140edu brainstorming

 

This is a lot to take in, right? Let's start with just a brief period of Quaker-inspired centering silence. You could use this time to think about some ways in which the real-time web has enabled you to change and grow as a learner, or you could think up some questions you might want to ask my students when we're done with our stories.

 

Okay, here we are, New York City and the first-ever 140edu conference. We are so excited and honored to be here with all of you. 

 

My name is Shelley Krause, and I work as an academic matchmaker. Most people say college counselor. And I'm here to talk, in part, about the hardest part of my job, which is, well, does anyone have any guesses? (Field actual guesses from the audience...) (Possibilities: Nope, not getting a student into Harvard (that's not actually my job). The parents? Nope, I'm a parent myself, and I work on hanging on to my compassion.) No, the hardest part of my job is dealing with our tendency to outsource judgment. I work in a fantastic community at Rutgers Prep, the oldest and one of the most diverse and exciting independent schools in NJ, but even there I run into students and parents who seem stuck on default settings. And I've been stuck a few times myself.

 

So I'm here today, with a couple of assistants, to celebrate and encourage the reclaiming of the making our own decisions, and to urge all of you to think about your own default settings. You all know what a default setting is, right? When you first got your cell phone, the ring that it came with? That's the default setting. How many of you have a cell phone? How many of you have changed the ring tone? What about the desktop on your computer? Are you still looking at a plain blue screen? (slide of blue screen) Or something more like this? (slide of personalized desktop) That's a little bit of what I'm talking about.

Last year I made a promise to myself that I'm going to try to make room for more student voices wherever I go, so I've brought with me two students who I think have done some work around moving beyond default settings. We are going to try to talk fast, so we can leave some time for any questions you might have. 

 

 

The smartest person in the room isn't the person at the front of the room. It's the room.

— David Weisenberg

 

Niki Kakarla is a recent graduate of Rutgers Prep, and she's going to talk a little bit about her high school experience.

 

Mike Federochko is a rising senior at Rutgers Prep, and he's also going to talk a little bit about his experience.

 

Changes in my own default settings as an educator (will probably only pick one or two of these to talk about up front):

nothing is missing; you just haven't added it yet (wiki)

opaque/ transparent (wiki)

laptop/ cloud (data loss prevention)

changes re: assumptions about who our teachers are (breakdance video, KIPP photo from TMNJ11)

push vs. pull (RSS feeds from colleges, stu. blogs & newspapers, many windows)

who decides what's worth learning?

 

Questions?

 

Also, if you've come up with ways in which you've moved beyond your default settings, tweet them out with #beyonddefault and/or #140edu hashtags.

 

People don’t resist change; they resist being changed.

— Peter Scholtes

 

We would love to hear your thoughts about this and continue the conversation, so please reach out. I'm Shelley Krause, and I'm "butwait" on Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, Wikispaces, PBWorks, etc. etc.

 

Niki's Global Education Conference Presentation: http://isdevnat.blogspot.com/2010/11/reaching-globe.html

 

Mike's TownStats: http://www.townstats.org/

 

 

Shelley: @butwait http://www.rutgersprep.org

Mike: (how do you want us to point folks to you?)

Niki: ((how do you want us to point folks to you?)

 

---

Grist for the mill

 

Kirsten Winkler: we expect to be able to access answers anytime (http://bigthink.com/ideas/38997)

 

Joyce Valenza re: the possibilities of research now (at TEDxPhillyEd)

Research can be:

transparent

meaningful

interactive

accessible

collaborative

Libraries going forward:  "more kitchen than grocery store" "a space where it's okay to be beta"

 

Habits of Mind: http://storytocollege.com/news/habits-of-mind-1-persisting/ 

 

This is the work of education: to turn the self from what is experienced as natural and familiar to what is unknown.

Richard Miller, in The Pursuit of Meaningfulness

 

 

Angela Maiers at 140confDM on 6/11/11: "You get to make someone matter." 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZEyVsO9jPw

 

Sam Chaltain at TEDxSinCity on 6/2/11: "The healthiest learning environments are challenging, engaging, relevant, supportive, & experiential. What are the skills of a free people, how are we helping people develop them, and how will we know?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6-VRO8G5LE

 

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/syracuse-sends-personalized-video-messages-to-admitted-students-to-stop-summer-melt/31778

 

http://dmlcentral.net/blog/monika-hardy/redefining-school-success

 

The single most powerful blow you can aim at the status quo? To disobey the formula--and live a life that matters on your own terms.— Umair Haque

 

"Transparency means showing others what's going on inside so that people can be attracted to what you do." -- Douglas Rushkoff, http://vimeo.com/24609135

 

Heather Gold: http://wordpress.tv/2011/06/29/heather-gold-tools-for-tummeling/

 

http://www.blackboard.com/Markets/K-12/Learn-for-K12/Leadership-Views/Education-in-the-21st-Century.aspx 

 

http://twitter.com/dancallahan/status/86769990421848066

(Can a man used to unconferences sit through a 3-hr. presentation?)

 

Gary Stager: Give maximum agency to the learner—LESS US, MORE THEM

 

Conversation b/t Dan & M.E.

Great session! http://twitter.com/dancallahan/status/87162202389356544

 

Any good links to share? http://twitter.com/steelepierce/status/87163527416131584

 

It was all pretty self-contained: http://twitter.com/dancallahan/status/87163687261048832

 

"Looking for links"

http://twitter.com/DoremiGirl/status/88010884663873536

 

I used to think and now I think...

http://www.hepg.org/hep/book/141/IUsedToThinkAndNowIThink