VISION FOR THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
Ed Spec Committee
Workshop
February 2019
The Ed Spec Committee met to kick off the ed spec process. The group started with divergent thinking, thinking openly about the future of education, and moved to more convergent thinking, using these imagined futures to articulate how student and staff behaviors will be affected. By thinking this way, the committee determined that:
Learning models and practices will look very different in the future. The built environments of the immediate future must evolve greatly from the ones today to support the District's vision.
Divergent thinking
After the baseline was established, the group watched a video which imagines how technology will impact student research and inquiry in the future with augmented visualization, enhanced collaboration and personalized learning experiences. The groups re-visited a day in the life for each child persona from a place of imagination and possibility, holding the mantra, “What if we could.”
Divergent thinking
The group watched Jodie Deinhammer, a high school science teacher from Dallas, transform the textbook using visually rich exercises. In the video, students rotated through a series of lab stations where they experiment, observe, and dissect using technology to support each activity. After a series of exercises, Jodie gave students a choice of how to demonstrate their understanding from animating blood flow, building a children’s book, producing a health video to using “thinking maps.”
To support the
future of education,
the built environment must change significantly.
As conversations moved again and again towards a more continuous, fluid and dynamic cycle of learning, one that is grounded in real-life experiences and application, a number of groups began identifying significant changes to the learning model, academic and physical environments, and behaviors for students and staff.
February 2019
Working in small groups, the Ed Spec Committee crafted four Guiding Purpose statements based on the exercises and discussion from the morning. Later that afternoon, the groups came together in order to synthesize the four statements into two, and finally, the two statements into one. It is important to note that a number of the statements expressed similar ideas, concepts and language. Here's the final statement:
For students and educators to be the architects of learning, the CCUSD community will empower agency, meaningful connections and
real-life applications through:
-
Fluid technology
-
Malleable learning spaces
-
Flexible scheduling
-
Sustainable work/life balance