EduBloggerCon session on Future School

I decided early in this very active and interactive session, to trying to pull things together into some basic themes, and it became clear that we were not just talking about school.  We were also talking about classrooms, teachers, and even future students.  So I divided my summary into this breakdown.

The school

• Walls are adaptively transparent, enabling real connections with all education institutions, local community, and any and all other potential resources.
• Leaders who are visionary, value collaboration, enterprising, and who “get it”
• Flexibly structured and valuing the time that teachers need to constantly retool their classrooms
• Shared vision and mission but respects risk taking

The classroom

• Walls are adaptively transparent, serving as a window on the world
• Life long learning is what happens here — new conversations that are rich, multi-directional, and respectful
• The classroom includes technology that facilitates and provokes rich, multi-directional, and respectful conversations.
• More happening in the Long Tail

The Learner

• independent
• playful
• adaptive
• resourceful
• self-directed
• sense of wonderment
• unrestricted
• international/global
• creative/inventive
• connected
• confident
• self-aware
• able to teach themselves
• respectful

Assessment

• Are we testing the right things?  Should we be rethinking curriculum first, invent ways to teach it (facilitate its learning), and then figure out how to assess it.
• Test for disposition?

Social networking is an integral and essential part of all of this.

Best Quote — “what goes on in school stays in school”