Future building not Future proofing - Keri Facer

Keri Facer

I'm Professor of Educational and Social Futures at the University of Bristol where my work is broadly concerned with creating new relationships between universities, schools and wider society (or between formal education and informal/community learning).

"... we are using technology to reinforce 19th century education."

"..we are using technologly that changes who we are."

" How do we live responsibly, critically and ethically with the

 technologies we have available?"

Future Building, for me it is linked with the ability to build relationships, make connections and contribute to the building of knowledge. Its about the group, the network.

 David Weinberger                             Jeremy Gilbert

                            

Jeremy Gilbert considers social media needs to move away from neo liberal politics of the individual. I hear David Weinberger's cheers from the side lines all the way to New Zealand!

 Future proofing, makes me ask myself... 

Am I contributing to the future proofing of education?

Am I contributing to the future building of education?

How am I using technology in the classroom to assist in the building of knowledge?

How am I using social media in the classroom to build relationships?

"Creativity embedded in the culture of every school"

 Ken Robinson

"... that education should be personalised to every students talent, passion, and learning styles, and that creativity should be embedded in the culture of every single school."

Guggenheim the metaphor...

Guggenheim

A metaphor for education and schooling?

Could the Guggenheim be a verb? 

If the arts have a form of energy, couldn't knowledge and the building of knowledge within the classroom contain energy? 

I wonder if I will ever be able to say.. 

" My classroom is like the Guggenheim?"

Guggenheim

a collaborative space

complex ideas emerging as simple

connected networks

capable of innovation

creates some thing new within a space

some times achieving the unthinkable

I know that when learning is personalised all student generated inquiry becomes infectious and thus connections in learning may deepen. I am excited just thinking about this.  The energy that is generated in learning. Imagine if my principal was to visit my classroom next week and suggest there was an excessive amount of learning energy and that the surge  was unsettling that rest of the school.

My first steps towards achieving the metaphor Guggenheim: 

1. Step confidently into digital learning spaces

2. Always ask, what is the learning connecting to and what is being built/created as a result?

What is the metaphor that best describes your classroom or learning space?

Knowledge Building or Knowledge transmission?

A single brilliant idea...

 Thank you karenmelhuishspencer.com for posting this clip on twitter!

Knowledge building can change what we think is possible.

Knowledge building offers new ways of doing things.

Knowledge building changes the way we connect and build relationships.

Knowledge building embraces multiple ways to generate opportunity.

Education and Mind in the Knowledge Age

Bereiter, C. (2002) Believes that if education is to participate in the knowledge age then, "our conceptions of knowledge and mind need to change."

Knowledge building and knowledge transmission is it one or the other?

Knowledge building a launch pad for innovation?

What could a knowledge creating culture look like and sound like in a classroom?

4D thinking...

 "Teacher, how is this class preparing me for 

'4D Hypercube Tesseract' thinking?"

We are in the knowledge age... actually we are soaking in it!

A perception of deeper knowledge or is it all on the surface?

"So, we are in a crisis of knowledge at the same time that we are in an epochal exaltation of knowledge." 

Weinberger, D. Too Big to Know pg xiii

Can knowledge be something static that we can walk around?

Can knoweldge be something thats moving that we can do some thing with?

I think its possibly both and we need to be explicit when we see the sign posts for knowledge that is static and knowledge that is in motion.

so I'm wondering...

What does deeper knowledge look like in our teaching and learning practice?

What does surface knowledge look like in our teaching and learning practice?

How can we engage with multiple types of knowledge to inspire, create, connect and build relationships?

Your barrister knows the power of one small bean...

You order your morning coffee, you have 3-6 mins to toss a few words around as to why education and schooling are so important to you.

What do you say?

What utube clip  would you write on the back of your coffee card?

Barristers are totally connected!

What does Risk look like?

    SPOONBILL 
Bringing bits of bits together to create and innovate

Tony Wagner in his book Creating Innovators asks:

 How do young innovators learn that it is okay to take risks and even fail?

   Risk Avoidance versus Trial and Error  

"The most innovative companies embrace failure as part of the process. But it is the rare college class that genuinely encourages students to take intellectual risks, and which encourages learning from — rather than penalizing — failure." Wagner

What does risk look like in teaching and learning?
A: When your unsure of what the learning outcomes will be.
A: Turning up to class knowing you are not the giver of all knowledge.
A: That the students possibly know alot more then you do about technology.
A: Having a go at measuring a change in student thinking.
A: Setting up a Minecraft Math Class World and asking students to collaborate within the world and create structures which reflect their current maths knowledge. 

 Would 21st Century Education ask for a 3 STEP method to engage safely with risk?
A: There would be an attempt.

Multiple pathways...

Who's going to wear it?

"... We need to replace the industrial-age assemble line metaphor  with a metaphor that works in the knowledge-age context - one that is based on the idea of a system, or a network, that has multiple possibilities, multiple connections, and multiple pathways." 

Jane Gilbert (2005) The Knowledge Society and the Future of Education

NZCER Press

What do multiple pathways look like in a classroom?

Multiple pathways to where? Achievement? Success? Knowledge building? Collaboration? A Learner profile?

Are you exploring using a new metaphor? What is it?
What would the new metaphor look like on a t-shirt design?

Multidiciplinary thinking...

Is anyone else wondering if

21st Century thinking started whilst we were on playground duty so we missed the message?

Collaboration

IMAGE BY VANHOOKC

Love National Library of New Zealand's style. 

Explicit working understanding of stepping up and stepping out into what 21st Century School Libraries could look like. Discussion on 21st century literacy and Inquiry. These ideas appear to be multidiciplinary. Are they? Pour a coffee and have a read.  

First thought:  Collaboration large font. Co-operative learning no font.

National Library of New Zealand