This weekend as part of my ongoing self-directed inquiry on developing an education system more appropriate for our times, I attended the open portion of Start-Up Weekend Hamilton. Startup Weekends put teams of people through the entire collaborative project process in three days. We've all heard of how Google, Apple, MediaLab and IdeaLab work. We know about the relaxed work environments, the free flow of communication and ideas, the buzz, the collaboration, problem-solving, risk-taking, learning from trial and error, .... We also know that we need to foster collaborative problem solving skills in our students. I have done a great deal of experimentation with project-based learning and inquiry, but what I really wanted to see was what it looked like in action among people who consistently work in this way.
The process at Startup Weekends is simple:
1. Identify a real problem.
2. Work with your team to devise a solution.
3. Conduct research and seek feedback throughout the process.
4. Develop an application.
4. Present this solution in less than 5 minutes at the end of the weekend.
5. Receive real and meaningful feedback.+
At StartUps the projects are real; the goal is to obtain investor funding and launch an application.
What did I learn?
A great deal.
I realized that although this is the model we are expected to use with our students, most of us have never truly seen it in action. It gets more unsettling - most of us have never experienced true collaborative learning. We grew up in teacher-directed classrooms; we teach in directed classrooms. We attempt to practice collaborative inquiry, but we don't quite hit the mark. Even more unsettling, our students who need to be learning these skills, aren't! While I sat and observed and finally understood, I really wished that more educators were in the room with me.
What to do? Practice needs to shift and we can't wait 10 years. It has to happen now. The new economy demands it. Singularity U comes to mind. Singularity U brings together diverse minds in order to accelerate the spread of knowledge and the process of change exponentially. I think this would be a good model for education. In order to rapidly expand understanding of true collaborative inquiry teachers should be put through a StartUp Weekend experience. Other than being an enormous amount of fun, once teachers have had the experience of collaborative inquiry, it will become easy to implement. I really think the solution is that simple.
Knowing that we can't afford to wait, I connected with Blake Landry of NGen http://ngen-niagara.com/en/content/welcome/index/ Blake and I discussed creating a Startup experience for learners in our schools. Ideally, it would be a format where educators and learners came together to experience collaborative project-based learning. So that is what is in the works.
The process at Startup Weekends is simple:
1. Identify a real problem.
2. Work with your team to devise a solution.
3. Conduct research and seek feedback throughout the process.
4. Develop an application.
4. Present this solution in less than 5 minutes at the end of the weekend.
5. Receive real and meaningful feedback.+
At StartUps the projects are real; the goal is to obtain investor funding and launch an application.
What did I learn?
A great deal.
I realized that although this is the model we are expected to use with our students, most of us have never truly seen it in action. It gets more unsettling - most of us have never experienced true collaborative learning. We grew up in teacher-directed classrooms; we teach in directed classrooms. We attempt to practice collaborative inquiry, but we don't quite hit the mark. Even more unsettling, our students who need to be learning these skills, aren't! While I sat and observed and finally understood, I really wished that more educators were in the room with me.
What to do? Practice needs to shift and we can't wait 10 years. It has to happen now. The new economy demands it. Singularity U comes to mind. Singularity U brings together diverse minds in order to accelerate the spread of knowledge and the process of change exponentially. I think this would be a good model for education. In order to rapidly expand understanding of true collaborative inquiry teachers should be put through a StartUp Weekend experience. Other than being an enormous amount of fun, once teachers have had the experience of collaborative inquiry, it will become easy to implement. I really think the solution is that simple.
Knowing that we can't afford to wait, I connected with Blake Landry of NGen http://ngen-niagara.com/en/content/welcome/index/ Blake and I discussed creating a Startup experience for learners in our schools. Ideally, it would be a format where educators and learners came together to experience collaborative project-based learning. So that is what is in the works.
Such an awesome idea! How can we prepare our students to be able to do thus type of work if we don't really understand it or how it works? I truly believe startups are the product of all our collaborating and crowd sourcing of information and knowledge on line. Once good ideas start flowing, a real world product needs to be created. The whole "start-up" culture is so exciting and a positive direction for our society to take! I think there is so much for everyone involved in education to learn from this. You have a great idea going and can't wait to hear more...
ReplyDeleteHi Alison,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comments. In watching these collaborators at work, it really hit that we're fumbling in the dark, yet the solution is quite simple. I'm looking forward to the evolution of this idea.