21c LEARNing

March CLN Webinar with Rick Freehling

noreply@blogger.com (C21L) — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 11:54:36 PST

Join us Tuesday, March 20, at 3:30 p.m. (Mountain Time) for a conversation about creating and running a school devoted to learning for the 21st century. The webinar will be conducted in the CoLearning Network space on AdobeConnect. Rick Freehling (Critical Thinking & Reasoning/Economics & Globalization Teacher and Department Chair for the 21st Century Program at Harrison High School) will lead

Multiverse Learning

noreply@blogger.com (Stevan Kalmon) — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 10:32:07 PST

Tomorrow, I have the good fortune to get 15-20 minutes of time to talk with the participants at the Teacher-Librarian Day (TLD) sponsored by Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) at Metro State in Denver (or whatever the current name of that university is). TLD2012. Thank you, Peggy O'Neill-Jones and TPS staff! I'm using this post to see whether my ideas are sufficiently composed to pass muster

Feb CLN Webinar- Teacher Inquiry

noreply@blogger.com (C21L) — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 11:53:50 PST

Catch the conversation about teacher inquiry as a vehicle for professional learning as recorded during CoLearning Network's February webinar with Michelle Bourgeois (Co-director of St. Vrain Valley School District’s Digital Learning Community [DLC]) and Stevan Kalmon (Director of the Council on 21st Century Learning) will lead the conversation. Collaborative inquiry is central to St. Vrain’s DLC

"Good Teachers Reflect & Modify"

noreply@blogger.com (C21L) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 09:57:10 PST

Aarons Sams discusses how his continuing reflection on making his classroom a better place to learn has evolved his flipped classroom approach in the CoLearning Network's January 17th webinar. Watch the archived discussion at: http://connect.enetcolorado.org/p8v0ubgtsa6/

Thoughts from the Mosey Road

noreply@blogger.com (Stevan Kalmon) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 00:15:55 PST

I like to drive what my colleague Dixie Good calls the Mosey Road. The roads or streets with less traffic and less anxiety. I look for roads with good flow. I don’t need to go 75, or even 55; just cruising is fine, often better, so long as I don’t have to stop frequently. Typically these roads are framed by interesting scenery -- neighborhoods; open spaces; industrial zones... Aside from

A Well-Designed PLC.... Really

noreply@blogger.com (Stevan Kalmon) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 19:51:04 PDT

In my previous post ("Professional Learning Communities... really"), I raved about the St. Vrain Valley School District’s PLC model, the Digital Learning Collaborative. I can only hint at the intricate detail of the DLC’s excellent learning design here; if you want to know more, check the resources at the end of the previous post. But I want to touch briefly on three elements of the design:

Professional Learning Communities… really…

noreply@blogger.com (Stevan Kalmon) — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 21:40:54 PDT

The idea of Professional Learning Communities, appealing in the abstract, has suffered during the NCLB decade by its connection to tedious and frustrating review of NCLB-mandated measures of academic achievement. For many educators the term ‘PLC’ has come to mean torturous sessions in which the participants mutually expose their inability to ensure that all children will do well on state tests.

Since Last We Met…

noreply@blogger.com (Stevan Kalmon) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 10:30:27 PDT

The 2010-11 school year was a busy one for C21L, which might help (though not really) to explain why this blog bogged after October of 2010. The opening of a new school year brings new resolve. Let’s start with some catching up: Promising Practices VideosPartnering with eight school districts, C21L is preparing more than 60 video segments to document the work of teachers in learning In and For

C21L Now On iTunes U Colorado

noreply@blogger.com (C21L) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 12:24:27 PDT

Through C21L's new iTunes U Colorado channel, educators may now access C21L's Promising Practices videos and resource tools. Launched at TIE 2011, Colorado on iTunes University will feature a wealth of educational and professional development resources. The 10 videos currently available include examples of how to implement 21st century learning strategies. C21L has also begun posting its

Content Standards -- Going Deeper

noreply@blogger.com (Dixie Good) — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 12:35:15 PDT

It's been said that K-12 education standards run a mile wide and an inch deep. Well, Colorado is gearing up to go deep. Along with Wisconsin, Kentucky, and Oklahoma, new Colorado standards include Depth of Knowledge (DOK) indicators, based on the model developed by Norman Webb of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research. There are 4 levels: Level 1: Recall -- recalling facts, definitions,

Layers of Learning

noreply@blogger.com (Stevan Kalmon) — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 09:17:55 PDT

Imagine that schools were communities of learning. What would it look like? How would it be different from what we typically do now? My colleague Dixie Good and I have many opportunities to observe and think about learning communities; sadly, most of the communities we observe are not schools. Our experience suggests some thoughts about schools and learning that… well, I don’t think Arne Duncan

New Targets, New Approaches?

noreply@blogger.com (Dixie Good) — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 18:37:14 PDT

In Colorado Springs School District 11, the school board has adopted the ACHIEVE profile of a high school graduate. It’s D11’s take on the traits and skills necessary for a person to thrive in the 21st century. The profile is a good target. C21L worked with the district on refining the ACHIEVE model and thinking about ways to infuse it into the current system. Together with district leaders we

Social Networks for Professional Learning

noreply@blogger.com (Stevan Kalmon) — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 12:22:17 PDT

A few weeks ago, I listened to a presentation by Colorado 3rd grade teacher Terri Reh on how she uses social network tools for professional learning. This is an area in which I am developmentally delayed, and her narrative was both inspirational and informative for me. Below are my notes from that presentation, which she entitled “Lurk and Learn.” The notes are as much in Terri’s voice as I could

Communities of Softball

noreply@blogger.com (Stevan Kalmon) — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 12:00:59 PDT

On Wednesday this week I played my last game of softball with the Lost Boyz. In case you missed the reports on ESPN, the Lost Boyz have been my team for the past 14 years. We play seven months of each year (March through October) in a highly competitive double-header league, and we are very good. I decided that it was time for me to, well, retire. I’m by far the oldest guy on the team, and the

Public Education -- Alive & Evolving

noreply@blogger.com (Dixie Good) — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 12:16:12 PDT

Rumors about the death and malingering of public education are largely exaggerated. Great things going on in many public schools.* I'm fortunate to be able to visit classrooms around Colorado, and observe teachers and administrators working and learning from each other. What I see is an amazing amount of professionalism, creativity and innovation. (Admittedly, there's mediocrity and bureaucratic

Networking for Organizational Learning

noreply@blogger.com (Stevan Kalmon) — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 12:21:26 PDT

In The Checklist Manifesto, Atul Gawande argues that the complexity of human undertakings can be managed more effectively through the use of (you guessed it) checklists. No, really. And he makes an excellent case. First, he points out that “[T]he volume and complexity of what we know has exceeded our individual ability to deliver its benefits correctly, safely, or reliably. Knowledge has both

Learning In and For the 21st Century

noreply@blogger.com (Stevan Kalmon) — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 11:09:02 PDT

A couple of weeks ago I attended/observed an excellent daylong professional learning day at Flagstaff Academy, a charter K8 in Longmont, Colorado. The title for the day was “EdTech 2010: Filling in the GApps.” Session topics included how to use GoogleDocs, how to use Google Forms, how to create a class website (on, you guessed it, Google Sites), and how to use Twitter and blogs to participate

Digital Game Changers

noreply@blogger.com (Dixie Good) — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 09:00:42 PDT

Recently a reporter from Courier-Life Publications in Brooklyn, NY, asked me some questions about my views on the future of education. She had run across my paper, "Future Trends Affecting Education," that I'd written for Education Commission of the States some years back. I'll share my thoughts in several posts. What are some of the main changes you see happening in education and why? We are

21st Century Learning Rules

noreply@blogger.com (Stevan Kalmon) — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 12:19:20 PDT

Rule #8 -- Learning occurs simultaneously and interactively within the individual, the community, and the organization. We think of the learning as something the person is doing. At the same time, the community in which the person is participating is also learning -- whether a community of two ("teacher" and "learner") or more (e.g., collaborative workgroup, team, meeting participants). And at

Shaping Education: Form, Reform, or Transform?

noreply@blogger.com (Dixie Good) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:05:44 PST

President-Elect Obama's pick for education secretary is all the buzz. Should he pick a reformer or a transformer? What will make the unions happy? Who can bridge the gaps between conflicting schools of thought? What will become of NCLB? Newsweek writer Jonathan Alter is betting Obama will tap Denver superintendent Michael Bennett to fill the job, based on his record of negotiating well with the

Real Learning

noreply@blogger.com (Dixie Good) — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 21:39:33 PST

My 11-year-old daughter came home from school several weeks ago all fired up about an idea she and a friend had. They noticed during lunch that the trash can was overflowing with styrofoam lunch trays -- they keep piling up and they aren't biodegradable. So Dana and Claire decided they would DO something about it! They could research the problem, raise money if necessary, change the world -- or

Information Theory of Learning, Part 3

noreply@blogger.com (Stevan Kalmon) — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 09:09:29 PST

Applying constructivist learning theory pretty much rips apart the way we do school.Learning theory says that the learner must make meaning of new information. To do that she needs context — a way to connect new input to what she knows already. Not this-will-be-useful-later appeals, but real connection — like reaching a personal goal, satisfying curiosity, or doing something that really matters (

Information Theory of Learning, Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Stevan Kalmon) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:53:58 PST

In the preceding blogpost, I claim that constructivism is a theory of learning. So…? This means that the theory of behaviorism — the lodestar of schooling — is wrong. We do not learn in response to the application of rewards and punishments. We adapt our behavior to get the rewards and avoid the punishments. We comply, not learn. So, grades, high stakes tests, and monetary reward for appropriate

An Information Theory of Learning -- Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Stevan Kalmon) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 10:11:51 PST

Constructivism is a dirty word in K12 education. While educators generally acknowledge constructivism as a pedagogical theory, they doubt its practicality — Too unstructured; takes too much time; OK in the arts or Gifted classes, but doesn’t work for all subjects and all learners.Here’s something to consider: Constructivism is not a theory of pedagogy. It’s a theory of learning. Cognitive

Orders of Change

noreply@blogger.com (Stevan Kalmon) — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 15:32:49 PST

I was thinking about orders of change yesterday while I was stuck in a traffic jam during the middle of the day. I escaped to a side street by nudging my car across three lanes of stopped traffic to make a right turn. I was somewhat pleased with my relatively nimble escape. Three other cars, in front of me, had also taken the road less travelled. They all turned left at the first traffic light to