50 crazy ideas to change education

8/12/2019 50 Crazy Ideas to Change Education

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50 Crazy Ideas To Change Education03/13/2014, Terry Heick

Below are 50 ideas for a new education. Note, most of these are about education as a systemrather than learning itself, but thats okay. Its often the infrastructure of learning that obscuresanyway.

Few of them may work; een fewer would work together, and thats okay too. !s long as weredreaming anyway, lets get a little cra"y.

#. $ake connectiity and interde%endence the catalyst for all learning.&. 'to% claiming eery child will be %roficient. (Find find something else to %romise.)

*. +ae students design their own uality criteria, and deelo% frameworks to hel% themunderstand how.

-. elebrate learning by celebrating learning models/eery school is branded by that modeland a%%roach, rather than historical names and em%ty mascots. mbrace that there is nobest way to teach and learn.

5. 1ont reuire students to come to school.


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2. 'to% using the words and %hrasesproficient, best practice, andstudent engagement; sto%re%orting %roficiency through demogra%hic grou%s, and instead do so indiidually.

3. +ae a grou% of successful %rofessionals document the #0 most im%ortant things theyknow, and the #0 most im%ortant skills. 4hen com%are and contrast them with nationalacademic standards.

. 6et students use smart%hones in the classroom. 4his is not a school %roblem, it is alearning model %roblem.

7. $obili"e learning by mobili"ing and em%owering students in communities they careabout.

#0. $ake classrooms %laces students want to be.

##. $ake school walls inisible8literally made of glass.

#&. 1itch internet 9filters: and instead making all access trans%arent to %arents and

guardians, and %ublished in schools for all to see.

#*. Be honest when things suck, are boring, or are wastes of time. 'to% rationali"ing, makingecuses, or using confirmation bias.

#-. 4ransform all schools to st century cultural centers with cutting edge e%erts,technology, and %rograms.

#5. 'to% encouraging students to go to oer%riced colleges that fail to im%roe studentslies, and that %er%etuate a system that stifles innoation and euity.

#2. $ake elementary school about literacy, creatiity, and %lay/and thats it.

#3. $ake middle school about selfie them reality shows, endorsement deals, andhuge contracts.

. If students under%erform (regardless of the terms of said %erformance), hold them

accountable as well. Find a way/and it cant be %unishment. It has to be meaningful,%ossibly social, and absolutely knowledge


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&-. 1itch formal %rofessional systems. ery teacher is an e%ert in something. 4heres your?1 team.

&5. ducators= 'to% %atroni"ing edtech like brand fanatics.

&2. @se a grading system that starts at "ero, not #00.

&3. $ake school budgets entirely trans%arent.

&. 4hrow out letter grades and test scores foreer. !t most, moe to a 0, #, &/didntcom%lete the work, com%leted without meeting uality criteria, com%leted while meetinguality criteria.

&7. 'to% asking so much of teachers and administrators.

*0. 'to% oersim%lifying teaching and learning.

*#. $ake sure anyone on a school board or committee understands what it means to

understand something, and the realities of leading a di""ying mi of students to that %ointfor do"ens and do"ens of standards. Thenthey can ote, make %olicies, hire, etc.

*&. ?romote learning through networks, not curriculum. (!nd while were on the subAect, banall scri%ted curriculum.)

**. $ake Aoy, curiosity, and the ability to ask the right uestion at the right time the criteriaby which we measure a school.

*-. orry less about teaching eolution, and more about eoling teaching.

*5. Cebrand teaching and learning com%letely the same way !%%le has done with com%uters,'tarbucks has coffee, and Nike has Aogging.

*2. 'to% demoni"ing teachers for the increasing cultural a%athy to formal education.

*3. ?ush the goernment out of schools com%letely.

*. 1esign com%le mentorshi% and a%%renticeshi% %rograms for all students older than #*.

*7. @se curriculum based around thinking habits, and the ability to know whats worthunderstanding rather than 9content.:

-0. @se curriculum based on the ability to self


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-2. $ake libraries more like a%% stores with technology that ecites students/that they wantto use.

-3. reate curriculum that functions like a %laylist, and that browses like >oogle searchresults; reuire students to document their own understanding.

-. !llow students to decide what they do and dont want to learn; insist only that the learnsomething.

-7. 4reat the goal of education as self


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11 Essential Tools or !etter "ro#ect$!ased %earning

by Katre Laanfrom myhistro.com

4he rise of technology used in classrooms has made learning much more interactie. 4he

emergence of i?ads to browser


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4his creatie tool is ecellent for creating digital %osters and other multimedia %roAects. It can beused as a G%re


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G4alking %hotos, a tool used to record a oiceoer for an image in a slideshow format. Its greatfor collaboratie %roAects telling a story of a %hoto or an eent. In the classroom, students canstart a %roAect by analysing a conce%t or a story and im%ort audio from another source. It can alsobe used in ui""es such as testing students knowledge of historical figures, or used in languageclasses for tests. Free a%% aailable from the !%%le 'tore.

&) A'dio%oo

! similar tool to FotoBabble. 4his oiceoer tool is ecellent for telling stories of a %hotogra%hand other isual %roAects. It su%%orts recordings from other deices, allows users to tag a locationand enter a small descri%tion. Free a%%s aailable from the !%%le 'tore, for !ndroid and Nokiausers.

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4his browser

50 crazy ideas to change education

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