Full Disclosure: I am absolutely smitten with the stealth learning game Erase All Kittens. Shout-out to @PMKievlan for sharing this with us at the LRNG Pittsburgh Digital Badges training session.
The game is yet another brilliant example of stealth learning at its finest. Players "hack the game" by editing HTML and CSS code. It transforms the look, feel, and functionality of the game.
You are rewarded with lovely kitten .GIFS when you write code that helps you to reach the cute and cuddly little friends. My personal favorite element of the game is the upbeat, quirky narration and "loading updates" that are whimsically bizarre. It's just corny enough to keep you grinning from ear to ear as you play.
Here's How it Works...
In each level, Arca must navigate the ruins of the Ancient Internet...
She is probably checking out the Tripod.com website that I made for sophomore chemistry, along with "Up the Punk" my Oasis fan-girl turned Brit-Punk website...
We partied like it's 1999. Because it was.
Immediately, I felt the rush that comes from being honestly challenged and motivated to continue--it was exciting to make, build, and create the levels of the game... all through lines of code.
Once you complete the third and final level, you are invited to send feedback via Google Forms. You are generously rewarded with a bonus level that teaches you about CSS. You need to change the background color and other elements of style (NO--not Strunk & White!!!) to expose malevolent Dingle Bats and other obstacles in your way... It's really, really neat!
The other afternoon, I wrapped-up my second day of training on the LRNG platform. The design and functionality are just extraordinary! This summer's roll-out of Pittsburgh - City of Learning is certainly something that we want to plug out kids into immediately.
Though I am not currently a part of the City of Learning program in Pittsburgh, I am working alongside Holy Family Academy's Head of School / Chief Learning Officer and our Career Coaches to develop pathways and playlists to expand our networked learning ecosystem into the surrounding community.
Digital badging has been an interest of mine for the past two years, however I only (officially) entered the badging process just this year at Holy Family. My intent is to utilize digital badges in our innovative field-based learning program.
Check out this video out of Chicago--it offers a comprehensive view on the power and potential of badging.
Rationale for the Importance of a Digital Badging Proposal that Unites PGH Careers + PGH Teens
Recently, I was involved with a team at HFA in submitting a grant proposal helping to link students from the region with plans for badging our existing Corporate Work Study Program. We have +50 partners throughout the region, and we are in the midst of creating playlists of experiences introducing teens to a cariety of careers that feature prominent roles into this region's future. Consisting of both local and digital experiences, these playlists expose teens to a variety of careers, help to connect teens with information to learn about the specific avenues for growth in each sector, and the experiences unlocs opportunities for young people to pursue these careers in greater depth.
This is a good time to be a young person in and around the City of Pittsburgh. With so much attention being placed upon corporations, nonprofits, and educational institutions comprising the Remake Learning Network, there are abundant opportunities to expand a networked learning ecosystem in and around the city. Local census data shows that a proposal has the ability to have a far reaching impact within the City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County.
2014 Census: Youth Under Age 18
48,800 - City of Pittsburgh
246, 250 - Allegheny County
The topography of southwestern Pennsylvania is unique with respect to how urban hubs of innovation border rural, even remote communities. The time is right to make serious attempts to establish solid connections with Beaver, Butler, Armstrong, Westmoreland, Fayette, and my own native Washington County. These counties surrounding the City of Pittsburgh vary greatly with respect to a diverse make-up of urban, suburban, and rural schools.
I am proud to work with the committed leaders at Holy Family Academy. Our vision is to connect the youth of the Pittsburgh metro area with expansive real world opportunities. The goal is to provide students with deeper learning experiences beyond the four walls of the classroom. In this manner, we will remake learning by expanding on real world partnerships and future ready opportunities for the young people of this region to become informed and inspired by the pathways and playlists on their journey to success in school, careers, and life.
Holy Family Academy - An Established Network Provides a Pathway for Discovery
This would enable HFA to broaden the reach of an existing networked learning ecosystem of +50 partners in industry, higher education, and corporate sectors.
We have constructed multiple playlists consisting of local and digital experiences that will make learning authentic, relevant, and personal.
As we move forward, it is my goal to work closely with our leaders in the Career Hub and fully implement this digital badging program in a way that can benefit our students and the community at large.
We had a breakthrough using the Visible Thinking Routine "Generate - Sort - Connect - Elaborate".
Reflecting upon my practice, I've always found it difficult to have students elaborate in a meaningful way that extends the discussion and inspires further inquiry. Frankly, I've felt like I've failed quite a bit, that I wasn't packaging the routine properly and it had the distinct feeling of a one-off activity...
Turns out that:
1) Practice makes perfect
2) Pitching it like a college major and putting students into idea teams of specialists helps... Tremendously.
Above: Tyrell and Tori team up and explore a topic from our intro to the 1960s collection of digital archives.
Chris prepares his post-it notes to share with his teammate and post on the class' "thought map" -- We are still working on a term for this. I want to call it chart paper and we can "chart a course for personalized learning"... But, as the kids say, that's corny.
The ideas begin to mount. Forming a grid of "four corners" helped students to sort and connect their thoughts in an easy to follow manner.
Working together with a partner helps thinkers to make the visible thinking routine feel more like a conversation.
Marshall McLulan said "The media is the message", but is it possible for the media to distort a message? Some historians might contest that Malcolm X's militant legacy is more of an invention of the media...
Admittedly this point of view is on the opposite end of the spectrum of JFK's legacy--but it says something about the 1960s.
Perhaps at this great period of social change, people craved a basic storyline. When the figures of society are too complex to be summarized in 140 characters, the media will craft a message they deem suitable to print.
Malcolm X - Cultural Literacy Portal to GCI
-Check out the archives of primary sources featuring Malcolm X & additional readings for independent exploration.
As we continue our exploration of primary sources from the 1960s Civil Rights Era, please consider the role that new forms of media have in shaping public opinion during the 1960s (tv, radio, increased print media publications across the country).
To help students form a nice historical comparison, you may want to also consider how social media and the immediacy of the 24/7 news cycle shapes our perspective today.
What might the future look like? How might we harness the power of creativity to develop innovative solutions to problems that do not yet exist???
Welcome to the world of futures thinking.
Intermediate Integrated Design Lab (11th, ½ credit)
Only at @HFApgh...
But I can see how you would think a class like this would be offered at CMU.
I am excited to pitch our 2016-17 course catalog to the students at HFA. In addition to Cultural Literacy and Introduction to Game Design, I am looking forward to teaching Integrated Design. I have been contemplating possible routes for taking our students' work in human-centered design to the next level... And pondering future problems and a world of possibilities looks like the perfect "sandbox" for our juniors to envision their roles as 21st century citizens and collaborators.
A Brief Course Overview: Futures Thinking & Design Fiction
In this course, students will envision the world as it might appear in the future. Together, students will collaborate upon defining the issues facing our society. They will then use design fiction to develop solutions to these problems. Considering the roles of urban planning and human centered design, students will utilize digital media to showcase and share their vision.
An emphasis will be placed upon understanding the current measures that businesses, governments, and philanthropic organizations are taking to improve the quality of life for individuals in our world today.
Moonshot thinking is strongly encouraged for our students to develop the solutions for the world of tomorrow.
A Key Concept: To freely & frequently engage in moonshot thinking.
As long as your solution doesn't involve magic, it can be the creative spark to stoke the fires of curiosity and wonder
Video credit: Moonshot Thinking | Google
A Vision for Stakeholders in Our Future: Using Technology to Tell Our Story
This is a project-based learning, media production class focused on human centered design, design fiction, social justice, and futures thinking.
We will rely upon technology to bring about our visions for the future:
Animoto, iMovie & Movie Maker: To create futuristic trailers, commercials, and public service announcements to present a vision of the future
YouTube: To upload digital media to the web and video-blog ideas for prototypes and reflections
Google Drawings: To create concept posters, infographics, and visuals to imagine future scenarios
Blogger: To collaboratively author and share posts presenting research, videos, and project updates
Google Hangouts On Air: To record and archive team meetings and empathy interviews with experts & community stakeholders
Google Forms: To survey individuals and collect data to use in creating design fiction and digital media
Google Maps: To map places where we will innovate and focus on futures thinking and design fiction
Google Slides: To construct a vision deck to present a glimpse of the future and solutions for tomorrow
A Key Concept: To use fiction, improv & role-play as a means of creating the suspension of disbelief.
Imagine a (near) future where anything can happen
Video credit: Productivity Future Vision | Microsoft
The Big Picture: A Showcase of Pitches & Prototypes
We will use our Gallop Strengths Assessment results as well as personality inventories to assemble into "idea teams" that will work cooperatively throughout the course of the semester. Idea teams will meet benchmark dates for submitting proposals, pitches, and prototypes.
The culmination of the class will be a showcase of student learning. The students will present their vision for the future to our school as well as to an authentic audience of stakeholders from the community.
Now, the specifics for this will vary, but the idea is that we will utilize a network of local partners and others within out expanded networked learning ecosystem. These experts will serve as consultants at different phases of the planning portion of the project, as well as offer guidance as mentors in their areas of expertise.
Again, it is all dependent on the subjects that the students wish to explore and the mentors connecting with our students.
A PBL Rubric for Design Thinking and Process Evaluation:
Our Head of School / Chief Learning Officer shared this dynamite rubric that I've based the skeleton outline of this course upon. It comes from the Urban Assembly Maker Academy <www.uamakernyc>
This is another portion of the course that is still in the "idea phase"... Hence the legal pad snapshot :^)
A Plausible Scenario: Making The Vision a Reality - Step by Step from Inception to Completion
1) Idea teams formulate a problem facing the City of Pittsburgh within the next 25 years.
2) Students begin an email correspondence with officials in Mayor Peduto's office and arrange a Google Hangout "focus-group panel" todiscuss issues
3) Students plan, make, and iterate based upon the initial discussion and subsequent research; they keep track of ideas via blog posts featuring written reflections, snapshots of prototypes, videos, etc.
4) Experts from the mayor's office (and new stakeholders/experts wanting to invest in our students' work) comment on the blogs, offering insights, guidance, and general mentorship
5) Students iterate and improve upon their vision, using design fiction and futures thinking to "flesh-out" problems and develop solutions
6) Idea teams construct video prototypes via Legos and/or other resources to make a low resolution prototype articulating this vision
7) All collaborators compile their work to assemble a vision deck to present at the showcase
8) We take the show on the road... first practicing and presenting in school, then making our way to the City County Building on Grant Street
Inspiration for Intermediate Integrated Design Lab
Backstory: Holy Family's Head of School / Chief Learning Officer Dr. Lisa Abel-Palmieri introduced me to Thomas Steele-Maley at the Active Learning Summit in July, 2015. Both are leaders in educational innovation. Like a moth to a flame, I am drawn to passionate leaders with a bold vision.
So, when I found myself in Chicago the following week, I was honored that Thomas took time out of his busy schedule to show me the view from the 10th floor of GEMS World Academy Campus, just bordering Millennial Park. The school has the look and feel of Google or IDEO's offices, like something out of Stanford's d-school. I was intrigued...
The week after that, I had a very similar experience back in Pittsburgh. Though Holy Family's Campus and program may not be in the heart of the Chicago financial district, it has heart and soul that makes it unique in every possible way.
I was not so much intrigued as inspired. This is a start-up high school of ninety students in two grades. The Pittsburgh equivalent of High Tech High, HFA is helping teens to build a new vision of themselves... I had the chance to be a part of something spectacular, to get in on the proverbial ground floor.
Lisa's vision to make Holy Family Academy an innovative independent Catholic High School serving families of limited economic means is a mission I subscribe to. Once upon I was a Theology student and President of the Students for Social Justice at St. Vincent College. This school was not just an opportunity for me to transform my practice in my eighth year of teaching... It represented an invitation to rediscover my vocation.
Now, I had a decision to make--would I leave my position of nearly 8 years as a teacher in a rural-suburban public high school (which happened to be in the town where I grew up) to become a part of Lisa's team at this new educational start-up school?
Needless to say--I saw a near future that could only become a reality if I took this chance. So I dove in, head first... I'm still swimming, navigating new and challenging waters of remaking learning.
Looking back, as this school year draws to a close, it was the only choice that I could make. I believe in the bold vision that is Holy Family Academy--our mindsets and the ability, as a teacher and coordinator of field based learning, to transform my own practice for a group of students who stand to benefit the most from an innovative and empathetic approach to maker-centered ed.
This is the shorthand version of how I became a teacher and Coordinator of Educational & Cultural Affairs at Holy Family Academy. It began with a bold vision. Lisa and Thomas are the living embodiment of design thinker leaders, and I am immensely grateful for the both of them.
Intermediate Integrated Design Lab as a class is inspired by Thomas' presentation on "Design Fiction" and an "Aha-Moment" of clarity that I had (in the shower) thinking about taking action on this notion. And so, have been combing and cultivating resources for months. It's my educational head-nod to innovative design.
It is also a great reason to justify my income tax write-off of my subscription to Fast Company... Check out the haiku that I submitted on creativity - a concept we can all relate to!
Conclusion: Anab Jain's Thoughts on the Future & Unintended Consequences - The Need to Develop Context
How Will We Live? | Next Conference
The Above video from the Next Conference is a talk by Superflux's Director, Anab Jain. She is a rockstar, my friends.
Jain’s video “How Will We Live?” is a bold vision in near futures thinking featuring an elderly man fed-up w/the smart fork & cane that his well-meaning children gave him to eat better & exercise. He gamed the sensors & ended up worse off than before. It is a paradigm for the way that unintended consequences can spiral out of control, especially when we merely focus on the "optics" of a situation--like big data taken out of its proper context. It can get very messy, very quick...
Every story needs to be framed within its proper context. Most importantly, to borrow a page from Pittsburgh Pirates manager Clint Hirdle, we must not neglect the "human analytics" of things as we begin to dream of innovating for the world of tomorrow.
More thoughts on this topic after we pitch the courses to students in mid-May.
-j
--As Detective Columbo would say, "Just one more thing..."
How might you inspire students to build, make, and create a world in which they are the new generation of innovators, social entrepreneurs, leaders, dreamers, and doers???
JFK's Moon Speech | Festival of Curiosity | Courtesy of JFK Homecoming
Visible thinking routines help students make the most of primary sources, especially when dealing with a text that is from a foreign land.
In Cultural Literacy, our sophomores began class by analyzing the text above. The stamp commemorates Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gregarin becoming the first human to orbit the earth. Many scholars suggest that it is this act that compelled President Kennedy to push for a "Space Race" instead of attempting to work in tandem with the Soviets.
I know--I was just as shocked as you are... Reading those lines floored me and made me realize how little I learned about this time period prior to taking the lead in the classroom. It's amazing what you can discover when you and your students collectively chart a course for personalized learning and discovery.
To get the most out of this visual text, we used the "I see... I think... I wonder..." visible thinking routine.
Students chart observations, inferences, questions, and general comments that come to mind. The important element is getting students to genuinely pause and take notice--to take it all in and marinade in your thoughts for a while... An act so often overlooked, but the most necessary ingredient to authentic learning.
Allanis wondered what the stamp actually said--so, we downloaded the Google Ttanslate App to check it out for ourselves. Give it a try sometime, your students will crave more ideas to discover.
An observant student noticed MLK in this photo of the Civil Rights Act signing. This opened the doors to an awesome morning of inquiry.
The conversation was wide ranging and lively. Our students had many theories as to why MLK was invited to take part in such a historic moment, yet Malcolm X is noticeably missing.
Their rationale for why King found favor with the government was as nuanced and insightful as their hypotheses for Malcolm X being persona non grata...
File this moment under "I wonder why...?"
Yes, and it was a very, very good day!
Talk about putting on your #AcademicEyeblack
Our kids came to play hardball and they're taking on the tough topics in history.
The perspective captured in this snapshot provides a beautiful portal to students' thoughts on the Civil Rights Movement. The subject is nuanced--do we focus on the number of busses, the Capitol Rotunda, the African American women, the white men?
As you may imagine, students have many issues to ponder when beginning to reaearch the March on Washington.
The Google Cultural Institute's archives of the March for Jobs and Equality has images and documents, but an added bonus is the personal artifacts surrounding arguably the greeted social movement of the decade.
Students can check out buttons and pins worn by those assembled, as well as hear the voices of the demonstrators reflecting upon this period of history.
Those moments of awe and wonder that make learning relevant, personal, and thought-provoking came to life in our independent exploration of the Space Race. Our CL students had so many questions about space exploration, the Cold War, scientific advancements, and more.
We used the photo above to generate initial thoughts via the Visible Thinking routine "I see - I think - I wonder"
At one point, we found clusters of students gathering around their post-it note "idea factory", debating the merits of space exploration vs exploring the depths of the ocean... Or fighting poverty affecting inner-city families.
It was a beautiful day to gain perspective and formulate insights. Our sophomores made us proud...
