9 responses to “Education Track Leader 2008: Tim McClung”

1. 

   Jeff James

   May 21, 2008

   Great to have you on board, Tim! I noticed this article on 21st Century Skills training in the Gazette today http://www.wvgazette.com/News/200805200693

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2. 

   Tim McClung

   May 21, 2008

   Thanks CreateWV for the opportunity to have a conversation with you about evolving education in our state. The sessions for this year’s education track will focus on these 6 assertions: (these are not mine, check out http://www.educationevolving.org) -21st-century learning requires a search for different and better models of school/ing. -Existing organizations don’t innovate well. Most different schools will have to be created new -The states’ charter laws make it possible now to create new and different schools. -In redesigning schools we should focus on motivating the workers: both students and teachers. -We can now customize student learning using today’s digital electronics. -Without new models of school K-12 might not be sustainable economically. In June, a new book will be released, Disrupting Class, by Clayton Christensen, Curtis Johnson and Michael Horn. Mr. Johnson is affiliated with EducationEvolving.org and we hope that he will be a part of this year’s conference. To tackle these 6 issues, we need to disrupt the traditional classroom. Here’s how.

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3. 

   Tim McClung

   May 26, 2008

   I just received my copy of Disrupting Class and would like to post the titles of each chapter: 1-Why Schools Struggle to Teach Differently When Each Student Learns Differently 2-Making the Shift, Schools Meet Society’s Needs 3-Crammed Classroom Computers 4-Disruptively Deploying Computers 5-The System for Student-Centric Learning 6-The Impact of the Earliest Years on Student Success 7-Improving Education Research 8-Forging a Consensus for Change 9-Giving Schools the Right Structure to Innovate This is disruptive discourse and an innovator’s playground. In addition, I would like you to get to know some of the stakeholders in WV’s Education System. http://www.sundaygazettemail.com/Opinion/Op-EdCommentaries/200805240272

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4. 

   Julia Lee

   June 5, 2008

   What is Tim McClung’s email address? I would like to recommend an excellent art teacher’s session on entrepreneurship in the arts. This session is already on a CD and has been shared with West Virginia’s art teachers. It would be a good one to take to the CREATE WV 2008. I was at the 2007 CREATE WV at Stonewall Resort and attended (and co-presented/participated) as Arts Coordinator at the WV Dept. of Education. I am planning on attending in 2008. Julia Lee, Arts Coord., WV Dept. of Education [email protected] (304) 558-5325, ext. 53231

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5. 

   Tim McClung

   June 16, 2008

   Must be the time of year when books about innovation and education are on everybody’s summer reading list. here is a write up about the latest from Russell L. Ackoff, Anheuser Busch Professor Emeritus of management science at The Wharton School. http://www.changethis.com/47.02.TurningLearning (I want a title like this someday, Yeungling Professor Embarrasus) From the Back Cover of his new book, Turning Learning Right Side Up In the age of the Internet, we educate people much as we did during the Industrial Revolution. We educate them for a world that no longer exists, instilling values antithetical to those of a free, 21st century democracy. Worst of all, too many schools extinguish the very creativity and joy they ought to nourish. In Turning Learning Right Side Up, legendary systems scientist Dr. Russell Ackoff and “in-the-trenches” education innovator Daniel Greenberg offer a radically new path forward. In the year’s most provocative conversation, they take on the very deepest questions about education: What should be its true purpose? Do classrooms make sense anymore? What should individuals contribute to their own education? Are yesterday’s distinctions between subjects–and between the arts and sciences–still meaningful? What would the ideal lifelong education look like–at K-12, in universities, in the workplace, and beyond? Ackoff and Greenberg each have experience making radical change work–successfully. Here, they combine deep idealism with a relentless focus on the real world–and arrive at solutions that are profoundly sensible and powerfully compelling. Why today’s educational system fails–and why superficial reforms won’t help The questions politicians won’t ask–and the answers they don’t want to hear How do people learn–and why do they choose to learn? Creating schools that reflect what we know about learning In a 21st century democracy, what values must we nurture? …and why aren’t we nurturing them? How can tomorrow’s “ideal schools” be operated and funded? A plan that cuts through political gridlock and can actually work Beyond schools: building a society of passionate lifelong learners Learning from childhood to college to workplace through retirement Reinventing Learning for the Next Century: How We Can, and Why We Must An extraordinary conversation about the very deepest questions… Today, what is education for? Where should it take place? How? When? What is the ideal school? The ideal lifelong learning experience? Who should be in charge of education? And who pays for it all? Over the past 150 years, virtually everything has changed…except education. Schools were designed as factories, to train factory workers. The factories are gone, but the schools haven’t changed. It’s time for us to return to first principles…or formulate new first principles…and reimagine education from the ground up. In Turning Learning Right Side Up, two of this generation’s most provocative thinkers–and practical doers–have done just that. They draw on the latest scientific research, the most enduring human wisdom, and their unique lifelong personal experiences transforming institutions that resist change. And, along the way, they offer a powerful blueprint for a thriving society of passionate lifelong learners.

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6. 

   Tim McClung

   June 17, 2008

   What does the business community think about education reform? Read this summary from the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce. http://www.skillscommission.org/pdf/TCTT_Standard_Powerpoint.pdf http://www.skillscommission.org/pdf/exec_sum/ToughChoices_EXECSUM.pdf

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7. 

   Tim McClung

   June 24, 2008

   I thought I would start posting a couple of comments from each chapter of Disrupting Class to give conference attendees a sense of what will be discussed in the Education Track. Chapter 1: Why Schools Struggle to Teach Differently When Each Student Learns Differently Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner defines intelligence: -The ability to solve problems that one encounters in real life. -The ability to generate new problems to solve. -The ability to make something or offer a service that is valued in one’s culture. (That is not exactly the definition of an IQ score that most people use.) Further, he came up with eight distinct intelligencies: -Linguistic-ability to think in words -Logical-Mathematical-ability to calculate, quantify, -Spatial-ability to think in 3-dimensions -Bodily-Kinesthetic-ability to manipulate objects, physical skills -Musical-ability to create rhythm,tone,pitch and melody -Interpersonal-ability to understand and interact with others -Intrapersonal-ability to construct an actual self-perception -Naturalist-ability to observe patterns in nature, understand systems Most people have some capacity in each of the eight, most people excel in only two or three of them. Within each type of intelligences there are different learning styles. Nested within each learning style, people learn at different paces. Here is the dilema: because students have different types of intelligence, learning styles, varying paces and starting points, ALL students have special learning needs.

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8. 

   Tim McClung

   June 27, 2008

   Chapter 2: Making the Shift: Schools Meet Society’s Needs “Schools actually have been improving…In a manner analagous to disruption in the private sector, society has moved the goal posts on schools and imposed upon them new measures of performance. What is unique about public schools is that laws and regulations make them a virtual monopoly, which makes it difficult and sometimes impossible for new business models to compete on the new measures. Society has asked schools to pursue the new metric of improvement from within the existing organization, which was designed to improve along the old performance metric. In essence, the public schools have been required to do the equivalent of rebuilding an airplane in mid-flight-something almost no private enterprise has been able to do.”

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9. 

   Tim McClung

   July 1, 2008

   Chapter 3: Crammed Computer Classrooms “In 1996, President Clinton announced a transformative vision for computing in schools. He called for: 1) modern computers and learning devices available to all students, 2)classrooms connected to one another and the outside world, 3) making educational software an inegral part of the curriculum and as engaging as the best video game, and 4)having teachers ready to use and teach with technology. (S)chools have crammed them into classroooms to sustain and marginally improve the way they already teach and run their schools, just as most organizations do when they attempt to implement innovations…If school administrators will change course, however, and first implement computer-based learning in places and for courses where there are no teachers to teach, then computer-based learning will, step by step, disrupt the instructional job that teachers are doing in a positive way, by helping students learn in ways that their brains are wired to learn and by allowing teachers to give students much more individual attention…(S)chools use computers as a tool and a topic, not as a primary instructional mechanism that helps students learn in ways that are customized to their type of intelligence..Computers have not increased student-centered learning and project-based teaching practices. The implementation of computers has not caused any measurable improvements in achievement scores…computers have made almost no dent in the most important challenge that they have the potential to crack: allowing students to learn in ways that correspond with how their brains are wired to learn, thereby migrating to a student-centric classroom.”

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