Dear Grade 4-12 Student, How Can You Change the World in One Day?

Dear Grade 4-12 student,

 Do you want a chance to be a part of a brand new learning experiment and be a model of how we can disrupt and design education in a way that REALLY works for learners?

 You can be one of the first students at the Experimental Prototype School of Tomorrow (EPSOT) starting on March 22nd, 2016. There are four spaces left in the first cohort!

 In 24 hours of online work, you will explore the question, “As a digitally literate person, what can I make in one day?” You will pick your own path to explore this question and can do the 24 hours of work at any rate you choose.

 Your teacher, Shauna Pollock, will be your guide and collaborative curator, working alongside you to learn and practice new skills, discover new tools and apply your learning to a self-selected project. Your classmates in this first cohort will be on parallel learning journeys of their own and you will learn how to collaborate and communicate with them online.

 This is a chance to hack your learning and help shape what education can look like in 2016. We will use digital literacy skills to help you uncover and explore your passion. You will be empowered to pursue a self-selected project and share it with a real audience.

 Are you ready to take your learning to the next level? Email Shauna Pollock at shauna.pollock@gmail.com for more information on how to become part of “The Passionate Learner Experiment.”

Shauna

One World About High School

I'm starting to play with the responses to my ‪#‎rethinkhighschool‬ survey.

The two images below represent the answers to two questions.

 #1. Describe your high school experience in one word.

#2. Describe what an ideal high school experience could be.

Are you surprised at the results? What would you add?

Blue Sky High - What If YOU Designed a High School?

Walt Disney encouraged people to think big. And then he encouraged them to think bigger. He asked them about their blue sky dreams. Look up at the sky. You can't see the end of it. That's how you should dream. There is no limit to how high or how big you can dream.

Right now, I'm blue sky thinking about high school.

My blue sky dream is to open a grade 4-12 inclusive, immersive, experiential school that caters to all types of learners and empowers them to be confident life long learners who can solve real world problems.

I am researching the current structures and systems of public and private high schools around the world to learn more about how users (students) feel about their experiences there.

I would love to learn about your high school experiences, what worked and what didn't work for you as a teenage learner.

I would also love to pick your brain about what we could achieve in high school. Imagine that the existing systems and structures were wiped clean and you could learn in a way that works for you. What could high school look like, feel like and empower our students to do?

What if formal schooling could be more about preparing learners for their lives than preparing them for more formal schooling (and all that entails, like standardized expectations, a focus on memorization of content and high-stakes testing)? Imagine the possibilities!

One way that I am gathering user input is through a survey. I am also conducting one-on-one interviews, starting an online discussion group (on Voxer) and planning dream-building workshops. If you want to share your experience and ideas, or learn along with me, let me know!

Your input will be helpful for my personal research, writing, educational consulting work and eventual my own eventual Blue Sky High creation.

To start off, I am collecting your thoughts in a quick (5-10 minute) survey. Please fill out the embedded survey (also linked here)

This post includes (creative commons licensed) images that inspire me in my blue sky dreaming about schooling. These were included in a document I shared with artist Jeannette Langmead, in the creation of her masterpiece that is the cover of my book.