I’m presenting a session on Friday – Tinkering: A New Model of ICT and STEM Learning

Yes, I know it says “new” – but it’s not. Poetic license, I guess I was worried that things have to sound new to get any notice. However, I’m hopefully presenting a new look at old-fashioned learning. I’m combining some of my existing resources about tinkering and playful learning with some new ideas about the role of gender, the danger of looking at science only through the lens of the “scientific method”, and the synergy between art and science.

Be back next week!

Sylvia

So my point of view is not focused on technology, but uses technology as a lens to change the culture of a school – to encourage collaboration between teachers and students where the learning is being co-created – to give students opportunities to do meaningful and important work, and what schools can do to encourage those kinds of learning environments.

A prevalent view of education is that young people are empty vessels and schools simply open up their heads and pour in knowledge. Unfortunately this is a vision of education that is not serving us well in the 21^st century. For a few students, this clearly works, but for many, this is a futile effort — made worse by an increasing focus on testing a few subjects at the expense of high-interest subjects like art and music.

Project-based and experiential learning has been around for a long time. You might say that the classroom is the new-fangled technology here. You certainly don’t see lion cubs sitting in desks in rows. For thousands of years people learned skills through apprenticeship and showing that they could do simple tasks, and gradually more complex ones until they became the masters.

Projects are not simply longer versions of traditional school-work, nor are they crafts. The presence of glue and scissors does not create a project. Nor is a project simply following a recipe.

It’s interesting that the word “project” is used both for the process and the finished product. And it’s important that it remain true to both. The process – the planning, production, construction, sharing is crucial. A project needs to be personally meaningful to the student – more than just for a grade. Having an audience that extends beyond your classmates and teacher is great for this. A project should not have a right answer (or one answer).

One question from the audience asked how arts could be incorporated into projects. My response was that students will naturally incorporate their own aesthetic into projects they care about. Respecting that is crucial.

Arts teachers know this, but it’s hard to articulate. Our culture places arts on a lower level than “academic” work. Like art, projects require judgment to assess, which means that the teacher has to be trusted to make those judgements.

Our experience with Generation YES  is that when kids are challenged and guided with expertise, they rise to the challenge and exceed expectations. In our schools we ask students to shoulder the burden of changing education with technology. It’s not a surprise to me when these students step up and regard this responsibility with great seriousness. PBL needs to be a school-wide culture shift – don’t forget that students are the key stakeholders. You can’t change culture by just telling teachers to change.

One problem with PBL is it can get very burdensome to the teacher. Share the burden. Allow students to help with the logistics, planning, even assessment. Don’t let yourself be the bottleneck that leads to being overwhelmed and then to failure. Good intentions go out the window when you have 300 projects to grade and you are the only one looking at them.

Students should be asked to be allies, advocates and leaders in our collective effort to make civilization better. They want to help. They need our guidance and wisdom, and we need their enthusiasm, passion and buy in. We make each other better.

Sylvia

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It’s been an amazing learning experience for me every year, and I’m looking forward to learning more this year from the participants and speakers.

Constructing Modern Knowledge is a unique professional development opportunity for educators – it’s not lots of speakers talking at you, we have one AMAZING speaker each day, leaving lots of time for project work and of course social activities! In past years, educators have built robots, programmed games, created amazing animated stories and songs, worked with stop motion and time lapse photography, and lots of other interesting projects.

This year’s speakers include: Jonathan Kozol – author, activist and education reformer, Derrick Pitts – astronomer from the Franklin Institute. Lella Gandini of the Reggio Emilia school movement, and Mitchel Resnick – head of the MIT Media Lab. And of course Gary Stager who is organizing and leading the event.

Additional resources

Tinkering resources – books, websites, hardware, software, and projects to encourage learning by tinkering

CMK construction materials (PDF) – open-ended creativity software and construction materials CMK attendees will be using.

Posts about previous CMK events:

• Constructing Modern Knowledge 2010
• Tinkering School
• Constructing Modern Knowledge 2009
• Constructing Modern Knowledge 2008

Sunday is the day before ISTE starts in Philadelphia, but you don’t have to be attending ISTE to come to the Constructivist Celebration!

For the fifth year in a row, this day-long workshop combines fun, creativity and computing. For a very reasonable $60, you will receive free creativity software worth hundreds of dollars from the world’s best school software companies, breakfast, snacks and lunch, and a full-day workshop led by Gary Stager and other members of the Constructivist Consortium. It’s always a sell-out, but right now there are still a few spaces left to join in the fun, so register today – you won’t regret it!

At the end of the day, I’ll moderate a conversation between Will Richardson (author and king of  the edubloggers) and Gary Stager on “Digging Deeper” which is sure to be fun and thought-provoking.

Hard Fun is one of the 8 Big Ideas of the Constructionist Learning Lab, and we’ll be having some this Sunday!

Hope to see you there -

Sylvia

A flash mob is when a bunch of people start dancing in a public place. Not just at random, but a planned, rehearsed dance. It’s quite the happening.

Now for the first time, you too can be a part of a very special ed tech flash mob, a Double Dream Hands Flash mob. Don’t just meet your PLN, dance with them.

It doesn’t conflict with any of the exciting events I shared with you last week, so you have no excuses!

Check out the details and sign up. Really, just double dream do it.

Sylvia

Generation YES will be there in full force with a booth in the exhibit hall (#2155) and other events. If you will be in Philadelphia, we hope you will come by and say hello. If you are a GenYES and TechYES teacher – meet Amber Carlson, your friendly customer support person in person! The CEO and founder of Generation YES, Dennis Harper will be there as well, along with Scott Perloff from the Alliance for College Ready Public Schools, our partner in the i3 federal grant project, College YES. And me, of course.

Have some “Hard Fun” on Sunday (the day before ISTE starts)
The Constructivist Celebration, June 26
For the fifth year in a row, this day-long workshop combines fun, creativity and computing. For a very reasonable $60, you will receive free creativity software worth hundreds of dollars from the world’s best school software companies, breakfast, snacks and lunch, and a full-day workshop led by Gary Stager and other members of the Constructivist Consortium. It’s always a sell-out, but right now there are still a few spaces left to join in the fun, so register today – you won’t regret it!

At the end of the day, I’ll moderate a conversation between Will Richardson (author and king of  the edubloggers) and Gary Stager on “Digging Deeper” which is sure to be fun and thought-provoking.

Can’t Miss Sessions!

• One by One: Building Internal Capacity for Technology. Join Chris Champion, Marcia Hull, and Sylvia Martinez for a conversation about how to build strong support systems for technology using existing resources and personnel. Tuesday June 28 10:30AM in PACC Tech Infrastructure Pavilion (Exhibit Hall B) (Add to your ISTE planner)

• Spotlight Session - The Best Educational Ideas in the World: High-Tech Learning Adventures. Join Gary Stager for a guided tour of the best education ideas in the world, including GenYES students teaching teachers technology. Lessons learned en route create the productive knowledge construction contexts required for a rewarding life. Tuesday June 28, 2:00pm in PACC 103BC (Add to your ISTE planner)

• Spotlight Session - “We need more PD!” and other myths about technology integration. Sylvia Martinez will lead a discussion about the myths of technology integration and how to accomplish more with less. Tuesday June 28 3:45PM in PACC 122B (Add to your ISTE planner)

More fun in the Generation YES booth in the exhibit hall – #2155

• Meet GenYES and TechYES teachers and students from nearby schools who will be in the booth sharing their projects and tech integration tips
• We will have a YES WALL – a fun, collaborative and positive way to express your vision of student-centered technology education. It’s like a gigantic real-life Wallwisher!

I’ll also be at EdubloggerCon 2011 on Saturday, June 25. You don’t have to be a blogger to enjoy this unconference. It’s a great way to meet new people and have those “hallway” conversations all day long.

Hope to see you there!

Sylvia

Join colleagues from around the world in a day-long minds-on celebration of creativity, computers and constructivist learning.

The Constructivist Celebration features project-based activities geared towards K-12 educators, administrators & teacher educators.

This year’s theme is HARD FUN! Educators completing a difficult year deserve some HARD FUN!

After a kickoff keynote by Dr. Gary Stager, participants will select challenges using the open-ended creativity software provided by Constructivist Consortium members, including LCSI, Tech4Learning and Inspiration. In addition to your mind and spirit, your body will be nourished by continental breakfast, hot lunch and afternoon snacks courtesy of Maggiano’s Little Italy! Last year’s participants could not stop raving about the food!

The day ends with time for project sharing and reflection followed by a conversation, “Digging Deeper,” with Will Richardson and Gary Stager. I’ll be there too!

Best of all, the entire day – software, an endles feast and a spa-day for the mind costs only $60.

Register today! Past Constructivist Celebrations have been extremely popular and space is limited.

Click here for more information!

I’m excited to be an invited panelist at the National Council of Women in IT (NCWIT) Summit on Women and IT: practices and ideas to revolutionize computing next week in New York City. The topic is Tinkering: How Might ‘Making Stuff’ Influence Girls’ Interest in STEM and Computing?… and I’m the “K-12″ voice on the panel.

We were each asked to do an introductory 5 minutes to establish our point of view about these issues. I started with a slide deck I use about tinkering and technology literacy and managed to cut it down to about 20 minutes when I thought – why not share this version on Slideshare! So here it is.

School only honors one type of design and problem-solving methodology, the traditional analytical step-by-step model. It ignores other problem-solving styles that are more non-linear, more collaborative, more artistic, etc. These styles are seen as “messy” or “soft” with the implication that they are not reliable. However, who do we lose when we ignore, or worse, denigrate alternative styles of problem-solving. I think one answer may be “girls” but honestly, it’s broader than that. We lose all kinds of people who are creative, out-of-the-box thinkers. And these are exactly the people I want solving the problems we face in the 21st century.

Teaching a tinkering model of problem-solving is good for girls because it’s good for everyone.

Sylvia

This video was created by students from McNary High School in the Salem-Keizer School District,  Oregon to showcase the conference. Love it!

For those of you blocked from YouTube, here’s a link to check out later! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdgIoDBWQWI

Don’t you love how young people totally understand the “vocabulary” of filmmaking - from the establishing shots to the closing credits.

Sylvia

It struck me that day – some problems are so big they need small solutions.

I heard several people say after these talks – “Yes, sure, that was great, BUT IS IT SCALABLE?”

I’d always considered that a reasonable question. But now, I think it’s a rhetorical trick that really means. “CAN IT FIT INTO THE CURRENT SYSTEM?”

Scalable should mean replication. Can you do “it” – whatever “it” is, over and over again. And the answer is yes, you can have urban gardens, do away with 19th century curriculum, and have globally connected classrooms IF you let the conditions flourish on the ground level. IF you let the teachers teach and the students learn. IF you let the solution be a small solution, carried out at a human scale. IF it remains a local, adaptable solution that meets the needs of the participants, not the system. The proof of that was given by Dennis Littky of the Big Picture Schools, who has started over 60 schools that value each and every student. That’s scalability.

But it doesn’t mean you impose a solution from above, put layers of bureaucracy and administration on it, and add untold costs in demanding that everyone do the same thing. We are just used to doing things that way in American education and we’ve convinced ourselves that it’s cheaper, more efficient, and the American Way. It’s not. Every problem is not a moonshot or the same as building interstate highways. Learning is certainly not.

Big problems require small solutions. And they demand we trust in the human beings implementing those solutions. My thought for the day.

Sylvia

PS – The videos from TEDxNYED are not up on the site yet – when they are, I’ll link them up to the examples in this post.