Changing Education Paradigms

I've been taking part in a Deeper Learning MOOC, #DLMOOC, which started this week, and one member shared this RSA Animate video by Sr. Ken Robinson. I've posted some other videos by RSA Animate in the past and would love to have the capacity to communicate my ideas as effectively.

This week the National Mentoring Summit will be held in Arlington, VA. While I attended the past two years, this year I'm going to follow via the live stream and see if I can connect with more people than I was able to when I was part of a crowd of over 700 people. I will be posting some comments on Twitter, using #2014NM.

Here's an article I wrote in October 2005, following a White House conference on at-risk youth. In this article I wrote:

"Finally, what disappoints me even more, is that there are too many people holding conferences that draw attention to significant issues, are not using the Internet to encourage contact, networking, interaction and engagement among the people who attended and those who might have just heard about it in the media. "

I'm please that MENTOR is offering the live stream and encouraging Twitter interactions, but I'm not sure how much individual tutor/mentor programs in Chicago, or around the country, are encouraging their youth, volunteers, staff, Directors, donors and other supporters to connect in on-line learning events during the same period as a smaller group of people are connecting in some part of the country in an expensive, face to face event.

The ideas shared in the Deeper Learning MOOC, in the RSA Animate video, and in the Tutor/Mentor Web Library, need to be part of on-going learning, supported by a wide range of facilitators who work on-line, and/or in thousands of individual locations. We all want our kids to grow up safely, and be able to hold jobs, be responsible citizens and have happy lives. But to help some kids get from "here to there" we need to have a lot more people connected to each other, and to ideas and resources that are needed to support the progress of kids through school and into work and careers.

During the coming week, and for the rest of the year, I'll look forward to connecting with more people who are sharing ideas and using the information to build stronger, mentor-rich, support systems for kids.