An Inspiring Example of Project-Based Learning…

…. from the ever-inspiring Ted Talks. 

Kiran Bir Sethi talks, with understated passion, about the power of taking learning out of the classroom, into the wrold outside. Check out the impact on test scores! Watch it here! 

Posted via email from etc : education, technology and culture

Bilbao as a social Silicon Valley

I’m pretty sure that representatives from DenokInn will have attended the last big SIX event in Lisbon with my Innovation Exchange colleagues, Raj and Perrie.  It’s for others to speculate whether these two colleagues taught them all they know – what is for sure is that they have now announced a 6 million euro grant and the creation of a social innovation park (SI Park) in Bilbao.  Joking aside, big congratulations to those involved.  It’s an inspiring idea and one I hope the UK can learn from.

Perhaps the Young Foundation can more justifiably claim some influence.  Certainly their pamphlet, Social Silicon Valleys, has been read by social innovators across the world.  It talks about the significance of the networks and critical of Silicon Valley to its ability to drive technical innovation.  The hope must be that Bilbao can do something similar in social innovation.  If you are interested to find out more, here’s a paper with some details about the park.  And some of the leading lights of this work will be speaking at an event organised by our partners ACEVO in a few days time.  Good luck to all involved – it’s certainly great inspiration for our own work on Innovation Labs.

By John Craig

The green budget, no happy beginning or ending

Yesterday I went to the presentation of the Institute for Fiscal Studies green budget. This blog will not discuss the details of the very extensive and thorough budget, which can be read here. The overall message of the budget was however not pleasant. Regardless of who is going to be next in government, substantial cuts will have to made in all departments except for overseas aid and health. Simon Hays, Director and Chief UK Economist, Barclays Capital described the green budget very elegantly with a quote from the book, ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’

If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book. In this book, not only is there no happy ending, there is no happy beginning and very few happy things in the middle.

Just one quick glimpse at why this is not happy reading. IFS estimates that areas such as defence, higher education, transport and housing would see  their budgets cut by 12.9% by 2012-13.

Big Picture Learning is the iphone of education…

By Anthea Hollist

“Big Picture Learning is the iphone of education to the ‘walkman’ of old” -Marc Ecko

Big Picture Learning’s mission is to lead vital change in education both in the US and internationally by generating and sustaining innovative, personalised schools that work in tandem with the real world of the greater community. Big Picture Learning believes that radical educational change begins one step at a time-in schools. Is this innovative? Well, in the US there are now 68 of this kind of schools and many more overseas. But what makes them different?

According to  Marvin Greenberg from the Providence Journal

“You have to listen to each describe their passion, how they learned to create a business plan and how at the end of the month they will appear before a panel to describe their idea and ask for funding. Not talking about millions or even thousands of dollars but much smaller amounts to get them started. They are being prepared for the real world. You have to see it in action to believe it. You say you don’t believe in miracles? Neither did I, but it’s being done right here in Providence. We can help our kids; they are like sponges, ready and eager to learn and produce they just need the chance” for more read here…

Radical efficiency and the rebound effect

By John Craig

NEF have published an impressive report – Growth Isn’t Possible – looking at the economics behind avoiding climate catastrophe.  It’s sobering reading to say the least, but I recommend it.  There are two interesting insights in there for radical efficiency:

Pain is a good teacher – one for the graph-heads

If you only look at one graph today, make it this one

Transforming Early Years: looking for innovators…

 By Matthew Horne

We are looking for innovators…

Effective early years services give our children the start in life they deserve. We know that they are not yet delivering everything to which we aspire, and yet the funding crunch places existing support for families with very young children at risk.   

NESTA and the Innovation Unit believe that this tension can only be resolved through ingenuity. We need to radically rethink the ways in which we support families with very young children, rather than simply tweaking existing solutions to be more efficient or cutting back on services altogether. 

We are looking for early years innovators working in localities from statutory, private and third sector organisations who work with families with young children. We want these leaders/social entrepreneurs who think that we can do much better working with families to strengthen them and make the more resilient and get better outcomes for children even if  funding is reduced over the next 5 years.

We want to  ensure that any innovation actually happens and changes local systems of provision. To that end we are also looking for inspired local system leaders ( from the Council or PCT ) who want to change the way early years services are commissioned and organised and are prepared to work and learn from innovators in a locality.

Swear boxes and abstinence rings

By John Craig

Sometimes, it’s easier to do the right thing by other people than it is our future selves.  Parents will neglect their own health and happiness to provide for their children, far beyond the point of diminishing returns.  The other day, I blogged about Peter Mandelson’s comment that the Labour Party should focus a little less on the ‘politics of distribution’ and a little more on the ‘politics of production’.  I said that in public services the reverse might be true, because too often equality concerns frustrate efforts to improve everyone’s well-being.  But there is a second problem with too great a focus on distribution – it focuses attention on distributive justice between individuals, to the exclusion of efforts simply to help everyone get on in life.  Part of the drive to create Radical Efficiency should focus on services’ ability to work with the grain of people’s will power and help them to lead more responsible, generous lives.

If You’re Not Interested In Learning about Learning, Keep Out of School

by David Price

One of the great pleasures of my current work is that I regularly get to talk to Estelle Morris (ex-Secretary of State for Education) about learning. Apart from being the most knowledgeable of education secretaries we’ve had for years (she was formerly a classroom teacher), Baroness Morris is also a genuine, sincere and likeable person. So when she resigned claiming she ‘wasn’t quite up to the job’, she had it the wrong way round – the job wasn’t up to her high standards of honesty and integrity. These days she limits her public opinions on schooling to a regular column in the Guardian. So, when she talked about keeping politicians out of the classroom, in the run-up to the general election this week, it was sure to be thought-provoking (if perhaps futile). Her most telling comment, among a piece reflecting upon our inability to really evaluate what has worked in educational policy is when she says ‘I fail to see the political ideology in the pedagogy of reading or the practice of how to support school leaders’.

Intrepid kids return WWII army helmet to owner’s family

by Alec Patton

My friend Jo Pugh (responsible for the @UKwarcabinet twitter feed) passed this along to me:

Last year, class at the Vineyard Christian Home School Co-op in Boise, Idaho, tracked down the family of the owner of a WWII army helmet that their teacher had been given for his birthday in 1971, from the identification written inside it: ‘A.J. Malone, Co ‘H’ 16th med. Reg’t, Ford Devens, Mass.’

The school only meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays – students are home-schooled Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.As chief blogger Colin Mansfield observes, ‘this format allowed for prolonged research at home.’

You can read about the class’s adventures here..