MCL National Summit Day 3

Let’s cut to the chase.  If you profess to be “for the kids” then the current system of learning is simply unacceptable.  Let’s change the current system so the learner is truly the focus. Educators have a moral obligation to change the system.  We must change it from a system where content is king to one where the learner is the intense focus.  How many learning facilitators are still concerned about “getting through the book” or “covering all of the curriculum”…,..too many.  If you have these concerns, then you are still a teacher.  The belief of a teacher is that your job is to dispense information to children in hopes that they may remember something.  However, the students remembering something is not your number one goal if you are a teacher.  A teacher is concerned abut curriculum and covering content.  A learning facilitator, on the other hand, focuses all of their energy on the learning of the student.  Barriers of time and space are irrelevant to a learning facilitator.  Grades and grade levels are immaterial to a learning facilitator.  The learning experience for the learner is paramount and takes precedent over everything else. If we are truly going to do what is best for kids and communities then let’s be committed to change…

MCL National Summit Day 2

The operative word to describe my reaction to day 2 of the National MCL Summit is “Community”.  There are 300 people attending the Summit who have “MCL in the veins” as Bea McGarvey likes to say.  When people undertake the significant system change that MCL requires you often feel like you are the only one out there fighting for a learner centered education.  When you are at the Summit you are with people who are not only passionate about the work but they are also engaged in the “reality” to make change occur.  Many times today as I listened to schools from all over the United States talk about their MCL journey, I noticed people in the crowd shaking their heads in agreement as they listened.  It is reassuring to all of us when we can talk to people who have walked in our shoes.  

People also used the word “heroic” to describe the work in schools that they are learning about.  This is worth some reflection. The work that we do for learners is the most important work in society.  Regardless of what any naysayers claim, educators work to better the future society.  We do this by impacting kids in the present.  When you see 300 people in one place who are turning themselves inside out to provide the best learning experiences for kids, then you see heroic action.  This is just my opinion…

MCL National Summit Day 1

I am going to blog from the National Mass Customized Learning Summit taking place in Spearfish, South Dakota.  These next few blogs will be short and reflect my quick reflections on the day.

The Summit is a great place to become recharged as we continue the hard work of moving away from “education” and toward learning.  One quick thought as the Summit gets underway is the role that leadership plays in the significant system change that is necessary fro MCL change.  Leadership is significant in two ways.  First, everyone in the system must be empowered and recognize that they are leaders.  Leadership does not reside just in titles.  In systemic change leadership occurs at all levels and from people holding all titles.  Creating a system that mines the leadership throughout the system is not only a luxury, it is a necessity.  Second, leaders must consciously create a leadership plan to manage the change process.  Every MCL site has different strengths, weaknesses and needs so the leadership traits necessary for change will be different at every site.  There are fundamental aspects of MCL that all schools must address, but the order these are implemented, and the method in which they are implemented must be customized to the local needs.