I know that most of you go straight to our blog, but we have a static web page as well. We have recently updated this page as part of our rollout for a broader web presence. Take a look at our new page. Let us know what you think.
Thanks,
Charles
Anthony Bryk, the President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching outlines a bold new vision for the role of educational research in his recent “A Message From the President.” We at the Empowered High Schools share a very similar vision for education that adopts many of the approaches used in other sectors of our society. Just like medicine, public health, and engineering, a whole new role for entrepreneurship and innovation needs to be found for our industry. Until the spirit of entrepreneurship is unleashed and nurtured, the real gains that are needed in education may take decades to materialize.
One of the greatest hurdles is the inability to have expedient sharing of knowledge. Combined with a broader based profit motive, there is considerably more sharing between organizations in commercial sectors than in education. Aside from technology and publishers, there is not enough economic power to truly drive innovations in an efficient, market driven manner. That isn’t to say that there isn’t a lot of money made off of education, there is. However, it is much harder for practitioners to bring their ideas to a market place without the support of those who control the market. There are two few conferences and conventions and those are cost prohibitive for an entrepreneur to get adequate coverage. We hope that the tools of Web 2.0 can narrow this cost gap. Sadly, aside from a few niche areas, educators haven’t taken to Web 2.0 to the degree necessary to bridge this gap. Those of us who are tightly wound up into Web 2.0 are regularly amazed at the difficulty of developing even rudimentary conversations on the hottest topics in our profession.
Medicine, science and technology have an advantage over education in their abilities to incubate new interventions. An example is the ability of professors and researchers at universities to partner both with outside interests and with the universities to create new knowledge and to benefit from it financially. Patents are shared and “rain-maker” professors are given preferable compensation packages. Everyone benefits. A similar model could be devised in education. Both professors and teachers alike could conduct work that inspires innovation and entrepreneurship.
These are dreams, they are not well thought out and obviously have flaws, but it is time to start imagining a new vision for education in the U.S. This vision doesn’t need to be enormously disruptive. The two ideas presented here could grow into fruition with little to know disruption to the daily lives of teachers and students. Yet, provided with powerful new innovations both groups could benefit immensely.
Thank you for reading.
Charles
As a Professional Learning Team (PLT) completes the problem solving process, they inevitably go through a brainstorming process for remedies and/or interventions. This is necessary in order to complete the loop. Sadly, most of us have been taught the wild west approach to brainstorming which wastes lots of time. Since grade school we’ve learned that brainstorming means throwing everything out there and seeing what sticks. Sadly, we’ve even been encouraged to offer up wacky ideas in the belief that they may spur more “out of the box” thinking from others in the group.
In our work with the Empowered High Schools Model, we’ve learned that PLT members are very time conscious. This is out of the necessity of the daily existence of a classroom teacher. Today’s classroom teacher always has pressure to use his or her time in a myriad of different ways. To waste any time is a true anethma.
Robert Jacobs at the Education Innovation blog write short piece on the “new rules of brainstorming.” Sadly, he didn’t offer much in terms of new rules. Nonetheless, I do applaud his attempt to push back on old thinking on brainstorming. Real change can only occur when someone finds flaws in the status quo. I hope that Robert follows up on this post with more guidance on brainstorming and innovation.
There are many sources of brainstorming methodologies. I’m a particular fan of IDEO. At this point they have become pretty famous. Tom Kelley has written a book on their approaches and it is a worthy read. For those who want to use proven education approaches, I recommend the Critical Friends methodologies developed by the National School Reform Faculty. Add a comment if you want more information. The NSRF offer very tightly scripted protocols that I can personally attest as being highly effective. Several of the protocols are designed perfectly for a PLT’s work.
I’m still working on the a list of guidelines for brainstorming the Robert suggests in his last paragraph. If I find them, I’ll send them along. I also invite any ideas or links that you have found.
Thanks for reading.
Charles