Michael Robbins & P.J. Karafiol – Reframing the Conversation About Learning in Schools

October 18, 2012
9:00 am - 10:00 am PST
By Educator Innovator

How do we move toward a vision of education and learning that is beneficial for everyone involved?

Key Questions and Comments:

  • (04:31) What do we want teachers to do every day in the classroom, and how do we evaluate them to make sure that’s happening?
  • (10:11) How do you make sure young people are ready and effectively engaged and informed in relation to [civic and political engagement]?
  • (15:09) As we focus more and more on “education” […] that, as an education community, we look more and more and more to the single teacher to provide everything to the student.
  • (22:11) Badges are giving us the flexibility to start to record more incremental types of learning, and celebrate, and recognize more of the learning pathways that kids are having.
  • (27:17) You don’t just judge kids on where they end up, because they might have started at different places.
  • (33:16) Looking at young people’s production, and looking at ways to share that production is very powerful […] whereby young people are producing stuff that, then, is getting feedback–not only from a teacher, but from peers and others.
  • (42:55) So, what do you see as the role of the teacher in the future?
  • (48:01) How do we create the infrastructure for this to happen? If we really want things to be happening from the outside to support, what are the other things we need in the infrastructure to make this happen?
  • (52:24) We have unprecedented investment in digital learning technology, but we don’t have corresponding investment in the systems and processes we need in place to make that happen.
  • (57:48) I think what we’re really trying to do is shift culture around education. If we’re successful in moving forward the things we’ve been talking about here, it’s really changing ownership of learning.

View the Conversation
During the broadcast, the conversation also took place on Twitter using the hashtag #connectedlearning.

Guests for this webinar included:

  • Michael Robbins (Guest Speaker): Michael Robbins is Senior Advisor for Nonprofit Partnerships at the U.S. Department of Education. He works with communities across the country to strengthen partnerships between schools, families, and community-based organizations to create a community culture of education success. You can Follow him on Twitter at @mwrobbins.
  • P.J. Karafiol (Guest Speaker): P.J. Karafiol is a seasoned math teacher; for the past 12 years, he has been teaching and coordinating curriculum at Walter Payton College Prep High School in Chicago. He was the Presidential Awardee in mathematics in Illinois in 2009. He also serves as the Co-Coach for the school’s competitive Math Team.
  • Connie Yowell (Moderator)
  • Joe Kahne
  • Erin Knight

Resources for this webinar:

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