La gestión de la reputación - en lugar de "marca"

El lenguaje de los mercados a veces no cuadra tan bien con los que estamos involucrados en la educación.
En primer lugar, ¿por qué hacerlo?: ninguna organización puede tener éxito sin una estrategia de comunicación clara. Y asegurarse de que se lleve a cabo.
Esto no es sólo acerca de la venta o comercialización, se trata de contar su historia - porque si no lo hace, otros lo harán.
La realidad de cada persona es en realidad un conglomerado de pedazos de muchas historias, muchas veces oído y pasado a la memoria sin ningún mecanismo de comprobación de errores. Con los medios de comunicación social (si no sólo e-mail), las historias pueden tener una vida propia y se convierten en la realidad para muchos. La historia inexacta y distorsionada será entonces la realidad para el miembro de su cliente / padres / comunidad.
Es necesario escuchar también. No sólo porque puede que tenga que tomar medidas para garantizar la versión correcta se comunica, pero también se puede aprender y luego ser capaz de mejorar lo que haces.
Segundo punto - sobre el concepto de "marca".
Esto no cuadra con muchos educadores. Nos resistimos a la idea de que las escuelas son una marca como si estuviéramos vendiendo una mercancía.
Así que sólo hemos utilizado otros términos tales como "reputación". Ahora, esto es importante y vale la pena conservar. También nuestro posicionamiento, nuestros atributos especiales, nuestra identidad y nuestra imagen.
Esta es una presentación en que se acumula estos puntos de partida de la filosofía y los objetivos de la escuela, cómo esto es percibido por nuestros grupos de interés, y cómo los cuatro factores de reputación, posicionamiento, identidad e imagen son considerados. Por último, no se trata sólo de una estrategia de comunicación buena, pero un proceso de garantía de la buena calidad - más allá de "spin" a la sustancia real.

Reputación - mejor que "brand" from George Hobson

Readings - future curricula

There is much discussion about how the curriculum should be changed to prepare learners for a future that we can hardly describe. I have been concentrating on the Equinox Summit findings (yet to be finally published but I am working my way through their communique). Thank you to John Mikton and the ECIS ICT Committee eNews for a reading list regarding the curriculum for the future:

The Future of Curriculum
https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/future-curriculum

Curricula Designed to Meet 21st-Century Expectations
http://www.educause.edu/research-and-publications/books/educating-net-generation/curricula-designed-meet-21st-century-expectations

Mapping the 21 Century Classroom Curriculum of the Future
http://curriculum21.ning.com/

NCTE Framework for 21st Century Curriculum and Assessment
http://www.ncte.org/governance/21stcenturyframework

The new basics: changing curriculum for 21st century skills
http://www2.futurelab.org.uk/resources/publications-reports-articles/vision-magazine/VISION-Article254

21st Century Curriculum and Instruction
http://route21.p21.org/?option=com_content&view=article&id=140:21st-century-c&i&catid=13:curriculum-and-instruction&Itemid=228

What are other "must reads" about this topic?

Managing reputation - rather than "brand"

The language of markets sometimes does not go down so well in education. I read Karl Rivers' article on Managing Your School's Online Brand with interest and he asked how schools manage this. I replied on the Ed Tech Google+ Community and thought it worth repeating here.

Firstly, why do it: No organisation can succeed without a clear communications strategy. And ensuring that it is carried out.
This is not just about selling or marketing, it is about telling your story - because if you do not, others will.
Each person's reality is in fact a conglomeration of bits of many stories, often heard and passed into memory without any error checking mechanism. With social media (if not just e-mail), stories can take a life of their own and become the reality for many. The inaccurate and distorted story will then be the reality for your client/parent/community member.
It is necessary to listen too. Not just because you might have to act to ensure the correct version is communicated, but you can also learn and then be able to improve what you do.

Second point - about the concept of "brand".
This grates with many educators. We resist the idea that schools are a brand as if we were peddling a commodity.
So we have just used other terms such as "reputation". Now, this matters and it is worth conserving. Also our positioning, our special attributes, our identity and our image.
This is a Google presentation which builds up these points starting from the school's philosophy and objectives, how this is perceived by our stakeholders, and how the four factors of Reputation, Positioning, Identity and Image are considered. Finally, it is not just about a good communications strategy but a good quality assurance process - beyond the age of spin to actual substance.

What a difference a year makes - smartphones and tablets come of age.

In August 2012 I wrote a post entitled "Computers for serious work - tablets and smartphones just don't cut the mustard". Does this still stand?
No. I find myself producing more and more on my tablet and doing SOME work on my smartphone. What has changed?

• Input: the input options, going beyond the tiny keyboard on the screen, have made it possible to note-take and post. SwiftKey has been the key for me to really get going with this. My Samsung tablet now can take in text at a surprisingly fast rate AND, for the most part, accurately. And as in all good software, it is learning and improving its performance. Also, voice input (dictation?) is now much more accurate.
• Multi-tasks: I can move from one app to another for information or copy-paste. This enables a composite note or post to be made - it is still slightly iffy but seems to work for many apps, particularly in the Google suite.
• Google Keep: as a note taking software, from which you will do something else later, is ideal (produce a document, make a presentation, etc). Simple, quick and effective, with no frills, words ready to be thought about, rephrased, improved upon. And it works without a connection, waiting for one to synchronise later.

Observing students in class, however, I can see that the advantages of good typing skills  are evident. Students can look up, pay attention to speakers, videos, presentations, yet keep note-taking without glancing at the keyboard. I am not at the "touch-typing" (touch-swiping?) with SwiftKey yet so still prefer the keyboard for extended work.

Making sense of self - 1st point of the Equinox List

 

Continuing from the previous post: What will schools be like for children born in 2013?

 

The Equinox list is a good start point for discussing how schools should change.
 

Here is their first point:
1. Learning focuses on the development of lifelong learning practices and a sense of self, rather than facts and figures.
I would not dispute the first - developing lifelong learning practices seems a worthy goal. But the sense of self? Rather than facts and figures?
This seems to be conflated from many phrases, a typical focus group problem when trying to reduce a list from many to few.
But what does a sense of self mean? Is that the priority? Or should it be a sense of how the self fits in to the community?
Sense of self rather than "facts and figures"?
Can anyone help to make this clearer?

What will schools be like for children born in 2013?

The question of 'what will a school "fit for the future" look like' has preoccupied educators for many years. Despite grand ideas little has changed in schools; likewise, the expectations of what schools should do have remained the same.
I have reported on various ideas and sources, such as from the International Baccalaureate Heads Conference in Buenos Aires, our own work on Preparing Learners for the 21st Century, from Ken Robinson, and our own list of 2st Century Skills in "If you are not learning how to solve problems...".
There is a feeling that the time is right (or ripe) for change.

The Equinox Summit - Learning 2030 took place under the Waterloo Global Science Initiative from the 29th of September to the 3rd of October, 2013, in Ontario, Canada. The goal of this summit was to identify the "beacons of change, assemble them into a coherent vision of learning, and map out a way to make this vision not just an occasional reality but the norm". Their communiqué (pdf) takes as the starting point that a child born today will graduate from high school in a world very different from today's - in a world where facts will have "little value" and education should equip learners to:

• think creatively, independently, rigorously, and collaboratively

in full awareness of themselves and their social context.

This summit, hosting "current leaders in education, teaching professionals, researchers, and policymakers", represented six continents and with a "truly global and inter-generational perspective". Their findings will be presented in a road map for how to achieve this in early 2014 (The Equinox Blueprint).

The communiqué listed the attributes that high school graduates will need to have by 2030:

• lifelong learners who can identify and synthesize the right knowledge to address a wide range of challenges in a complex, uncertain world
• literate, numerate, and articulate
• creative, critical thinkers
• able to collaborate effectively with others, especially those of different abilities and backgrounds
• open to failure as an essential part of progress
• adaptable and resilient in the face of adversity
• aware of the society they live in and able to understand the different perspectives of others
• self-aware and cognizant of their own strengths and limitations
• entrepreneurial, self-motivated, and eager to tackle the challenges and opportunities of their world

There are no surprises here. I think that we would all agree with this list - perhaps I would have emphasised the issue of international mindedness more since I believe that working with and understanding other cultures (not just backgrounds) will be crucial in the coming years.

So, what is proposed? Replacing traditional concepts of classes, courses, timetables, and grades by more flexible, creative and student-directed forms of learning. They state that this would develop deep conceptual understanding, which can be applied in other contexts.
I am not sure that this necessarily follows. 

The paper ends by listing seven aspects of the new system - and I list the main headings here:

1. Learning focuses on the development of lifelong learning practices and a sense of self, rather than facts and figures. 
2. Students learn through cross-disciplinary and often collaborative projects. 
3. Students connect with each other in fluid groupings that are dictated by their needs at any given moment. 
4. Teachers and other learning professionals serve as guides or curators of learning
5. Learning progress is measured through qualitative assessment of a student's skills and competencies that document the learner’s entire experience, rather than measuring a discrete outcome. 
6. Decisions that affect the learning environment are made by stakeholder groups comprised of learners, teachers, governments, and parents, with learners and teachers playing a central role in decision-making. 
7. Schools empower both students and teachers, encouraging them to experiment with new ideas and fail safely, so that they develop the confidence to take risks. 

The full Blueprint should be available in early 2014 - and I wait for it with great interest.

(I was disappointed in the Times Educational Supplement's article on the summit - what did they pick up on? Just point 5, with the heading "Scrap exams to create schools of the future".
Come on, TES, keep to your motto of Think*Educate*Share and drop the sensationalism. You are writing for professional educators...)

 

From the horse's mouth: "Multiple Intelligences" are NOT "Learning Styles

Valarie Strauss' article in the Washington Post has Howard Gardner write emphatically that his theory of Multiple Intelligences (linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, spatial, interpersonal and intrapersonal - with later addition of naturalist), is NOT synonymous with the concept of Learning Styles.
It is clear that Gardner has suffered over this ("it's high time to relieve my pain and set the record straight").
He describes Multiple Intelligence (MI) Theory as being the result of research that led him to conclude "that each of us has a number of relatively independent mental faculties" (our MIs), rather like having "relatively autonomous computers" handling different information sets.
Gardner criticises the notion of Learning Styles as not being coherent and that there is no persuasive evidence that the learning style produces more effective outcomes.
He ends by drawing three primary lessons for educators:

1. Individualise your teaching as much as possible.
2. Pluralize your teaching  (teach in several ways - through stories, works of art, diagrams, role play).
3. Drop the term "styles".