1. Bold Learning for Bold Schools
Making the Jump from Traditional to Modern Learning
Will Richardson
will@willrichardson.com
willrichardson.com
@willrich45

2. What is “Bold School” practice?

6. Jacob Arnott
14-year old Editor in Chief

8. Context

9. “Crisis of Contexts”

10. Traditional Learning
Politicians, Parents,
Communities, Educators
Crisis of Contexts

11. Traditional Learning
Politicians, Parents,
Communities, Educators
Crisis of Contexts
Modern Learning
Connected Learners

12. Traditional Learning
Politicians, Parents,
Communities, Educators
≠
Modern Learning
Connected Learners

13. New reality

14. Scarcity

15. ABUNDANCE

16. Change

17. CHANGE

18. “The change we are in the
middle of isn’t minor,
and it isn’t optional.”
Clay Shirky

19. ABUNDANCE
750,000 Apps
2.5 Billion People
2 Trillion Webpages
4.5 Years of YouTube video per minute
16,000 Tweets per second*
5 Billion Internet Connected Devices
Etc...
*Japan’s 2012 New Years Celebration

21. ...A world marked by “ubiquitous computing,
ubiquitous information, ubiquitous networks, at
unlimited speed, about everything, everywhere,
from anywhere, on all kinds of devices that make
it ridiculously easy to connect, organize, share,
collect, collaborate and publish.”
Michael Wesch

22. Which is Changing:
Media
Politics
Journalism
Medicine
Books
Business
Music...

23. ABUNDANCE
And the future of work

29. bit.ly/UsKA4h

30. “Looking to the future of work, one could
sum up the anticipated impacts in a single
word: More. More intensity. More pressure.
More change. More risk. But also, more
opportunity. More engagement. More
transparency. More impact.”
Yvette Cameron

31. ABUNDANCE
And the future of “an education”

34. bit.ly/MZmNDy

35. bit.ly/MZmNDy

36. bit.ly/MZmNDy

39. ca rci t y
S
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40. ca rci t y
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41. ca rci t y
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n danc
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42. ca rci t y
S
Abu
n danc
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43. ca rci t y
S
Abu
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45. Cal Tech, Georgia Tech, U. of Va, Duke, Rice, Johns
Hopkins, Stamford, U. of Washington, U. of Illinois, U. of
Edinburgh, U. of Toronto, Princeton, U. of Penn.

46. Cal Tech, Georgia Tech, U. of Va, Duke, Rice, Johns
Hopkins, Stamford, U. of Washington, U. of Illinois, U. of
Edinburgh, U. of Toronto, Princeton, U. of Penn.
“This is the tsunami.”
--Richard DeMillo, Ga. Tech

50. 2024?

51. ABUNDANCE
And the future of schools

52. New Reality
Teachers are everywhere
Classrooms are everywhere
“School” is everywhere

54. 215,284,446 Lessons Delivered

64. New Question:
What do students need to learn in
school at a moment when they can
learn so much without us?

65. New Question:
And:
What is the value of school (and
classrooms and teachers) at a
moment where we don’t need
school to do school?

66. New Question:

67. New Answer:
That which cannot be
“Khanified.”

68. New Answer:
Curiosity
Resilience
Passion
Entrepreneurial Thinking
Empathy
Creativity
Collaboration
Inquiry
Networking
Communication
Critical Thinking
(and more)

69. New Reality
Schools need to be “different”...
not just “better.”

74. Our Old (Traditional) Value
Content

75. Our New Value

76. Our New Value
New Contexts for Learning

77. Our New Value
New Contexts for Learning
New Literacies

78. Our New Value
New Contexts for Learning
New Literacies
New Futures

79. Our New Value
“Entrepreneurial Learners”

80. “Constantly looking around you,
all the time, for new ways
and new resources
to learn new things.”
John Seely Brown

81. BE
BOLD

82. Bold Schools
1. Learning Centered
2. Inquiry Driven
3. Authentic Work
4. Digital
5. Connected
6. Literate
7. Transparent
8. Innovative
9. Provocative

83. Bold Schools
1. Bold Schools are Learning
and Learner Centered
Students and teachers direct their own learning
and connect to their passions.

84. Bold Schools
2. Bold Schools are Inquiry Driven
Learning is focused around exploring answers to “big questions”

85. “Dots in Blue Water”
South Adams HS, Berne, IN

86. “Dots in Blue Water”
1. Authentic Problem/Question
“How can we purify water for people in Haiti?”

87. “Dots in Blue Water”
2. Student Directed Teams
Research, Development, Marketing, Community “Investment"

88. “Dots in Blue Water”
3. Real Product/Real Audience
Teachers and students travelled to Haiti to install their devices.
5 systems = clean water for 8,000

89. “Dots in Blue Water”
Notes:
-Aligned to standards
-Interdisciplinary
-Student-centered
-Technology-rich
-Innovative thinking

90. CHANGE
(The World)

91. Bold Schools
3. Bold Schools Support Authentic Work
Students and teachers create real work for
real audiences and real purposes.

92. bit.ly/11PVoxq

94. Bold Schools
4. Bold Schools are Digital
Students and teachers have access to
and fluency with technology.

95. Bold Schools
5. Bold Schools are Connected
Students and teachers regularly learn
from and with people online.

96. Our New Value
“Connected Learning”

97. “Connected learning is realized when a young
person is able to pursue a personal interest or
passion with the support of friends and caring
adults, and is in turn able to link this learning and
interest to academic achievement, career
success or civic engagement.”
Mimi Ito

99. Networks are the new classrooms.

101. “What can you do has been replaced by what
can you and your network connections do.
Knowledge itself is moving from the individual
to the individual and his contacts.”
Jay Cross

102. Bold Schools
6. Bold Schools are Literate
(by 21st Century Standards)
Students and teachers meet NCTE guidelines
for modern readers and writers.

103. Bold Schools
• Develop proficiency with the tools of technology
• Build relationships with others to pose and solve
problems collaboratively and cross-culturally
• Design and share information for global communities
to meet a variety of purposes
• Manage, analyze and synthesize multiple streams of
simultaneous information
• Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-media
texts
• Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these
complex environments bit.ly/nctelit

105. Bold Schools
7. Bold Schools are Transparent
Students and teachers widely share best practices
and reflections on their learning.

107. --Stephen Downes

112. Bold Schools
8. Bold Schools are Innovative
All learners are encouraged to “poke the box”
and experiment with practice.

113. Bold Schools
9. Bold Schools are Provocative
Conversations around change extend to parents, communities, and
local, state and national governments.

114. Bold Schools
bit.ly/boldrubric

115. Bold Schools
Which of those nine qualities are the most
challenging to move toward when thinking
about your school?

116. Bold Schools
1. Learning Centered
2. Inquiry Driven
3. Authentic Work
4. Digital
5. Connected
6. Literate
7. Transparent
8. Innovative
9. Provocative

117. New Requirements
For our students.
For our classrooms.
For ourselves.

118. Where Do We Start?
With Us.

119. LEARNERS FIRST

120. LEARNERS FIRST
Teachers Second

121. “In times of change, learners inherit
the Earth, while the learned find
themselves beautifully equipped to
deal with a world that no longer
exists.”
Eric Hoffer

123. will@willrichardson.com
@willrich45
willrichardson.com