Why the information age has presented us with the opportunity for a fundamental reimagining of the way we educate our children.
About This Speaker
Connie is the Director of Education for U.S. Programs at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. She also oversees the $85 million program on Digital Media and Learning: an initiative which aims to determine how digital media are changing the way young people learn, play, socialize, and participate in civic life.
Prior to joining the Foundation, Connie conducted extensive research on the connections among educational research, policy and practice. She was an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois, where she published scholarly work on the complex interplay among young people’s emerging identity, their social context and achievement. You can Follow her on Twitter at @connie.
Jump to: Chat Archive & Group Notes | Resources | Questions | Participants
Resources
The Essence of Connected Learning [video]
Spotlight on DML: "Researchers Introduce a New Model of 'Connected Learning'"
Connie's Huffington Post piece: "Connected Learning: Reimagining the Experience of Education in the Information Age"
Download a PDF of this session's Livestream Chat archive
Access the collaborative document of key points, insights, questions and resources from this session
Resources/URLs Mentioned
- Purpos/ed: what's the purpose of education? Join the debate.
- HIVE Learning Networks: Explore + Create + Share
- The Fifth Dimension: partnership between community centers and local colleges to establish educational after-school programs
- The HIVE Network's Fashion initiative
- [PDF] Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out
- "Networked: The New Social Operating System" by Lee Rainie and Barry Wellman
- Learner Centered Networks: A Proposal for a New Education System (2007)
- "From Theory to Design: Exploring the Power & Potential of ‘Connected Learning’, Part One" by S. Craig Watkins
Questions Asked
- (23:21) I wondered to what extent the purpose of education--as far as you see it--differs country to country, or context to context? Or whether you think there's one kind of purpose of education which rules everything?
- (27:47) The question of 'purpose' is a key question. I hear that a lot from the teens on the ground: why are they even doing some of the stuff they're doing in school? They can't attach what it means to do this task in say, math or English, to a real, tangible career opportunity (or, in some cases, even just an interest).
- (32:22) Connie, I was wondering if you could give a bit of an overview about your strategy around developing the HIVE Networks and partnerships in the private sector? And some of the challenges and lessons learned in building these private-public partnerships, or these partnerships across different regional institutions that are designed to start tackling this question of building regional learning ecologies that support a different form of learning.
- (44:02) How do learners respond to this reimagined vision of learning? Is it fair to change the expectations and apply a new system to them when they've been socializing to certain kinds of expectations?
- (50:02) Is it possible for connected learning to take place without fundamental transformations in power relations between youth and adults?
List of Hangout Participants
