Techlearning blog

Last week, I presented a featured address at the Council for Chief State School Officers' summer institute in Portland, Maine.  This was a golden opportunity to enlighten state superintendents, commissioner, and deputies of education from each of the fifty states with the realities of school in the 21st century -- if I might be so self-aggrandizing. 

Alas, I squandered that opportunity on the wrong question.

For several years, I have sought to make a case for a broader definition of literacy skills, and, consequently, to promote learning environments and experiences that demand these skills -- as learning literacies.  It became clear, while in Portland, that the case has been made, the "Why" has been answered.  Many of the talks and demonstrations were centered around the economic realities of our times and the inadequacies of today's basic skills.  Yet in every conversation that followed, it became increasingly clear that the case is made.  Leadership is convinced.  Certainly many influential people remain doubtful.  Some aren't even asking the question.  But the time has come for us to focus our attentions and our creativity to the "What" and the "How." 

At the CCSSO institute, one presentation did aim itself squarely at the "What," Mark Tuckers presentation on Tough Choices or Tough Times, a controversial blueprint for 21st century schooling.  "How" arose in almost every formal discussion, primarily seeking ways to convince their constituents -- telling a new story.

What and how are not new conversations for us.  They are our bread and butter.  But how do we elevate that conversation.  How do we inspire it with energy and new language?  How do we make it our interest to redesign and retool?

What do you think?

PS:  I just scanned through Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach's most recent TechLearning blog, and this post, I believe, points to 90% of our answer.  The how and what come out of conversations and communities, and we live in a time where community is forming over an entirely new landscape, gravitating to new geographic conditions.  We must come to understand this.