Future of Learning Top Reads for week of Mar 4 2019
“How Khan Academy is Bringing Mastery Learning to the Masses,” by Jennifer Gonzalez, on Cult of Pedagogy
“ ‘[A famous study on the effectiveness of self-paced, mastery learning] is taught in ed schools. Everyone knows about it. No one really intellectually disagrees with it.’
“Sounds about right: Most teachers would agree that differentiating instruction for students has always been the ideal, but few have ever figured out how to make it happen on a large scale.
“ ‘The issue is the pragmatic,’ Khan says. ‘How do you implement it?’ ”
Why does this matter to the future of learning?
Khan Academy is now offering a “Mastery System”… for free.
According to the article, “teachers can tackle the differentiation problem without having to abandon their need to cover the required curriculum.”
The mastery-based learning trend is gathering strength. The Mastery Transcript Consortium may represent the most visible example in the independent school world, but Khan Academy has the potential to democratize the matter.
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“Toward a Networked Society,” by Harold Jarche, on the jarche.com blog
“The ‘quadriformist choice’ is what we are seeing with the actions of Greta Thunberg, a sixteen year-old leading a global movement of students to take action on climate change. Many of the young inherently understand what makes a network society.”
Why does this matter to the future of learning?
Which one of Jarche’s diagrams most closely resembles the typical learning experience at your school? It’s probably not the quadriform (i.e., network) model. Yet if that’s how information, knowledge, and experience are “taught” in the real world, what are you doing to prepare your students to navigate that learning landscape?
For a longer read on this topic, the Basecamp team strongly recommends New Power.
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“Is Hybrid Homeschooling The Wave Of The Future?” by Mike McShane in Forbes
“Hybrid homeschools leverage new innovations while satisfying parents’ desires. More than anything, they cause us to ask questions about traditionally organized schools (both public and private): Why keep a tight leash around learning? Can we leverage outside resources better to improve the quality of education that children receive? What role should parents play in shaping what children learn?”
Why does this matter to the future of learning?
You don’t know what you don’t know.
Among the 1.8 million families who participate in some form of home schooling, how many might be in the zip codes from which you recruit and enroll students?
How many might consider a hybrid option at your school if you were to offer one?
What could you learn from such families?
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Question of the week:
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