Their goal:

"Our goal is to create the first communal Life Videopedia allowing users from all over the globe to contribute their knowledge by sharing visual guides."

Now that's cool.  Worth-checking-out cool!

And certainly -- all things lead back to the "future of learning" premise -- a fun side project for a teacher to assign to a group of public speaking students, those trying out a science experiment, poetry reciting fans, and just about any other subject-based project known to mankind that can be explained (or at least hinted at) visually in under 5 minutes.

Sure as heck can imagine seeing a dy/dan (meyer) "graphing (math) stories" channel there, but maybe that's just lil' ol' English teacher me who still digs the potential of this 2.0 business having a reasonably positive impact on how schools might 'deliver' education down the road. 

Might take a certain "digital native" intern to get the ball rollin' out there in Cali, but I'm semantically optimistic that way.  Must be the non-linear, right-side-of-the-brain Kool-Aid I'm drinkin'.  (he smiles)

Poetically Footloose And Spring Break Free

4:35pm.  Last day of the 3rd quarter.  Very quiet school building in all directions all around me.  About to walk out the door for Spring Break. 

That is, until...

...one of my 10th grade kids walked into my little office (note: in lieu of a real classroom, I have a desk in the math dept storage room) with a worn copy of a poem in hand.  I look at the clock.  It reads something past 3pm.  I look at him.  I look at his poem.  I realize he's serious.  (I smile)

A poem?  To do more work?  On the last Friday afternoon before Spring Break? When he could be outside playing ball?  Was he mad?  Better yet:  was I?

Yup.

One of my 10th grade students walks slowly my way.  Wearing his varsity baseball uniform with a game only 30 minutes away.  He's actually biting his lip.  Says, "Can I start now?"  I nod in the affirmative. 

And so he begins his last 2 or 3 attempts at the quarter-long "Ozymandias" poem memorization project (I wrote about not too long ago) that stops being valid at the end of today when the quarter ends.  As in no-more-chances, becomes-a-zero end of today.  Nothing like waiting 9 weeks to prove the power of 10th grade procrastination.  Dem wacky kids.  Wonders never cease.

The challenge for my kids starts like this: 

"I met a traveler from an antique land / Who said..." - Percy Shelley, "Ozymandias"

In a sentence, here's what they gotta do:

'Recite' the poem on paper perfectly, word for word, comma for comma, perfect, no mistakes, no excuses, none, done, fininto. 

9 weeks to try.  Try as many times as needed. 

But when its over, its either an A+/100 or an F/0.  No other options.  And it counts as much as a major essay.  No apologies.

As I said in the previous post, another teacher I ran into at a conference this winter said,'

"No way you'll get all your kids to do this.  Just not possible.  Not all kids can memorize.  At least I couldn't."

I forgave her her lack of optimism, her reluctance to be audacious, her lack of willingness to realize that kids will do anything for a teacher who truly believes in them and makes it non-negotiable based on a belief in their abilities,...all because she pointed to the elephant in the corner of the room. 

If we don't think we can, then how can our kids?

But the crazy thing is that when this student walked into my 'office' today, he was the last one to get this done.  The very last one.  My assumption of perfection was on the line, as I told him (a little extra pressure I knew he could handle!). 

Every one of my students -- from ESL kids to Ivy-League-bound kids -- pulled it off successfully. Every. One. Of. Them!  Period.

This was on my mind a lot today since I had been surprised by an invitation from Oregon Public Radio to be on-air today during a show called "Think Out Loud" that was focusing on the act of 'memorization' in the learning process.  Somehow -- Google? -- one of their producers discovered that post I wrote about this poem memorization project and called me. All the way from Oregon.  Want to be on our show in Oregon?  Sure.  Happy to join in.

While I was flattered to be asked to be on the show today and share a bit about my students and the work they did this quarter, I was even more impressed by the other students on the show who were performing in the national Poetry Out Loud competition.  My lil'ol' project had nothing on what these kids were doing.  Not. A. Thing.

As I said, eventually my baseball playing 10th grader with a bit of the procrastination blues on the verge of Spring Break, managed to pull off the memorization project after 5 tries this afternoon alone.  With him, 100% of my students -- the entire 10th grade -- proved that earlier teacher's assumption wrong.  Quite wrong.  We got 100%.  No problemo!

So, I walked out the door today to kick start vacation.

A brilliant spring day in the 80's.  Sun.  Blue sky.  Spring Break officially under way.  A gradebook full of A+/100 point scores for a major assignment for all of my kids.  All of them.   And an appreciation that someone I've never met stumbled upon my blog and asked me to be on Oregon Public Radio to talk about "memorization" of all things.

Funny.  If there is anything I thought I'd ever be asked to talk about on the radio, memorization is the furthest possibility in the education spectrum.

But then again, wonders never cease when it comes to the teaching life.

"Happily Creative / Since 1990"

Imagine one side of the college admissions table this time of year.

Let's see. I think I have everything I need:

SAT score - check.

GPA - check.

Volunteer Hours - check.

Letter from a teacher I had a year ago - check.

Essay saying why I world peace is important to me - check.

Neatly pressed navy blazer and classic prep school rep tie in case I get a chance to fly in for campus visit - check.

Sticker from college of my choice on window of my old Ford Festiva and an alias email that says [email protected] I use when I contact the admissions office - check.

An alum-nod phone call from my dad's buddy who went to the school 26 years ago - check.

Envelope & postage - check.

Should be no problem standing out in the admissions queue now.

Unless, of course, I'm applying to a college along with 10,000 (give or take) high school seniors just like me with specs just like me and saying all the same things I'm saying. But that wouldn't happen? Would it?

Let's go and flip that admission table so we can sit on the other side.

Mmm, what's this?

Some kid who describes himself as "a graphic designer, author and entrepreneur" just sent us in the typical application portfolio along with a link to his website, a book he's published, and something called Flickr. Mmm.

"Happily Creative / Since 1990", it says. Very interesting. Very interesting indeed.

***

You tell me.

Who gets a phone call when the admissions queue starts to fill up?

***

Hey, Ethan:

Congrats on the new site design! Pretty freakin' lovely aesthetics and content you've new-designed blended together recently. A pleasure to see someone who really grasps the idea of a "global learning brand" being put in play long before one's career kicks off.

Or at least the "18+ with a college degree" career that will also come one day.

"Best Learning Experience Ever Invented"

Head's up. The gauntlet is about ready to fall.

Prove to me that ANY academic experience is better aligned with School 2.0 -esque goals than a "design studio".

(Psst: the same type of "design studio" that existed a 100 years ago, before the "industrial age" school was even a curse word!)

Go ahead. Prove it!

(photo link)

My biases as a 'school design' kind of guy on this topic are pretty entrenched. Even more so after having taught architecture/design/planning to high school kids over the last few years.

That being said, I'll let James Barker, the President of Clemson University say it for me via a 3/08 article in The Chronicle of Higher Education:

"In my view, the architecture design studio is the best learning experience ever invented to produce the kind of deep, engaged learning and creative graduates that are so needed today."

Did you hear that? "...the best learning experience ever invented..."

He continues:

"Small groups of students work with a master teacher on a semester-long or yearlong team project to design solutions to a specific problem or to meet a particular need. Some projects are purposely fanciful, purely imaginative. Others, often the best projects, tackle real problems for actual clients."

Why does he say that?

"That's because architecture offers one of the last Renaissance educations available. At its best, it strikes just the right balance between art and science, the creative and the pragmatic. I often tell people I learned everything from plumbing to poetry in architecture school, and I use every bit of that knowledge as president of Clemson University."

As a trained/licensed architect, he's a rare breed in the University President camp. As a voice of learning in the future, hopefully his ideas aren't so rare.

Why?

Take a gander at this gem he offers:

"It seems, at times, as though our entire campus is one big studio. My goal is to have every undergraduate participate in such a research or creative-inquiry experience before he or she graduates."

Or:

"On a much deeper level, however, I believe architectural education offers a model of how we can meet some of the clearest challenges facing universities today.

How do we teach creativity? Where do ideas come from? How do we educate fact-based critical thinkers and individualists? How do we then teach those students to communicate, to understand one another and other cultures, and to work well together as part of a larger team?

Those are the demands and expectations of higher education in the 21st century. It is a matter of national concern in a world where prosperity aligns so clearly with innovation and a creative, knowledge-based economy, and we must not fail."

You a fan of School 2.0 and all that jazz? Like that Dan Pink fella?

Really?

Then tell me ONE academic program -- that encompasses EVERY intellectual and hands-on discipline you can think of -- that matches the "design studio" pound for pound in terms of what YOU think should define learning in the future.

Oh, yeah, and don't forget this:

"And, as the American Institute of Architects says on the Web site of its Communities by Design initiative: "There's a reason you became an architect. It wasn't just about buildings. It was about people, it was about making communities more livable.""

NOT just about buildings. Not at all.

Amen!

Walking the Halls at SLA

Most of you have heard of SLA (Science Leadership Academy), the school Chris Lehmann founded 2 years ago.

If so, you'll love seeing this video tour of SLA from his local Philly PBS affiliate.

If not, this is a decent introduction.

My only question? Who is Chris' stunt double in the suit?

Either way, don't forget the "Edutopia" article about SLA that came out last year.