David Warlick's ideas on literacy true in 2006 and today!

I was invited to attend David Warlick's presentation at the Thompson School District yesterday. To say the least David inspired me with several concepts related to learning and 21st century literacy. Here is a list of several items I took from his presentation.

• Stop integrating technology and start integrating literacy
• Literacy today is not simply about reading, writing, and mathematics but about investigating those subjects in an digital environment
• This investigation can include URL backtracking, large dataset investigation, multimedia communication, and a growing list of others
• We are all competing for attention - students must learn to attract attention with their innovative and creative ideas

The statement that truly resonated with me as an educator and as a father was that, "their is no excuse for students not having access to digital content and media." His statement was in response to several complaints about limited access within the Loveland schools.

I have been following David Warlick ever since his keynote speech at the 2006 K-12 online conference. He was absolutely correct then... and he continues to make a compelling case that we are behind - my question is when is our country and our schools going to "get with it" and make the changes that are necessary? It is unfair to our students and to their future to educate them for our fathers future.

We need to redefine literacy - thank you David Warlick.

Dr. Gregory Todd Jones - innovation is in the networks

Dr. Gregory Jones gives an interesting talk about networks and creativity. He states that, "networks of people are creative and innovative and knowing how to structure those networks properly has a direct impact on productivity." He talks about how sharing, reciprocity, and even happiness (he provides reference to several research studies that warrant future investigation) are all products of the structure of the networks that we live in.

The concept of Edgility that I have been developing resonates with Dr. Jones' ideas. We all need to be thinking about how we structure or in most cases restructure our networks to become more productive.

From what I see this restructuring needs to go well beyond what most of us think of when we think about "networking." We live in a competitive world that requires creativity and innovation. I believe that these innovations will be driven from the edges of the system. They will be born by individuals working on the edge of networks who have ideas about how to do something better. These ideas will then be brought to reality through networks of people working together. It is how we structure these networks that is vital to this type of productivity. These networks are fundamentally different than the ones we have typically worked within, diverging from hierarchy and structure and even being thwarted by traditional incentives. In 2010 I will continue to restructure my networks, and discuss this process here (edgilityblog.com), in an attempt to increase my Edgility

Happy New Year everyone!

Breakthrough Learning in a Digital Age: Hosted by Google

Connie Yowell (Director of Education - MacArthur Foundation) introduces a panel of digital media entrepreneurs in this video. Her introduction, in which she explains what the Foundation has learned in their grant making, is excellent. It is worth watching the first 18 minutes of this video. Here are some excerpts...

Data Point: "Kids today are learning differently, socializing differently, and engaing civically differently as a result of their participation with digital media."

Learning Point: We are in the process of making several conceptual shifts, these include...

1. Shift from education to one of learning (learning happens anywhere and anytime). If we are going to make the shift to a 21st century learning system we need to start operating in the best interests of the learners.
2. Shift from consumption to participation. This is a core ambition of a learning system for the 21st century
3. Shift from institutions to networks.

Breakthrough Learning in a Digital Age.

Howard Reingold - On teaching methods

In this short unscripted interview Howard Reingold talks about the teaching methods he uses at Stanford and Berkeley. Howard and I have been corresponding about teaching methods for some time now - mainly about how difficult it is to get students to engage and produce their learning. It is always interesting and valuable to me to get insights from one of the all time great thinkers of social media. This is worth watching. Thanks again Howard for sharing and for being so generous with your time.

Pink Glove Dance

This video was posted on YouTube on November 13th, 2009 and since that time has been viewed over 4 million times. What a great way to raise awareness! What a great way to increase consumer-to-consumer marketing - 4 millions times over.

Getting people involved in contributing to something larger, while having fun is a formula for success.

Old-School Innovation No Longer Cuts It

In August I wrote about the Deloitte Center for the Edge and the Shift Index. Yesterday the ITBusinessEdge wrote up an interview that they conducted with John Hagel the director of the Center. They suggest that the real opportunity is in moving beyond product, technology and even process innovation to institutional innovation. As I understand it, this will require a more holistic approach that involves everyone in an organization increasing their Edgility.

Here are are a few quotes that I found interesting...

"One of the issues I think is preventing companies from responding more effectively is they tend to divide their labor forces into knowledge workers and everybody else. One of the things Toyota did was take the front-line assembly workers and converted them into creative problem solvers."

"The real purpose of the firm is to provide an environment where you can learn faster than you could on your own."

MIT wins social networking balloon contest - ABC News

Games that connect online social networking to the real world allow us to have fun while we learn to leverage the power of networks (increasing our edgility). This ABC News story provides a great example - very innovative.