“What does it mean to do well in school?” by Seth Godin, on thisissethsblog.com

“Is it the same as ‘doing well on some tests’?

“Because that’s what we report—that perhaps 240 times in a college career, you sat down for a test and did well on it.

“That’s hardly the same as doing well in school.

“Where do we look up insight on your resilience, enthusiasm, cooperation, curiosity, collaboration, honesty, generosity and leadership?

“Because it seems like that’s far more important than whether or not you remembered something long enough to repeat it back on a test.”

Why does this matter to the future of learning?

Your periodic reminder that we should be mapping skills to pace layers.

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“Outschool CEO on How to Engage Half a Million Virtual Learners,” by in Education Next

“It’s free to sign up and browse classes on Outschool. You pick classes that your learners are most excited about and enroll with your credit card (a single class typically costs on average $10-15). All teachers on Outschool are independent and set their own class prices and schedules. Schools use Outschool in a variety of ways. In some cases, they select and reserve Outschool classes for groups of students. This enables them to offer class content they can’t do within their building and often includes, arts, enrichment, or field-trip-style classes. We are able to provide discounted pricing from our teachers who have opted in to supporting schools with private sections of their classes. We also have schools that provide each of their students with credit to use on Outschool. Students either select classes on their own or work with a teacher or adviser to pick the best fit for their interests and needs. We hope to have a subscription option early in 2021.”

Why does this matter to the future of learning?

Some caveats: This is a PR piece. The questions are softballs. The answers are an extended sales pitch.

Still, it is worth understanding conceptually what something like Outschool represents—namely, a refactoring of school.

As we noted in last week’s Future of Learning Top Reads:

Refactoring time can lead to smart innovations.

Refactoring time and place can lead to breakthrough innovations.

Refactoring time and place and assessment (like CBE) will lead to transformational innovations.

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“Fake news lands on Mars,” by Annie Duke, in the Annie Duke newsletter

“Behavioral scientists Jon Roozenbeek, Melisa Basol, and Sander van der Linden, from the Cambridge Decision Making Lab recently published a paper in Nature which, borrowing from inoculation theory, suggests that exposing people to a weakened version of fake-news-type misinformation builds their resistance against future manipulation attempts.

“The researchers developed a free online game called Bad News where players score points for creating fake news that goes viral by mastering the techniques of fake news producers. The idea behind the games is that by learning what makes for attention-grabbing fake news, people will be better able to spot it and resist it. And that is exactly what they found.”

Why does this matter to the future of learning?

The future of learning is multidisciplinary, transdisciplinary, interdisciplinary.

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