1. Learning in a Networked World
Schooling in an Era of Abundance
Will Richardson
will@willrichardson.com
willrichardson.com
@willrich45
bit.ly/KyQb6E

2. todaysmeet.com/dobbsferry

3. “It was the best of times,
it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom,
it was the age of foolishness...”
Charles Dickens

4. “It was the best of times,
it was the age of wisdom,
Charles Dickens

8. Jacob Arnott
14-year old Editor in Chief

9. it was the worst of times,
it was the age of foolishness...”
Charles Dickens

10. Which geographic factor affected the development of
the Gupta Empire?

11. Which geographic factor affected the development of
the Gupta Empire?
a) island location
b) volcanoes
c) monsoons
d) permafrost

12. Which geographic factor affected the development of
the Gupta Empire?
a) island location
b) volcanoes
c) monsoons
d) permafrost

13. 2011 NY State Regents Exam for World Geography:
Which geographic factor affected the development of
the Gupta Empire?
a) island location
b) volcanoes
c) monsoons
d) permafrost

15. CHANGE

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

17. Scarcity

18. Scarcity
ABUNDANCE

19. ABUNDANCE OF...
Information
Tools
Opinions
People
Data
Resources
Media
More...

20. ABUNDANCE OF...
(Kids’ Version)
Games
Videos
Networks
Texts
Hangouts
(...and all sorts of other interesting stuff
they don’t have access to at school.)

21. ...WHICH IS CHANGING
Media
Politics
Journalism
Medicine
Books
Business
Music...

22. ...WHICH IS CHANGING
...Education

23. ...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

24. ...WHICH IS CHANGING
Examples

28. ABUNDANCE
Will Change Us.

29. ABUNDANCE
Will Change Us.
Is Changing Us.

30. bit.ly/MZmNDy

34. carcity
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bit.ly/MZmNDy

35. carcity
S
bit.ly/MZmNDy

36. carcity
S
Abu
ndan
ce
bit.ly/MZmNDy

37. carcity
S
Information ≠ Education
Abu
ndan
ce
bit.ly/MZmNDy

38. carcity
S
Abu
ndan
ce
bit.ly/MZmNDy

40. 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.

41. 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

44. ABUNDANCE
Is changing:

45. ABUNDANCE
Is changing:
How we define an education.

46. ABUNDANCE
Is changing:
How we define an education.
How we get an education.

47. ABUNDANCE
Is changing:
How we define an education.
How we get an education.
Where we get an education.

48. ABUNDANCE
Is changing:
How we define an education.
How we get an education.
Where we get an education.
When we get an education.

49. ABUNDANCE
Is changing:
How we define an education.
How we get an education.
Where we get an education.
When we get an education.
From whom we get an education.

50. “We need to move beyond the idea
that an education is something that
is provided for us, and toward the
idea that an education is something
that we create for ourselves.”
Stephen Downes

56. 2020?

57. ABUNDANCE
Changes the rules.

58. “There’s no competitive advantage today
in knowing more than the person next to
you. The world doesn’t care what you
know. What the world cares about is
what you can do with what you know.”
Tony Wagner

59. change

60. CHANGE

61. NEW REALITIES
1. Content and Knowledge are Everywhere

67. NEW REALITIES
1. Content and Knowledge are Everywhere
2. Teachers are Everywhere

73. NEW REALITIES
1. Content and Knowledge are Everywhere
2. Teachers are Everywhere
3. Data is Everywhere

76. NEW REALITIES
1. Content and Knowledge are Everywhere
2. Teachers are Everywhere
3. Data is Everywhere
4. Networks are the New Classrooms

77. NEW REALITIES
Individuals
(Apprenticeships)

78. NEW REALITIES
Individuals
(Apprenticeships)
Groups
(Classrooms)

79. NEW REALITIES
Individuals
(Apprenticeships)
Groups
(Classrooms)
Networks
(VLEs)

84. “Networked Individualism”

85. NEW REALITIES
1. Content and Knowledge are Everywhere
2. Teachers are Everywhere
3. Data is Everywhere
4. Networks are the New Classrooms
5. Learning is On Demand

86. bit.ly/MrjYw2

87. bit.ly/LQ85go

90. change

91. CHANGE

92. KEY QUESTIONS
Does the primary value of school change when
these “New Realities” exist?

93. KEY QUESTIONS
Do our roles as educators change when these
“New Realities” exist?

94. KEY QUESTIONS
The answer to that question starts with:
“What do we want our students to learn?”

95. KEY QUESTIONS
“And what do you mean by ‘learning’?”

96. KEY QUESTIONS
“Higher student achievement?”
“Improved student performance?”
“Better student outcomes?”
“College readiness?”

97. KEY QUESTIONS
“And what do you mean by ‘learning’?”
Discuss.

98. LEARNING IS
creativity
passion to know
application of knowledge
inquiry
seeing patterns
posing and answering questions
understanding the world
acquiring knowledge
curiosity
finding and solving problems
making something
understanding something you previously didn’t understand
making connections
changing your perspective on something
synthesizing ideas
adding new knowledge

99. "Productive learning is the learning
process which engenders and reinforces
wanting to learn more. Absent wanting
to learn, the learning context is
unproductive or counterproductive."
Seymour Sarason

100. LEARNING IS
creativity
passion to know
application of knowledge
inquiry
seeing patterns
posing and answering questions
Which of These do we Assess?
understanding the world
acquiring knowledge
curiosity
finding and solving problems
making something
understanding something you previously didn’t understand
making connections
changing your perspective on something
synthesizing ideas
adding new knowledge

101. LEARNING IS
creativity
passion to know
application of knowledge
inquiry
seeing patterns
posing and answering questions
understanding the world
acquiring knowledge
curiosity
finding and solving problems
making something
understanding something you previously didn’t understand
making connections
changing your perspective on something
synthesizing ideas
adding new knowledge

102. REMEMBER:
“School” is where we get an “education,”
and an “education” is defined
by what we assess.

103. REMEMBER:
And, if we don’t assess what we value,
we will value what we assess.

104. Harder
Difficulty Problem
to Solving
Assess Critical
Thinking
Basic Skills
Content
Knowledge
Easier
Less Important More Important
Learning in a
Time of Abundance

106. Curiosity
Resilience
Courage
Passion
Harder Initiative to Learn
Entrepreneurial
Thinking Empathy
Inquiry Synthesis
Networking Creativity
Difficulty Problem
Collaboration
Problem
Connecting Finding
to Solving
Creating
Assess Critical
Thinking Participation
Solutions
Basic Skills
Sharing
Content
Knowledge
Easier
Less Important More Important
Learning in a
Time of Abundance

107. “We are ‘optimizing the
measurable at the risk of
neglecting the immeasurable.’”
Justin Reich

108. The “Immeasurable” Curiosity
Resilience
Courage
Passion
Harder Initiative to Learn
Entrepreneurial
Thinking Empathy
Inquiry Synthesis
Networking Creativity
Difficulty Problem
Collaboration
Problem
Connecting Finding
to Solving
Creating
Assess Critical
Thinking Participation
Solutions
Basic Skills
Sharing
Content
Knowledge
Easier
Less Important More Important
Learning in a
Time of Abundance

109. KEY QUESTION
How do we react in the face of rapid, radical
changes in the world?

110. BE BOLD

111. “The illiterate of the
21st Century will not be those
who cannot read and write,
but those who cannot
learn, unlearn, and relearn.”
Alvin Toffler

112. NEW REALITIES
1. Content and Knowledge are Everywhere
2. Teachers are Everywhere
3. Data is Everywhere
4. Networks are the New Classrooms
5. Learning is On Demand

113. UNLEARNING
So, given these new realities,
what do we have to “unlearn”?

114. UNLEARNING
Three “Unlearning” Ideas

115. UNLEARNING
Three “Unlearning” Ideas
1. Delivery

116. UNLEARNING
UnDelivery Idea:
Produce knowledge instead of simply
consuming knowledge.

117. UNLEARNING
UnDelivery Idea:
Let students create their own
paths to the standards.

118. UNLEARNING
Three “Unlearning” Ideas
1. Delivery
2. Competition

119. UNLEARNING
Competition aaaaaaaa Co-operation

120. UNLEARNING
UnCompetiton Idea:
Share Everything

121. UNLEARNING
Three “Unlearning” Ideas
1. Delivery
2. Competition
3. Assessment

122. UNLEARNING
UnAssessment Idea
Not Open Book Test
Not Open Phone...

123. UNLEARNING
UnAssessment Idea
Not Open Book Test,
Not Open Phone...
...Open Network

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

125. CHANGE
...Starts With Us

126. CHANGE
Five Part Process

127. CHANGE
1. Understand: The contexts for change

129. CHANGE
1. Understand: The contexts for change
2. Feel: Anger, grief, excitement

132. “Today, instead of teaching them information, I was
teaching them how to learn. And yet, I’m not sure
what my new role in this is. I’m not sure how to
connect to my students and their learning process
while doing this. I’m not sure how to laugh and
enjoy them. And I was not expecting the profound
sense of loss and the pain accompanying it.”

133. CHANGE
1. Understand: The contexts for change
2. Feel: Anger, grief, excitement
3. Reflect: Examine your own learning practice

134. ARE YOU LITERATE?
• 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

135. CHANGE
1. Understand: The contexts for change
2. Feel: Anger, grief, excitement
3. Reflect: Examine your own learning practice
4. Act: Innovate, Change, Connect, ReLearn

138. CHANGE
1. Understand: The contexts for change
2. Feel: Anger, grief, excitement
3. Reflect: Examine your own learning practice
4. Act: Innovate, Change, Connect
5. Provoke: Engage others, Advocate

141. “It was the best of times,
it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom,
it was the age of foolishness...”
Charles Dickens

142. “It was the best of times,
it was the age of wisdom,
Charles Dickens

143. BE BOLD

145. “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

146. THE END
Thanks!
will@willrichardson.com
@willrich45
willrichardson.com