“I had incredible teachers. And as I look at my life today, the things I value most about myself — my imagination, my love of acting, my passion for writing, my love of learning, my curiosity — all of these things came from how I was parented and taught.”
There’s a new TED talk from Ken Robinson:
Also, check out Ken Robinson’s curated playlist of 10 TED talks on education:
http://www.ted.com/playlists/124/ken_robinson_10_talks_on_educ.html
THNKR is hosting a panel event with The 92nd Street Y in New York City on May 21!
PANELISTS
Abigail Besdin, SKILLSHARE
Joe Hall, GHETTO FILM SCHOOL
Jake Schwartz, GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Joel Rose, NEW CLASSROOMS INNOVATION PARTNERS
Moderated by New York Times journalist LAURA PAPPANO.
Meet the other panelists: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=…
Abigail Besdin from the education team at Skillshare talks about Skillshare’s history, the future of education, and the role she sees Skillshare seeks to play in that future.
Learn a new skill at Skillshare: http://www.skillshare.com/
Joe Hall is the president and founder of Ghetto Film School, a non-profit organization that seeks to give a creative education to those who might otherwise not receive one through teaching film classes and establishing mentorships between kids and professionals in New York City.
Check-out Ghetto Film School here: http://ghettofilm.org/
Joel Rose is the co-founder and CEO of New Classrooms, a non-profit organization that is re-imagining and innovating the classroom experience to cater to and address the needs of each student.
Check-out New Classrooms here: http://www.newclassrooms.org/
ABOUT THE EVENT
What is the state of learning in the 21st Century? Virtual education, MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and peer-to-peer learning communities have the potential to completely reinvent the classroom, and more importantly how we educate humanity across the globe.
More and more, people are self directing their education, and empowering themselves beyond traditional educational institutions. The definition of education is in a state of flux and the capacity for transformation is limitless. Will “education” as we know it become obsolete? What will the future of learning look like? Finally, can a new model of education make for a more just world?
The FUTURE OF LEARNING will bring together thought-leaders and academic luminaries to talk about how our society should think about learning and education in our changing world. The panel will feature those innovators who are on the front lines of reinventing the ways we learn, as well as the great minds who can make sense of seismic changes and the implications they will have for the world at large.
Created and produced by @radical.media, THNKR gives you extraordinary access to the people, stories, and ideas that are transforming our world.
BUY TICKETS: http://goo.gl/1aYo
A great new video excerpted from David Foster Wallace’s brilliant 2005 Kenyon College commencement address. We miss him dearly:
“If you’re automatically sure that you know what reality is, and you are operating on your default setting, then you, like me, probably won’t consider possibilities that aren’t annoying and miserable. But if you really learn how to pay attention, then you will know there are other options. It will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, hot, slow, consumer-hell type situation as not only meaningful, but sacred, on fire with the same force that made the stars: love, fellowship, the mystical oneness of all things deep down.
“Not that that mystical stuff is necessarily true. The only thing that’s capital-T True is that you get to decide how you’re gonna try to see it.
“This, I submit, is the freedom of a real education, of learning how to be well-adjusted. You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn’t. You get to decide what to worship.”
You can read the full speech here, or listen to the original speech here, courtesy of the wonderful Open Culture. (Or, if you want to pay $10, Hachette Book Group has made the unscrupulous decision to make money off the virtually cost-free digital distribution of the public speech given by the now-deceased writer on their site here).
“The practical solution for students lies in two key improvements that must take hold in today’s education system: relevant holistic curricula and freedom of choice…By doing this, students will be encouraged to self-direct their learning and develop a passion. If schools are doing their jobs, students will no longer be asking ‘When am I ever going to use this?’ and will instead ask ‘How can I learn more?’ A step away from standardization is the core.”
From Why Not Anything:
The education system in America is outdated. It’s time for change.
Sign the petition to send a message to the US Dept. of Education: http://www.change.org/petitions/the-a…
Featured On The Washington Post:http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/a…
Speaker: Arooj Ahmad (@asquared121)
http://about.me/arooj.ahmad
http://aroojahmad.me
http://facebook.com/arooj.ahmad.16
Filmed and Edited: Jacob Phillips
Twitter & Instagram: @whynotanything
Facebook: http://facebook.com/wnanything
http://www.whynotanything.com
From the TED blog:
After more than 13 years of research convinced him that children have the ability to learn almost anything on their own, 2013 TED Prize winner Sugata Mitra aspires to shape the future of learning by building a School in the Cloud, helping kids “tap into their innate sense of wonder.”
In the spirit of Mitra’s invitation to the world to “ask kids big questions, and find big answers,” we asked four brilliant young people to tell us: What do you think is the future of learning?
Adora Svitak, 15-year-old writer, teacher and activist
“One of the most powerful shifts in the future of education will come from not only the tools at our disposal, but from an underutilized resource: the students whose voices have for too long been silent. We’re increasingly pushing for seats at the decision-making tables, empowering ourselves by shaping our own learning, and taking on activist roles both online and off. To me, this signals one of the most hopeful signs of the future of education — the shift from a top-down, learning-everything-from-the-authority-figure approach to an approach characterized by peer-to-peer learning, empowerment and grassroots change.”
Kid President, 10-year-old inspiration machine
“My older brother and I believe kids and grown ups can change the world. We’re on a mission with our web series, Kid President, to do just that. If every classroom in the world could be full of grownups and kids working together, we’d live in a happier world. Kids want to know about the world and about how they can make an impact. Kids also have ideas. It’d be awesome if teachers and students could work together and put these ideas into action. There should be lessons in things like compassion and creativity. If those two things were taught more in schools we’d see some really cool things happen.”
From www.schoolingtheworld.org/resources/educators:
1. Discussion Guide
Go deeper. Our Discussion Guide has 50 beautifully illustrated pages of questions, ideas for discussion, facts and information, and group and individual activities that can be adapted for middle school, high school, college, and adult professional development groups. Ideas for filmmaking projects, fiction writing, visual art, anthropology research, nature observation, and more. Recommended by International Baccalaureate schools.
2. Making Movies That Matter
An educational program developed by the documentary film festival Mountainfilm in Telluride, “Making Movies that Matter” gives students access to footage from award-winning documentaries which they then edit using original text, music, film footage, and effects to create original short films. Check out the samples using footage from “Schooling the World” on our “Student Films” page.
3. Through Other Eyes
A free online college-level curriculum in critical literacy and indigenous perspectives on education and development, “Through Other Eyes” was developed by a partnership between the Centre for Development Education Research (Institute of Education, University of London), University of Sao Paulo, University of Canterbury (Aotearoa/New Zealand), and Survival International. The curriculum can be used for professional development or the resources available could be adapted for use by college or secondary school students. Contains a fascinating video library of interviews with indigenous leaders and educators which will challenge students’ assumptions about education and development from the perspective of the indigenous people on the receiving end of education “aid.”
4. HEADS UP
The “HEADS UP” tool was developed by Professor Vanessa de Oliveira, professor of global education at the University of Oulu in Finland and co-creator of the “Through Other Eyes” curriculum. Its goal is to help students think more deeply about the “(often ignored) connection between our benevolent intentions to stop harm and our systemic complicity in harm in relation to poverty interventions…Addressing questions of justice and inequality in educational research requires a deep understanding of the social, economic and historical forces that connect us to one another and of the difficulties of intervening in complex and dynamic systems.” HEADS UP gives students an important set of questions to ask about any proposed aid intervention.
“A public school trying to help children learn and grow.” Somehow, it’s a revolutionary concept.
Watch this new web video series following a year in the life of Mission Hill School, a small public school in Boston founded in 1997 by author and educator Deborah Meier, which “emphasizes a project-based, collaborative curriculum, inclusive of all learning abilities…[and] is modeled on democratic principles.” The series was created by filmmakers Tom and Amy Valens, in collaboration with revolutionary educator Sam Chaltain, along with Ashoka, IDEA, the NoVo Foundation, and the Mission Hill School community, of course.
From A Year At Mission Hill:
What goes into creating a powerful learning environment for children and adults? Meet the teachers, families and children of Mission Hill as they experience the highs and lows of a year of self-discovery, exploration, and frustration. And join us for a national conversation about the state of public education as it is – and as it ought to be.
“I had incredible teachers. And as I look at my life today, the things I value most about myself — my imagination, my love of acting, my passion for writing, my love of learning, my curiosity — all of these things came from how I was parented and taught.”
There’s a new TED talk from Ken Robinson:
Also, check out Ken Robinson’s curated playlist of 10 TED talks on education:
http://www.ted.com/playlists/124/ken_robinson_10_talks_on_educ.html
THNKR is hosting a panel event with The 92nd Street Y in New York City on May 21!
PANELISTS
Abigail Besdin, SKILLSHARE
Joe Hall, GHETTO FILM SCHOOL
Jake Schwartz, GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Joel Rose, NEW CLASSROOMS INNOVATION PARTNERS
Moderated by New York Times journalist LAURA PAPPANO.
Meet the other panelists: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=…
Abigail Besdin from the education team at Skillshare talks about Skillshare’s history, the future of education, and the role she sees Skillshare seeks to play in that future.
Learn a new skill at Skillshare: http://www.skillshare.com/
Joe Hall is the president and founder of Ghetto Film School, a non-profit organization that seeks to give a creative education to those who might otherwise not receive one through teaching film classes and establishing mentorships between kids and professionals in New York City.
Check-out Ghetto Film School here: http://ghettofilm.org/
Joel Rose is the co-founder and CEO of New Classrooms, a non-profit organization that is re-imagining and innovating the classroom experience to cater to and address the needs of each student.
Check-out New Classrooms here: http://www.newclassrooms.org/
ABOUT THE EVENT
What is the state of learning in the 21st Century? Virtual education, MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and peer-to-peer learning communities have the potential to completely reinvent the classroom, and more importantly how we educate humanity across the globe.
More and more, people are self directing their education, and empowering themselves beyond traditional educational institutions. The definition of education is in a state of flux and the capacity for transformation is limitless. Will “education” as we know it become obsolete? What will the future of learning look like? Finally, can a new model of education make for a more just world?
The FUTURE OF LEARNING will bring together thought-leaders and academic luminaries to talk about how our society should think about learning and education in our changing world. The panel will feature those innovators who are on the front lines of reinventing the ways we learn, as well as the great minds who can make sense of seismic changes and the implications they will have for the world at large.
Created and produced by @radical.media, THNKR gives you extraordinary access to the people, stories, and ideas that are transforming our world.
BUY TICKETS: http://goo.gl/1aYo
A great new video excerpted from David Foster Wallace’s brilliant 2005 Kenyon College commencement address. We miss him dearly:
“If you’re automatically sure that you know what reality is, and you are operating on your default setting, then you, like me, probably won’t consider possibilities that aren’t annoying and miserable. But if you really learn how to pay attention, then you will know there are other options. It will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, hot, slow, consumer-hell type situation as not only meaningful, but sacred, on fire with the same force that made the stars: love, fellowship, the mystical oneness of all things deep down.
“Not that that mystical stuff is necessarily true. The only thing that’s capital-T True is that you get to decide how you’re gonna try to see it.
“This, I submit, is the freedom of a real education, of learning how to be well-adjusted. You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn’t. You get to decide what to worship.”
You can read the full speech here, or listen to the original speech here, courtesy of the wonderful Open Culture. (Or, if you want to pay $10, Hachette Book Group has made the unscrupulous decision to make money off the virtually cost-free digital distribution of the public speech given by the now-deceased writer on their site here).
“The practical solution for students lies in two key improvements that must take hold in today’s education system: relevant holistic curricula and freedom of choice…By doing this, students will be encouraged to self-direct their learning and develop a passion. If schools are doing their jobs, students will no longer be asking ‘When am I ever going to use this?’ and will instead ask ‘How can I learn more?’ A step away from standardization is the core.”
From Why Not Anything:
The education system in America is outdated. It’s time for change.
Sign the petition to send a message to the US Dept. of Education: http://www.change.org/petitions/the-a…
Featured On The Washington Post:http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/a…
Speaker: Arooj Ahmad (@asquared121)
http://about.me/arooj.ahmad
http://aroojahmad.me
http://facebook.com/arooj.ahmad.16
Filmed and Edited: Jacob Phillips
Twitter & Instagram: @whynotanything
Facebook: http://facebook.com/wnanything
http://www.whynotanything.com
From the TED blog:
After more than 13 years of research convinced him that children have the ability to learn almost anything on their own, 2013 TED Prize winner Sugata Mitra aspires to shape the future of learning by building a School in the Cloud, helping kids “tap into their innate sense of wonder.”
In the spirit of Mitra’s invitation to the world to “ask kids big questions, and find big answers,” we asked four brilliant young people to tell us: What do you think is the future of learning?
Adora Svitak, 15-year-old writer, teacher and activist
“One of the most powerful shifts in the future of education will come from not only the tools at our disposal, but from an underutilized resource: the students whose voices have for too long been silent. We’re increasingly pushing for seats at the decision-making tables, empowering ourselves by shaping our own learning, and taking on activist roles both online and off. To me, this signals one of the most hopeful signs of the future of education — the shift from a top-down, learning-everything-from-the-authority-figure approach to an approach characterized by peer-to-peer learning, empowerment and grassroots change.”
Kid President, 10-year-old inspiration machine
“My older brother and I believe kids and grown ups can change the world. We’re on a mission with our web series, Kid President, to do just that. If every classroom in the world could be full of grownups and kids working together, we’d live in a happier world. Kids want to know about the world and about how they can make an impact. Kids also have ideas. It’d be awesome if teachers and students could work together and put these ideas into action. There should be lessons in things like compassion and creativity. If those two things were taught more in schools we’d see some really cool things happen.”
From www.schoolingtheworld.org/resources/educators:
1. Discussion Guide
Go deeper. Our Discussion Guide has 50 beautifully illustrated pages of questions, ideas for discussion, facts and information, and group and individual activities that can be adapted for middle school, high school, college, and adult professional development groups. Ideas for filmmaking projects, fiction writing, visual art, anthropology research, nature observation, and more. Recommended by International Baccalaureate schools.
2. Making Movies That Matter
An educational program developed by the documentary film festival Mountainfilm in Telluride, “Making Movies that Matter” gives students access to footage from award-winning documentaries which they then edit using original text, music, film footage, and effects to create original short films. Check out the samples using footage from “Schooling the World” on our “Student Films” page.
3. Through Other Eyes
A free online college-level curriculum in critical literacy and indigenous perspectives on education and development, “Through Other Eyes” was developed by a partnership between the Centre for Development Education Research (Institute of Education, University of London), University of Sao Paulo, University of Canterbury (Aotearoa/New Zealand), and Survival International. The curriculum can be used for professional development or the resources available could be adapted for use by college or secondary school students. Contains a fascinating video library of interviews with indigenous leaders and educators which will challenge students’ assumptions about education and development from the perspective of the indigenous people on the receiving end of education “aid.”
4. HEADS UP
The “HEADS UP” tool was developed by Professor Vanessa de Oliveira, professor of global education at the University of Oulu in Finland and co-creator of the “Through Other Eyes” curriculum. Its goal is to help students think more deeply about the “(often ignored) connection between our benevolent intentions to stop harm and our systemic complicity in harm in relation to poverty interventions…Addressing questions of justice and inequality in educational research requires a deep understanding of the social, economic and historical forces that connect us to one another and of the difficulties of intervening in complex and dynamic systems.” HEADS UP gives students an important set of questions to ask about any proposed aid intervention.
“A public school trying to help children learn and grow.” Somehow, it’s a revolutionary concept.
Watch this new web video series following a year in the life of Mission Hill School, a small public school in Boston founded in 1997 by author and educator Deborah Meier, which “emphasizes a project-based, collaborative curriculum, inclusive of all learning abilities…[and] is modeled on democratic principles.” The series was created by filmmakers Tom and Amy Valens, in collaboration with revolutionary educator Sam Chaltain, along with Ashoka, IDEA, the NoVo Foundation, and the Mission Hill School community, of course.
From A Year At Mission Hill:
What goes into creating a powerful learning environment for children and adults? Meet the teachers, families and children of Mission Hill as they experience the highs and lows of a year of self-discovery, exploration, and frustration. And join us for a national conversation about the state of public education as it is – and as it ought to be.
