It's Over Already?

At this time of the conference I always feel the same strange combination of being energized and exhausted. Today is no exception. I'm full-up with new ideas, challenging questions, the latest concepts, best practices, 21st century anything, inspiring speakers, wonderfully deep conversations, disappointingly shallow conversations, connecting with old friends, and making new ones. A nap seems in order.

Closing speaker, Cathy Davidson, Duke University professor and author of "The Myth of Marketing," talked with us about why the future of education demands a paradigm shift. As we all know, we need to prepare students for their future, not our past. So why are our schools still structured for the Industrial Age? Why did standardized tests which were conceived as an emergency measure to get kids through school quickly and to the front during WWI become the "law of the land" with the SAT when it was designed to measure lower level thinking? How do we learn to pay attention in a connected age? If we can be replaced by a computer screen, we should be. That means what we do in the classroom really needs to count.

5 things we can do to shift the paradigm - 1) rethink liberal arts as a start-up curriculum for resilient global citizens 2) move from critical thinking to creative contribution - we need to go from thinking critically about problems to thinking about how things impact their lives 3) make sure what you value is what you count 4)find creative ways to model un-learning 5) take institutional change personally - "institutions are working networks."

NAIS 2014 in Orlando. Can't wait!