Today we start a new adventure!
Dr. Yong Zhao gathered a few of us professor types together last week to brainstorm some ideas around his recent blog post, What if schools are closed for more than a year due to the new coronavirus (COVID-19)? We discussed that this present challenge also is an opportunity to rethink some big ideas around learning, teaching, and schooling. As Dr. Chris Dede noted, there is a potential silver lining in all of this… As a result of that conversation, we decided to launch a new website, Silver Lining for Learning. Over the following weeks and months, look for video conversations, blog posts, and other ideas on this site.
Video conversations will occur live every Saturday at 5:30pm Eastern (U.S.). Stay tuned here for further announcements about each weekly discussion.
We are using the #silverliningforlearning hashtag as well. Hope you will join us for some good conversations. More info below!
—-
Silver Lining for Learning: Conversations about the Future of Education
- Video conversations: Live every Saturday at 5:30pm Eastern (U.S.)
- Website: silverliningforlearning.org
- Hashtag: #silverliningforlearning
Don’t waste a good crisis. – M.F. Weiner
The “dark cloud” of the coronavirus crisis continues to cause havoc worldwide and seems a generation-defining event. In education, this crisis has forced schools and universities to close, pushing often unprepared institutions to move teaching and learning online. The already stressed educational ecosystem now faces unprecedented difficulties that will fall disproportionately on students of low socioeconomic status and marginalized groups. This situation continues to worsen and is expected to persist for months or even years before normalcy occurs.
This disruption, however, provides us with an opportunity to reimagine learning and teaching so as to create an equitable and humanistic learning ecosystem for all. Barriers and structures that have resisted much needed change are now in disarray, offering the chance for transformative improvements.
We seek to begin this reimagining through a series of interactive conversations of emerging trends, disruptive policies, programs, initiatives, and often controversial, murky, and unspoken topics.
Silver Lining for Learning (SLL) will include weekly live conversations about the possible futures of education. The weekly panel will include at least three co-hosts and one or two invited guests for each episode.
Chief Instigators
- Yong Zhao, @yongzhaoed | Foundation Distinguished Professor, School of Education, University of Kansas; Professor in Educational Leadership, Melbourne Graduate School of Education
- Curt Bonk, @travelinedman | Professor of Instructional Systems Technology, Indiana University
- Chris Dede, @chrs_dede | Timothy E. Wirth Professor in Learning Technologies, Harvard Graduate School of Education
- Scott McLeod, @mcleod | Associate Professor of Educational Leadership, University of Colorado Denver; Founding Director, CASTLE
- Punya Mishra, @punyamishra | Professor and Associate Dean of Scholarship and Innovation, Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, Arizona State University
- Special Guest: Shuangye Chen, @shynicola | Professor; Executive Editor, ECNU Review of Education
Summaries of SLL discussions also will be published in ECNU Review of Education, an open-access, peer-reviewed education journal.