Steve Hargadon – The Future of Education

A look at the social narrative of today’s and tomorrow’s education system. What shifts in education will (and should) we see in the next 5, 10, 20 years?

Key Questions and Comments:

• (16:54) As we’re having these national conversations with a lot of hand-wringing about […] the state of our education system, I think that we need to have some serious conversations about ‘What is the purpose of education?’
• (19:07) If the conversation about the purpose of education takes place at the EduCon or Steve Hargadon level, is that actually going to create the kind of change that we’re looking for? Or does the conversation need to be taken down to a much more grassroots level?
• (26:52) The first question coming in is about another elephant in the room: the assessment system of testing. That really is identified by the questioner as one of the deficiencies that you’re referencing, Steve. And the question is very simply, “How can this be changed?”
• (33:00) Tell us a bit about this journey across America to discuss educational change. What are some the goals that you have or expectations before you set out on this journey?
• (36:55) How can social media be used by teachers to create change? What is it that teachers can do, in and of themselves, with the tools that exist right now that can bring about some of the changes that people are thirsty for?
• (44:55) As we’ve seen the last couple of weeks of the political conventions and the make-up of the people in those organizations–and Steve’s idea of education movement–how [much] would the changing demographics of the country influence change in education?
• (51:54) In the same way that standardized, high-stakes testing has lost credibility, will Common Core suffer the same fate because its time has passed?
• (53:34) How do we compete with people who have ‘a giant megaphone’ with strong feelings about education and technology?

View the Conversation
During the broadcast, the conversation also took place on Twitter using the hashtag #connectedlearning.

Guests for this webinar included:

• Steve Hargadon (Guest Speaker): Steve Hargadon is director of the Web 2.0 Labs, host of the Future of Education interview series, chair of the Learning 2.0 Conference and the Social Learning Summit, and co-chair the annual Global Education and Library 2.0 worldwide conferences. He has pioneered both the use of social networking in education (creating the now 70,000 member Classroom 2.0 social network in 2007) and the massive peer-to-peer professional development of his virtual conferences. He has supported and encouraged the development of thousands of other education networks and events, particularly for professional development. He blogs at stevehargadon.com and you can follow him on Twitter at @SteveHargadon.
• Jeff Brazil (Moderator)
• Audrey Watters
• Bryan Alexander
• Monika Hardy

Resources for this webinar:

• The Future of Education series: Charting the Course of Teaching and Learning in a Networked World
• Classroom 2.0: social network for those interested in Web 2.0, Social Media, and Participative Technologies in the classroom (over 69,000 members)
• Web2.0Labs: A set of community-based education technology (ed tech) projects
• Howard Rheingold’s Dec. 2011 interview with Steve: “Reimagining Education as Networked, Participatory, Social, Global”
• Steve’s announcement about the ‘Hack Your Education’ tour
• Orlando Blog article: Taking Responsibility for Learning
• MotherJones.com article: Everything You’ve Heard About Failing School Is Wrong
• Ronald Wolk’s “Wasting Minds: Why Our Education System Is Failing and What We Can Do About It”
• 9/4/12 Future Of Education webinar with Ron Wolk
• EduCon 2.5: Jan 25-27 in Philadelphia, PA
• Vitiligo Friends: a Ning community Steve created for those with the Vitiligo skin condition