Dot Learnt

As the Bon Education team continues our work on community education initiatives around the world, but in particular in Dubai, Ras al Khaimah and Abu Dhabi, I’ve been thinking a lot about:

What are the conditions needed for community education initiatives to thrive?

A few animated dinner conversations and back-of-the-envelope brainstorms later, I feel like I am finally starting to formulate a satisfying answer. But, before I share my thoughts, let’s quickly define community education so that we are on the same page:

Community Education: learning and social development work with individuals and groups in their communities using a range of formal and informal methods. A common defining feature is that programs and activities are developed in dialogue with communities and participants. The purpose of community learning and development is to develop the capacity of individuals and groups of all ages… [and] to improve their quality of life (Wikipedia).

Back to the question at hand… Here are some thoughts on the necessary ingredients required for community education initiatives to deliver true value (i.e. increased community skills, cohesion, happiness, health, etc.). Community education should be:

Demand driven and/or horizon expanding: People in the community should be calling for it (e.g. a particular course, talk, arts event, etc.) or be delighted by the opportunity when it comes. For example, at a recent education event at the Shelter (a community co-working and event space in Dubai) in which the topic of “permaculture” came up in passing discussion, it became clear that community members were intrigued by the topic. So, we organized a separate event on permaculture (a new topic to most people in the community) and now people are asking for more workshops, theory and practical advice on how to bring permaculture principles to their homes and workplaces.

Practical: From the topic, to the price, to the time of day, if an initiative isn’t relevant to people’s lives or easy to attend, it simply won’t gain the momentum needed to stand the test of time. In Ras al Khaimah we used to only deliver professional development to teachers on Saturdays. While this works for some teachers, we found that many female teachers (particularly within certain cultures) simply can’t take a Saturday “off” from family obligations and expectations. So we now offer courses on weekends and during weekday evenings. Also, because many teachers don’t have the extra cash to support their own professional development, we’ve had to find the right partners to fund workshops—partners that see value and that benefit from a local teaching force with enhanced skills in the areas of leadership, action research and technology.

The result of a strong listening process: Ask yourself, “What is my community calling for in this moment?” Listen without judgment or cynicism. Often the answers with regard to “what education to provide and how” are right in front of our eyes and ears.

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The recent Joan Ganz Cooney Center quick study, “Print books vs. eBooks” has caused quite a stir in reading and techno-panic circles—inspiring paper book purists to condemn eBooks all together and the eBook curious to become more vociferous about the merits and potential of tablet-based literary experiences. These articles beg the questions: What were the results of the study? Why should parents and children’s book lovers care?

“Print books vs. eBooks” study in a nutshell:

Purpose of study:  To compare parent-child reading interactions, child reading engagement and child reading comprehension across basic, eBook and enhanced (multi-media) book formats.

Methodology: The Joan Ganz Cooney Center “recruited 32 pairs of parents and their 3-6-year-old children at the New York Hall of Science’s Preschool Place. Each pair read a print book and either an enhanced or basic e-book while researchers videotaped their interactions and took observational notes. Following the co-reading task, researchers tested the children on their comprehension of the story and interviewed parents about their reading practices at home and elsewhere.”

Results:

“Across all book formats, children performed nearly equally when asked to explain a critical element in the story.”

“Children who read enhanced eBooks recalled significantly fewer narrative details than children who read the print version of the same story.”

“When measuring overall engagement—a composite of parent-child interaction, child-book interaction, parent-book interaction, and signs of enjoyment—63% of the pairs were as engaged reading the print book as they were when reading the e-book (both types).”

“When measuring child-book engagement (e.g., direct attention, touch), more children showed higher levels of engagement for the e-books than the print books… Children also physically interacted with the enhanced e-book more than when reading either the print or basic e-book.” See full study details here.

What does this study have to do with my child? Why should I care? (more…)

Bon Education CEO Anna Batchelder will be leading a free online seminar-style course on P2PU.org June 4-July1, 2012.

This 1-month virtual seminar is for educators, learners and parents who are keen to discuss and compare education systems from around the world.

The course is divided into 4 modules each containing 2-3 online short videos, an optional reading, asynchronous discussions and an optional synchronous discussion (via Skype) around the following topics:

• Global definitions of learning and education (June 4-10, 2012)
• Cross-country education borrowing and lending (June 11-17, 2012)
• Educating the whole person (June 18-24, 2012)
• Creating sustainable education systems (June 25-July 1, 2012)

Bon Education creates innovative multi-media children’s book series, The Adventures of BB and Sam, using Apple iBooks Author.

Dubai, UAE – May 15, 2012 – Education technology company Bon Education announces the launch of The Adventures of BB and Sam - a new multimedia fiction book series that aims to take children on virtual adventures around the globe via the touch of an iPad. Created with Apple’s iBooks Author, the series is filled with text, illustrations, videos, mood music, photo galleries, quiz features and more.

“When Apple launched iBooks Author as a tool to create engaging multi-touch digital textbooks, we immediately thought to ourselves, ‘This is an amazing tool for creating children’s literature as well!’” said Bon Education CEO Anna Batchelder. “So many kids are choosing to watch TV and play video games over reading these days. By adding a variety of digital enhancements and interactivity to our books, we hope kids will rediscover their love of reading in a digital world.” (more…)

Just-in-time management and tech training of the sort you can receive at General Assembly will increasingly replace traditional just-in-case business degrees. Why get an MBA when you can start a company and get just-in-time support? Why take a crummy programming course from your local community college when you can get one free from Stanford or MIT? – Tom Vander Ark (former Executive Director of Education, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation)

Agreed! So, agreed! I was recently asked by someone, “Do you think community organizations and the private sector should be involved in teacher training initiatives given that so many universities in the Middle East are expanding their offerings for pre and in-service teachers?” My response was, “Absolutely!” Why? Because…

• Not all learning should end in a degree! - There are so many educators out there that want professional development that will help them in their classes now, but that frankly don’t want to spend the time and money getting a 1st or 2nd master’s degree.
• People outside of academia can bring a lot of value to education - As I wrote in Unconscious Education, “How can it be justified that the teachers that are meant to prepare students for the world of work, so often have little work experience outside of schools?” Or, as Tom Vander Ark puts it, “New eyes with no loyalties other than to kids and community gives an observer a chance to ask tough questions about the strange collection of historical practices that make up the typical school day. While not valued in education, a breadth of leadership experiences and exposure to solution sets from other sectors is helpful.” (more…)

Destination: Philippines

Location: the Slums

Situation: You are a parent of two children trying to make ends meet. You are good at sewing and cooking, but your electricity-less tin hut makes working inside almost impossible. Without light inside you spend most days outside socializing with neighbors and doing odd jobs. You want a better life for your children. You want your children to go to school. Unfortunately, the local school is dilapidated without access to electricity, light or running water… Not to mention you need them to work to bring in much needed family cash.

Enter: Isang Litrong Liwanag (A Liter of Light) (more…)

Reality:

Many educators in the world…

• Don’t receive sufficient teacher training.
• Have little or no ongoing professional development.
• Work in schools that suffer from chronic lack of funding.

Vision:

What if edu-passionate volunteers from around the world banned together to…

• Build an open licensed, free, multilingual virtual school of education driven by the principles of peer learning.
• Facilitate the free exchange of knowledge and ideas between educators in a context that positively transforms teacher and student practice, learning and engagement.
• Codify existing educational best practices into a series of experiences that provide foundational knowledge of how to be an effective teacher.

It’s Happening:

Using Web 2.0 and Social Media to Encourage Deeper Learning from Bon Education on Vimeo.

Now get involved:

• Check out the Peer to Peer University School of Education Pilot. For example, view “Using Social Media to Promote Deeper Learning,” “Differentiated Instruction,” or “Student Engagement”.
• What if we expanded this pilot into a Global Teaching Certificate Program? What practical educational experiences (or courses) would need to be created to help multinational cohorts of pre and in-service educators become phenomenal teachers?

Help think through the tricky details:

• Design—How do we design a program whose requirements are realistic and practical for all involved?
• Accreditation—Do it? Dump it? Redefine it? Teaching certificates vs. badges? FYI – Many school principals, parents and students don’t want “certified teachers” per se, they want “great teachers”. Great teachers come with and without certification.
• Sustainability—How do we sustain a program run by 99% volunteers?
• Marketing—How do we get volunteer curricula writers, course facilitators, coordinators and teachers from mountains of Oman, to the valleys of China to the beaches of the Seychelles to get involved?

From one P2PU School of Ed fan to another,

Anna

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Images Available Under CC Licensure by Thelonious Gonzo and Casey David

1. Pick a word to describe your classroom culture as it is.
2. Now select a word to describe your classroom culture as you’d like it to be.
3. Ask your students to do 1. and 2.
4. Reflect.
5. I think you know what you need to do.

When a classroom’s “default” culture stinks, it gets…

Boredom. Dropouts. Apathy.

When a classrooms’s “default” culture rocks, it gets…

Delight. Energy. Determination.

Culture matters. The stories we tell ourselves about our surroundings matter. Culture influences the stories we tell. Stories influence the culture we create.

Lesson to educators and learners (especially online educators and learners)…

Be the artists of your own culture and let the stories you wish to hear sing.

Just as we are deliberate about platforms, standards, curricula, methodology and assessments, it is time to be more thoughtful, imaginative and deliberate about education culture here, over there and everywhere.

Imagining…

Anna

P.S. Thanks to Anil Dash (A Blog About Making Culture), Henry Jenkins (Confronting the Challenge of Participatory Culture), and my yoga instructors at Zen Yoga for inspiring my recent thoughts and activities on the artistry of educational culture.

P.P.S. Have thoughts about educational culture? Leave a reply below.

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Images available under CC licensures by spettacolopuro, pouchie153, mckaysavage and powi

Thinking about my time with Mr. Holder immediately brought back a flood of memories from secondary school—being a prosecution lawyer in Mrs. Yalen’s 8^th grade mock trial, playing the viola part of Carmina Burana under Ms. Holmes’ baton, traveling with my 11^th grade chemistry teacher Mrs. Cummings to NASA Stennis Space Center to present my Mars project to a panel of scientists. The more I think back on school, I can’t remember the hundreds of textbooks I read, or the tests and papers that I must have completed to get my degree. Instead, my unforgettable school experiences are all about my interactions with people and projects. I suspect if asked, you would say the same.

Fast forward to the “21^st Century”, where more and more education is going digital and  self-paced online modules replace teachers and digital testing as the norm. How can edtech companies and online schools create education products and experiences that are simply unforgettable?

To tackle this question, I thought it would be helpful to compile a list of websites that have caught my eye and explain why I like them and why they are so memorable. Perhaps along the way some lessons in making digital education unforgettable will emerge…

Intel Museum of Me

Imagine an online MoMA devoted entirely to you—a digital virtual archive of your best friends, memories, quotes and videos. As you walk from room to room, you can’t help but be engaged because the whole exhibit is about everything and everyone you love. Interested? Definitely! Rule #1—Make digital education personalized.

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The world will not be saved by high test scores… What is needed more than ever is a laser-like focus on the kinds of human beings that we are raising and the kinds of societies—indeed, in a global era, the kind of world society—that we are fashioning. –Howard Gardner (Educating for Global Competence)

Recently I’ve taken a strong interest in coaching which has led me to enroll in a number of courses offered through the Coaches Training Institute. What I love about the coaching process is that it provides a space for both coaches and clients to imagine what’s possible and act from a place of possibility (rather than from a place or circumstance or status quo).

As a co-active coach I ask powerful questions that help clients “deepen the learning” and “forward the action”. As a client I have learned the power of vision, thinking big and thrilling thoughts, acting from a place of choice and inspiration and creating without self imposed limits (“I can’t…I shouldn’t…What would other’s think…”).

The more I learn through coaching, the more I keep asking myself, “Why didn’t we get this stuff in school?” The opportunity for self-reflection, deep meaningful conversation and agency that coaching provides is incredibly powerful – Why wait until people are in their 30’s, 40’s and 50’s to get this self development stuff? What would happen if kids got this stuff from day one?!

Imagine a world where every school’s #1 priority is creating happy, fulfilled, globally aware and civically active human beings. (more…)