August 2018 Bookshelf
Books 09 August 2018
What School Could Be: Insights and Inspiration from Teachers across America
Ted Dintersmith
The next paradigm of education will focus on the spread of learner-centered education, rather than the scaling of one particular model. This provides the space for each individual community to create visions for education based on their unique needs. Ted Dintersmith illuminates this reality in his latest book, What School Could Be. Dintersmith is no stranger to seeking out the next “big idea” in education, but in his latest adventure, he makes a powerful discovery—there are an infinite number of ways individual educators are making remarkable impacts on their learners and doing so in ways that fit what’s needed for the 21st-century. As you flip through the pages, imagine the ways you could push your transformational work even further.
School Tales
Sharon Myrick
We had the pleasure of connecting with Sharon Myrick at UP for Learning’s International Seminar on Amplifying Student Voice & Partnership. Her passion for bringing youth voice to the forefront of education conversations led us to discover she was on the verge of publishing her first novel, School Tales. This novel is a lively rendering of what’s wrong, and what could be right, about traditional high school. Five spunky teenagers tell their stories of how their educational experience helped them tackle fundamental questions: Who am I? What do I want to learn? Am I able to direct my life? Can I trust friends to be there for me? How do I find a sense of purpose in this world? As young people learn lessons to deal with personal and public issues of racism, anxiety, gender identity, immigration, family instability, depression, and law enforcement, a new vision of school emerges where students build what they call “a life worth living.”
The Human Side of Changing Education
Julie M. Wilson
As the number of anomalies that emerge from the workings of the traditional education system grow, we find ourselves at a unique point in history. In the language of Thomas Kuhn, people are entering crisis mode and are actively seeking out new possibilities for educating the next generation. In Julie M. Wilson’s The Human Side of Changing Education, she “equips education change leaders with a practical framework and human-centered tools and resources to lead meaningful, sustainable change.” The key word here is “sustainable.” As we saw in The Three Laws of Performance (from our last month’s Bookshelf), 73% of change initiatives fail. With Wilson’s insights, consider what new opportunities could be possible for your community.
Better Together: How to Leverage School Networks for Smarter Personalized and Project Based Learning
Tom Vander Ark and Lydia Dobyns
Have you ever engaged in transformational work that you know can change the world—or at least your community—but find yourself going it alone? Better Together by Tom Vander Ark and Lydia Dobyns could be just the book you need to enroll others in the ideas you’ve been cooking up. These two leaders from Getting Smart and New Tech Network, respectively, have teamed up to lay out formal and informal networking strategies that they’ve seen work in diverse education and community settings around the country. The next time you come across an idea you want the world to know about, remember Better Together for ideas to make it spread.
The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World
Pedro Domingos
Conversations around AI are happening across nearly every industry imaginable. However, it can sometimes feel like you missed the introductory course and have been thrown straight into the deep end. Pedro Domingos wants to meet you where you are and provide a friendly, yet dynamic, look at the future AI and machine learning will create for us and our children. In his book, The Master Algorithm, Domingos takes readers behind-the-scenes of today’s most common tools—Google, Amazon, and smartphones. As you learn about the ins-and-outs of today’s technology giants, you can begin making connections to the future your learners will be stepping into.
New resources and news on The Big Idea!
×
We recently announced a new R&D acceleration initiative to connect and support local communities ready to bring public, equitable, learner-centered ecosystems to life.