Student-led learning: Desert Island Day

Good blog post and nice video from Happysteve about 'radical self-direction':

"So, day 3 of the year. 180 kids, 90 new, 90 veterans. Establishment phase. Here's the premise: you have crashlanded on a desert island. There are no teachers. How on earth, logistically, did [these teachers] manage this? Well you should ask them on Twitter. From what I gather and observed (I spent about 30 minutes of the day in attendance in person): the 6 teachers hid outside the open space, observing the kids via video links and open windows. They tweeted clues in via a large twitter screen that acted as a well of knowledge. They used a P.A. system to phone-in further clues. They had established rules: students must remain within 2 metres of their team. Students must ignore 'spies' (adults who entered the space, dressed in costumes). It was pretty much pure game-based-learning. Simulation. Here's the environment we've curated, now prove yourselves. And LO AND BEHOLD, they did! "

EDvent Calendar: Day 20 (Unconference)

Try an unconference in your school. Here's a good example of the way they create new things: we ran an unconference/barcamp with our staff to share knowledge and expertise. I spoke about it at the Emerging Leaders' Edu Ignite Evening, emphasising the way it shifted teacher professional development from a passive to an active process:

Ignite Talk | Mark Osborne from Emerging Leaders on Vimeo.

Tara T-J was in the audience (and speaking as well) and decided she should run one for her students. Great idea. She and Tim Kong bounced a few ideas around on Twitter and set up two similar experiences for their classes at opposite ends of the island; both being great successes.

In Tara's class, students were teaching each other how to sketch, change a bicycle tyre, play guitar, dance and do BMX jumps, but what they were really teaching each other is that everyone is a teacher and everyone is a learner.

So what did the students think?

• It was really fun and you feel really proud of your self for teaching people something that they didn't know.
• I found it hand when people started to do their own thing sometimes and go off task.
• Next time I would probably ask for less amount of people so its easier.
• I learnt that teaching is harder than you would think.

in Tim's class, a similarly wide range of topics were taught. Here's some more student reflection from Seatoun School's barcamp, but you get a better sense of what's happening by watching this student-led dance class:

Barclass: Hiphop warmups from Seatoun School on Vimeo.