Insights from Global Education Leaders: Connecting in Clubhouse

Are you on Clubhouse yet? This exciting new social platform is focused on audio only conversations — like a live podcast that you can participate in. It has huge potential to break down barriers that some other social media platforms have developed, and while it’s not perfect, it is an amazing way to connect and collaborate with like-minded peers across almost any topic you can imagine.

It has been a pleasure to connect with the global edu community on clubhouse — I am consistently amazing and energized by the connections and stories shared. Among other spaces, Giancarlo Brotto convenes a weekly Q&A session with global education leaders — offering an opportunity for anyone and everyone to bring their questions forward for discussion with these experienced and dedicated individuals.

This week’s space welcomed a panel of leaders from the US, Canada, and New Zealand to share their personal and systems’ experiences with education based on the questions arising for them. The global participants in the room brought forward so many insightful questions that reflect the challenges and opportunities in education. Here are some of the topic area discussed, and resources shared:

Supporting Students with Learning Disabilities

With so many forms of learning disabilities affecting learners of all ages, how can we better support students with impactful tools? Students with learning disabilities should be achieving at least as well as their peers, but too often they don’t. Sometimes students don’t have access to the right tool because the disabilities or challenges that they live with have not been properly identified or addressed.

Some key general tools that can help — particularly for students with dyslexia — include text reading tools, spellcheck within platforms, and having student read to themselves.

Another key is the importance of giving students the tools and space to advocate for themselves — enabling them to speak up for themselves and ask for what they need from their teachers and leaders is paramount to their ongoing success in any education space. Beyond this, teachers and parents can support students by reminding them that they’re not alone in the challenges that they face — in fact there are celebrities and other in the public sphere that live with disorders like dyslexia — the challenges that you face don’t need to mean you won’t be successful in learning or in life.

Toronto’s SickKids Hospital had the Empower™ Reading resources and network: https://www.sickkids.ca/en/learning/empower-reading/

‘Education is about knowing who you are.’

Social Emotional Learning

There is a significant shift happening in how individuals, schools, and systems look at social emotional learning.

Across the world, dominant cultures map patterns of behavior and ways of being, which begs the question who is making the decisions about what is valuable? Voices of the community might be different than the school decision makers, so broad stakeholder involvement and new ways of thinking about curriculum and technology evaluation are necessary to make systemic change that supports the intersection of social emotional learning, well-being, and curriculum.

In many places, new curriculum releases are showing that SEL is no long an ‘add-on’ but a necessary and integral part or learning. This includes curriculum that is woven with the development of skills like perseverance and resiliency, as well as provides mental health tools.

The results of OECD’s inaugural Study on Social and Emotional Skills will be released in the coming months. These insights will help to show what is working globally and inform and shape how we approach SEL globally.

Opportunities for Students in Rural Areas

When serving student in rural areas and ensuring that they have access to the same opportunities as urban students, partnering with industry partners for mentorship, internships, and certifications is growing in importance. Giving students access to professionals, roles, and knowledge that may not be immediate available in their community gives them an opportunity to learn about the breadth and depth or education and employment options that are available to them, and allows them to develop the skills that it will take for them to be competitive with their urban peers. It is vital that schools/systems, industry, and in some cases, NGOs work to make this a reality to serve rural students across the world.

Micro credentialing can also plan a key role in this. New ways of showing what students have learned will continue to grow in importance. These new types of showcasing learning — including digital portfolios of a ‘wallet’ of credentials can be taken anywhere and will be owned by students who will continue to more agency over their learning through these opportunities.

Addressing EdTech Adoption Challenges

We know that there are many students who traditional systems are not reaching. Because of internet access, home life challenges, and other factors EdTech outside of the school walls may not be effective. The pandemic really brought these issues to the surface.

For those developing EdTech products and services, be sure to tell those choosing to work with your company how your resource or tool addresses the needs of each child equitably. It’s important that tools address specific needs of students, no matter where they are — and can support connections and relationships as well as content learning.

There have been many efforts — led by various groups — to improve broadband access and ensure more equitable access to learning at home. In some places, school systems are working with those in the telecom industry to better serve students and their families — again, industry input and relationships are vital to supporting education. Other options some EdTech companies are working on it– caching so that students can continue to access cache info so that they can have access on their own or a borrowed device to be able to work on without internet, and then can connect back in when they are back in an environment where there is web access and they can send or share their work as needed.

An important element in supporting adoption of EdTech is ensuring that tools and resources help give students context to their learning and connect to real-world experiences.

Are there too many platforms for students? Is the adding to disengagement?

Another key concern in EdTech today is the overwhelming amount of options available — over-platforming is very real. But, under-platforming is an issues for some as well. This varies widely from district to district and in many cases is based on what was being done prior to the pandemic. School that were deeply engaged with EdTech and understood clearly what was working and took steps to simplify their EdTech have fared better in terms of access and adoption during remote and blended learning.

Everyone in education has had to change on a dime and be willing and nimble to change platforms, experiment, and see what works. Professional development time has been focused on learning simply how to use the tools and not how to use them in the classroom in a meaningful way. The is a lot of room for improvement in these area.

Rethinking Assessment & Training

How do we better reflect what we know to be important?

There are so many big questions to try and answer in this area. One way of bringing in what we know to be important is combining the curriculum with wellbeing — there is work being done in New Zealand to answer the question of what works at the intersection of well being and curriculum?

It is vital to develop not only and integrated curriculum but also the process to help teachers make better decisions about localizing curriculum for individual learners needs. This work can and should have at the system level.

We know how to differentiate instruction for kids with different abilities, but then every student is assessed in the same way — this is place that requires focused change. A system level change toward differentiated assessment is important — system leaders must be willing to make decisions that are best for the learners that they serve., and must have willingness to pivot and try things differently.

We need to continue to collect data to support this work and allow system leaders to understand what decisions will be best — this data must include input from ALL stakeholders, including students and caregivers. In some places, students are being surveyed to ensure their voice is reflecting what is truly going on in schools.

In terms of training, preservice programs train teachers on learn how to use technology. They also need better and deeper insight to be able to provide opportunities for students to go deeper in their learning using technology in ways that are truly meaningful.

Working with Schools for Impact

Schools don’t work in isolation anymore — we know now more than ever that outside influence is vital to success.

If you’re looking to help drive that change and want to work with schools and systems, always meet with a principal or system leader first and be clear about what you have to offer and how you want to partner with schools. Find platforms to showcase your work and encourage connection with those who may need what you have to offer.

Reaching out with something engaging, such as a video can help get your foot in the door to take the next steps of having a conversation.

Authentic Conversations in the Classroom

In many cases, teachers have been asked to not be their full and authentic selves — when we stop teachers form being who they truly are, we stunt their ability to deeply connect with their students and have conversations about issues like politics that are so important.

We must enable and support teachers and students in having genuine conversations, in order to grow as individuals, as well as to ensure student are prepared for the reality of the world outside of the classroom walls. This is another place where system change is needed to ensure sustainable transformation that allows students to engage in their learning with context.

Be part of the conversation! Follow on clubhouse and mark you calendar for these weekly conversations including:

M-F @ 9:00 am ET + S/S @ 8:00 am ET: Join the global edu community to connect to meet passionate, like minded peers from around the world.

Thursdays @ 1:30 pm ET: Education leaders Q&A with new leaders bringing their experience to the table weekly.

What to stay connected to more gatherings like this outside of Clubhouse? Connect with the Catalyst community.