Webinar Resources: Open Up, Education!

Derived from the principles of the open source movement, Open Up, Education! asserts that the positive disruption needed to transform our schools will not come from traditional institutions. Rather, it will come from the power of crowdsourced change that leverages local skills, talent, and ideas. Given that premise, the book posits that a culture of authentic, learner-centered innovation can be designed, implemented, and refined in any school, as long as it shifts from a short term focus of chasing the latest edu-fads and attends to the harder, but essential work of building a learner-centered culture through collective leadership, radical collaboration, and open sharing - all aligned to a living mission and vision. These cultural elements then create the conditions for powerful teaching and learning, where every student is collaborating in an environment that routinely makes interdisciplinary connections to real problems that are engaging and relevant to the things they care about; where the work students do is facilitated by teacher leaders who share a passion for individualized learning, continuous improvement, and collective efficacy; and where every stakeholder has earned deep trust and mutual respect for one another by modeling the joy and wonder of life-long learning. 

This event will explore research and case studies included in the book (and beyond) to show that this is not some abstract ideal, but is a reality happening now in schools around the world - schools that have rejected an outdated, closed, and hierarchical factory model and are growing cultures of learner-centered innovation that enables students to develop the skills, knowledge, and dispositions needed to thrive in a rapidly changing world, especially students who have historically been furthest from opportunity.