Posted by:
on Dec 10, 2009
On our final morning, the Fest invited participants up on the dais to share our ideas about prizes or other ways to incentivize innovation and improvement in education. It was a fitting way to direct the discussion--and our own thinking--toward action in our communities.
I was struck by the diversity of insights. Though we seem to agree on a vision for a more student-centered learning process, we haven’t determined how to get our education system there. Here are some of the ideas:
Posted by:
on Dec 08, 2009
This evening each of the 8 action collabs “reported out” their 2 days of work through performance: skits, dance, drama, music, mime, videos. Several of the collabs focused on design changes needed at the student learning level, several at the school level, and several at the system or policy level.
What surprised our dinner table group was how similar the performance messages were, despite their different forms. They all centered around transforming the learning experience: listening to what students are interested in, personalizing the learning experience through technology and other means, engaging students through work- and life-based learning, and blending informal and formal learning into traditional and nontraditional settings. There were other elements too, but you get the idea.
Posted by: Cynthia Jimes
on Dec 08, 2009
I like talking to people here at the Fest because they're so open. Maybe it's because they see my Ask me about ISKME button, but they often give me their opinions about the Fest before I get a chance to ask. And what they say always makes me think. I heard that the Action Collabs seemed scattered and nebulous at moments, but that this is a good thing. Like any good innovation and design process, there are moments when the conversations can seem ambiguous. But overall, it seems that chaos and complexity are good for creativity.
During her rapid fire, Neeru Paharia showed us that the creation of Peer 2 Peer University worked like this. A handful of people, including a lawyer, a doctoral student, and a couple of nonprofit leaders all met each other at a conference in Croatia two years ago, and decided to do something about access to education and standard learning models. Neeru's story was about crossing boundaries, finding common intrerest, and brainstorming to come up with new ideas.
Posted by: Cynthia Jimes
on Dec 07, 2009
It's the end of day two of the Big Ideas Fest, and I’ve been inspired more times than I can count. I'm struck by how the participants are driving the conversation, working on designing and prototyping new solutions to education challenges in their Action Collab sessions. I’m also still thinking about last night’s keynote speech by Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive. In addition to archiving the entire Internet, he’s also working towards archiving the Library of Congress and the world of film, television, software, and audio recording.
Brewster described his goal in life as “universal access to all knowledge [so] that anyone, anywhere can access anything that’s ever been published, including music, lectures, articles, books, software, and more.” He sees this as an achievable goal, both financially and technically, and that we also have the political will to live in an open society. A few highlights from Brewster on this:
Posted by:
on Dec 07, 2009
We participated in the front end of an accelerated design process today: improvs and action collabs where we engaged the process of innovation. The improvisations helped us loosen up, let go of ourselves, and try to make others look like stars. We had to enter each others’ personal spaces, which for groups of strangers was both uncomfortable and liberating. The rules helped: no mistakes, no judgments.
In my first action collab, we brainstormed opportunities ripe for change in education. There was a lot of laughter and letting go, as with the improv we’d just been through. In the second session, though, people were led out of their comfort zones. We had to come up with concrete solutions to the high-handed concepts from our first session--not an easy task. Particularly with so much education experience in the room, it wasn’t so easy to let go of ideas. But shifts started to happen. Thinking and sharing loosened up. We’re half way through; tomorrow we’ll create a prototype, and will report out the results.
The Big Ideas Fest Blog
