more resourceful
TRANSCRIPT
Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us.
As artists and professionals it is our obligation to enact our own internal revolution, a private insurrection inside our own skulls..we unplug ourselves from the grid by recognizing that we will never cure our restlessness by contributing to our disposable income (test that go in the trash can, portfolios that are never looked at) to the bottom line of bull, inc., but only by doing the work.
- Steven Pressfield, The War of Art () added
We’re a culture hooked on consumerism. And not just of material things. We consume recognition, attention, … often for the price of our souls.
It’s not as if things are going swimmingly economically.. or health care wise. Seems a perfect opportunity to start respectfully calling into question everything that we seem to mindlessly endorse.
We measure too much.We spend more time measuring and not enough
doing.
Over time, money took over, not as a means, but as a measure of wealth. - Vandana Shiva
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This is certainly the most exciting time to be alive in all human history, and not the least of the excitement is due to huge crises. - Elisabet Sahtouns
from - Banks for a Better World
We seem to keep missing the doing because we’re focused on theorizing, documenting, proving. We’re often bent on validation and recognition. We sell out to Schooling the World. We even miss life itself, because we perfect/sell ourselves right into mindlessness.
We are dying to be certain of things, to be in control. If we do happen to prove some certainty, or if we do gain control, it’s sure to be a temporal, in the scheme of things. We’re wondering what would happen if we embraced not knowing. Would we end up learning more, sharing more, being more?
We’re thinking it’s prime time for some much needed detox from traditional assumptions.
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Video created for Venessa Miemis’ presentation at SIBOS Conference in Amsterdam, 25 October 2010 - find out more their Future of Money project here.
The web is offering a new space, new connections, new life, if we so choose.
What Tech Wants is to set us free. It wants to let us get back to a culture of trust. It wants us to zoom out from tedius mathematical calculations and be mindful of the beauty and all encompassing fractal. It wants us to be mathematical thinkers again. It wants us to zoom in from our global awareness of developing countries and insights from unlikely people/info to our bleeding local communities. It wants us to know each other again. But most of all, it wants you to be you.
We’re thinking, the best way to make the world a better place is to awaken indispensable people.
This has been our vision and mission for the last two years. And the journey gets richer every day.
So what is success? And more important, who decides?
If even just one of your ears is open to the chatter around the globe, economy/money seems to trump all else as a measure of success. And yet, to a homeless person, it’s not so much about a loss of money, as it is about a loss of
relationship.
In Steven Pressfield's the War of Art he says that the Resistance to find/follow/create our art is what drives us to addiction/sickness/drama/etc.
We’re thinking, if we were to unleash people, if we were to free kids up to do work that matters, hard work, their art, and call that school, perhaps all the things we spend so much time and money on, health care, environmental issues, the budget (ie: are we perpetuating a money issue by focusing on it?) will simply dissolve.
We believe a completely different take on success is in order. We believe in Jimi Hendrix famous quote:
When the power of lover overcomes the love of power (or the fear of failure) the world will know peace. () added
This would mean the death of an expert and a redefinition of currency. It would be a bloodless revolution. It would take a culture of trust.
This could mean transparency is the new currency that can buy trust
From Ethan Zuckerman’s my heart’s in accra:
The cost of privacy is generic relationships – if you’re unknown to everyone, it’s hard to customize to you. On the other side, you can have high transparency and high personalization, and people seem to be willing to push the slider far in that direction. The difference between quantified self and intimate surveillance is, basically, permission.
Huge shifts. Ridiculous even. Mostly about a new mindset.
Yet, how can we not?
We know too much (and too little) to not change up the way we spend our hours in the day. We know too much to not respectfully call into question standards and systems, and even recent changes that may have only the appearances of a better way.
Ben’s question is spot on in school, work and play:So how do we educate not just for playbor but in ways which challenge the more unethical practices that have come with the "businessing of everything"?
This is a people agenda, a YOUth agenda.
We are on the long tail of the upward exponential. But we’ve got great news. We’ve done our research. We’re at the far right of that long tail. People have been working on awakening souls, in education even, for years.
So don’t fold to reliability-oriented nay-sayers. They’re just testing you, because that’s what they know to do. Their souls are craving this as well.
Be bold. We’re at the tipping point. The choice is simply, how do you want to ride the ride.
650 bill on national ed – and by our own measure (testing) we aren’t successful
400 local charitable organizations – CO is 9th in suicide rate, in Larimer Cty – on average every 9 days someone takes their life
We are big on saving the whales, cleaner air, more trees, …what about the human spirit.
What if we were green about people?
We don’t need more resources, we just need to be more resourceful.Alan Webber
teachpaperless: reduce $ for pd, platform, paper, etc
Budget savings idea– guaranteed same budget every year + ½ of how much below budget you ended.
Community as a school:
In the US, when you say real life people tend to define it as: outside of school.- Michael Wesch, K-State,
What if school involved everyone, the entire town? Wouldn’t we all be better off?
Health - people being known by peopleBudget – the more we know each other, the more we shareEnvironmental – the more we share, the less we need
Sir Ken writes in The Element of Grange Primary of Long Eaton, England, creating Grangeton, with its own mayor, council, newspaper, etcandDennis Littky,’s The Met - where the community is the school’s floor plan.
Community as a school:
What if school’s setting were life, and kids were workingon health, budget, environmental, etc, …problems?
From Edutopia: For college ready use PBL ..three factors that support the success of a young person: (1) A solid relationship with an adult mentor, such as a parent, priest, teacher, or coach; (2) A sense of mastery that develops (3) An internal sense of meaning and purpose
Perhaps better to say: For life ready use 1-1, PBL as we know it, …on steroids.
school as life
Interdependencyand beyond
What is college ready, what is its value
to you?
School as a business:
We could be educating the world but policy keeps getting in the way.-David Wiley, Open High School of Utah
Imagine the time, people, money, people, training, people, etc,…
[fill here with estimate $ savings for TSD]
we would save, if our policy was s i m p l e.
simple rules/aup/agenda/etc
taken from Will Richardson’s: be safe, be ethical, be efficient
-Keri Smith
simple mantra:
What about this… Success is how well the people around you are doing.
Are they better off?Because of you?
Jim describing the thinking behind a means to monitor growth. What’s worth measuring. How do you measure what’s worth doing.
Are you better off?
Isn’t this its own reward? The measures we came up with:Is it awesome? Does it matter?Both beg – to whom.
32 seconds of inexpensive footage.. two free, seemingly ridiculous questions..
Are we better off?
School as a business:
Community as a school:Is it awesome? Does it matter?
….Priceless
Yet – everyone can afford this. And then some… if they are given back the time/money/resources spent on policy currently being used
to control school as a business.
Randy Turner on testing and moreMcGraw's 2010 pay package totaled $9,591,916, an increase of $2.4 million over his 2009 take-home pay. ..The company's other three top officials earned $3.9 million, $2.5 million, and $2.2 million, respectively. If he is fired, he will receive $2,921,095, the proxy statement indicates. If his removal comes because of a sale of the company, that amount climbs to $5,812,290, and either way, McGraw picks up $2,433,938 in stock options.…I couldn't tell the mother her son's ACUITY scores are not important, because they are. It's not learning, but as long as we worship at the altar of "accountability," it's as close as we are going to get. also tyranny of the test - Kaplan tester tells all
We can have high standards without standardization.
Young people have a remarkable capacity for intensity.
Remove all stakes.
Shift more agency to the learner.
- Gary Stager
Maybe fishing with your family is success. To you. To your community.
Cristian talking passion with his brother.
Are we Schooling the World by our definition of success? Is respect for every voice a part of our soul?
Film by Carol Black – high recommend.Book by Jacqueline Novogratz – high recommend.Film by Tom Shadyac – high recommend.
There are many, but along with Jacqueline’s Acumen Fund, are Cameron Sinclair’s Architecture for Humanity, and Scott Harrison’s charity: water - incredible models of listening to culture, to soul..
click to play
The Pursuit of Happyness
How simple is that? How resourceful is that?
If we all would read that, listen to this clip, everyday, would we really need policy?Imagine all the resources we would regain from daily, respectfully, calling into question
un-actualized policy.
YOUth ideas on how to go about doing what matters.
click to play
Notice the comments on
how hard this is, how they need
help.
Kids are craving work that matters.
Most people aren’t lazy.
Yet by all appearances one might assume so.
Most people are craving work that matters. Work they know they can’t do by themselves.
click to play
Kids hard at work that matters. It may take time. It may look ridiculous for a while. But it’s legit. We need to let them know it’s legit.
It will change the room.
Noah sharing that for him, work that matters means he’s working with people.I get real lazy when it comes to independent work.This isn’t a classroom passion.I need to connect to someone who knows it a lot better than I do.I don’t know if I could do it by myself.
click to play Seth Godin, curiosity
I have no special talent.
I am only passionately curious.
-Albert Einstein Curiosity isn’t about
money or
education.
It’s about desire.
It’s easy to underestimate
how difficult it is to be curious.
Baby boomers changed politics, Gen X changed family, Gen Y changed work, and generation Z will revolutionize education.
- Penelope Trunk thanks to Lisa Nielsen for directing us to it.
our response :We see public ed becoming school of choice. Everyone gets the free option to learn like authentic unschoolers – key being purely self-directed learners, not just doing school as we know it on their own.Nothing is for everyone. Public school can now offer everything. That's what we need. That's where we're headed.The town is the school… separate buildings (schools as we now know them) are simply resource centers and meet up places. Also available – a town art hall, a town engineering hall, etc. sharing spaces are wikipedia, youtube, wherever the crowd is. Wherever sharing is most useful/accessible.The 1-1 movement is spot on.. but it's one to one, face to face, mentors.. the declaration of interdependence.We see this unschooling wave for sure, facilitating that in public ed provides the equity we all seek. Setting the culture of trust for that to happen, that's the pickle. But it's coming. click to play
What a boost to global net happiness it would be if we could positively activate the minds and bodies of hundreds of millions of people by offering them
better hard work.
-Jane McGonigal, Reality is Broken
If we unleash kids across our city, across our nation, across the globe, during the 7 hours a day we now call school, to do hard work, work they can’t not do,
…the results would blow us away.period.
The results would far surpass any strategic plan’s highest aspiration.And for the price of a culture of trust.
Gus on something bigger than, something beyond. Hard work.It’s more than an opportunity, it’s a responsibility.
The exhaustion from overextending yourself creatively is some of the best exhaustion you will ever feel. An organization that provides a platform for people to push into their fear will produce both better work and a better workforce.
- Seth Godin, Underextended
click here for entire interview
I’m always trying to push the edge of my understanding, and my value is in providing connections and context.
And I thought, here I’ve been stitching this thing together and being called this crazy scatterbrained ADD guy when in fact, what I’ve been trying to do already
exists at the Media Lab, and sponsors pay for it!
MIT hiring Joi forges a new mindset.A mindset valuing the human spirit over any policy/standard/etc we have previously adhered to. In education even.
Doing what has been considered standard doesn’t equate with success anymore.
We need to be freeing kids up to be themselves. Giving them space to fail. Showing them we trust learning. That it is that fascinating and alluring.
Lucas with a CSU student talking about space and permission to be.
click here for entire interview
If we could figure out a way to be long term and agile and figure out an investment structure for that, that is something Media Lab would be very good at: something where we could have a long trajectory, yet create a short term impact. [Connected Adjacency – per Saul – our original doc]
For me international is not about building a humongous center in some place, it’s how can I make everyone in the Media Lab be able to test their product in Kenya, and make that as easy as walking across the street to the Harvard Medical Center. [The vision is not a Lab. The vision is a live community of choice. People in need of detox or freed space to explore crazy ideas, can filter through the Lab. But the center is the community.]
Similarities in with what Joi writes and what we’re doing/thinking in the Lab:
We can do any of that. We can do all of that. And more. Together.
We have millions of expert collaborators waiting to be set free, to do stuff that matters.
Let’s find out what makes YOUth hungry…. what they can’t not do.
Lab parent on trusting beyond appearances. Holding out, in order to find that true hunger.
Seth on the need for space to find/make/be himself, to procrastinate, daydream.
click to play
Passion comes from within each of us, it cannot be imposed or mandated from outside.
What (people) wantWhat do customers, friends, the socially networked, users, neighbors, classmates, servers, administrators, employees... maybe even brands... want?notice melike metouch medo what I saymiss me if I'm gone-Seth Godin
devastatingly simple- Anne McCrossan
The shift in education can be devastatingly simple as well.
We don’t need new programs, new standards, new policies, new buildings …we just need a new frame of mind.
A culture of trust.
And people.We need people.
People who want to do things that matter.People who want the thrill of working hard on things that matter.
And they are everywhere. We need to learn from our YOUth how to connect and collaborate this new game.
They’re learning how to play without us. But they’re dying for time and space to do the legit work, the hard work,
the work that will make a difference. Too many of them are waiting for permission for validation.
The beauty and simplicity is that anyone can decide to play. Today even. You even.Let’s at least let kids decide. Let’s let them choose what they want to learn.
click to play Simon Sinek on why
If we are not passionately engaged in a particular domain, it is unlikely that we will invest the effort and energy required to achieve mastery and distinctiveness.
- John Hagel
the
What wakes kids up?
What would wake the community up?
Outcomes, labels, etc, all affect mindfulness and so affect health. - Ellen Langer, Mindfulness
be mindful.
Instead of embracing the diversity of the human mind we have stigmatized
the very differences that are so
characteristic of humans. The DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) declared war on the introverts, and the educationally challenged among others and has attempted to
define what a normal human should be, an extroverted individual who works well with people, progresses well in conventional schooling, and will succeed in a conventional job.
Lucas, student, Stigmatizing the Human Mind
looking to measure creativity.
1-to-1At the very least, good mentoring raises self-esteem and sense of purpose. But mentoring takes an elevated role for people when it involves directing or inspiring their search for *the Element.
- Sir Ken Robinson, The Element
*the Element: meeting point between natural aptitude and personal passion. Doing the thing you love, and in doing it you feel like your most authentic self.
The web can help us create serendipity so that we can facilitate mentors such as this.. click to play
If we want to seriously consider a world of equity and redefine the motto of No Child Left Behind we should be facilitating, at the very least, 1-1 relationships such as this, for those who don’t have access to it at home or don’t have a home, as we work on freeing up parents from whatever is holding them back. Deb, a parent in the Lab, just emailed me her very first post about this very thing.
TSD – facilitating their best resource…the human spirit/potential.
…in health care What if the simple act of listening could diminish health problems? Tedmed 2010 spoke about this shift in thinking
via @kevinmd During my training I was once asked in front of a patient to recite some respiratory physiology equation which, to my patient’s approval, I was able to do easily at the time. But I wanted to say to the attending physician, “Ask me, too, what this patient’s story is. I can tell you because I listened. I can tell you because I can put together and recreate a good narrative. And in the end it will help me take better care of this patient than knowing that equation.”
What if many of the health care problems can be solved simply by increased authentic relationships?
notic
e
Dignity. Health. Joy. Love. Hope.The five things we wanted to spread while we were in Africa. We wanted the people there to experience all of the above but we were unaware and oblivious that we were experiencing all of it as well.Do they live in poverty? Politically, yes. They suffer from not having nearly as much things as we have. When I spent two weeks in Africa, the people there had more joy and more love than I have ever witnessed anyone have. I envied them. Are we in poverty? We’re missing something. It may not be toys or cars or giant houses. But it’s something. Needs? Relationships? Something.
notic
e
- Megan
notic
e
What if most of what we do on a daily basis, is actually getting in the way?
What if we took more time to know someone? What if the best medicine is to be known by someone?
Ellen Langer, along with others I’m sure, has done extensive research on mindfulness, and how it plays out in every area of our lives. The simple act of noticing could change the room,
the world, … even you.
notic
e
click to play
YOUth ideas on healthy spaces..
notic
e
The opposite of play isn’t work. It’s depression.
- Brian Sutton-Smith, leading Psychologist of Play
notic
e
How many of us have become drunks and drug addicts, developed tumors and neuroses, succumbed to painkillers, gossip, and compulsive cell-phone use,
simply because we don't do that thing that our hearts, our inner genius, is calling us to?
70-80% of people Dr's see - has nothing to do with health issues
- Steven Pressfield, The War of Art
TSDNothing is for everyone.
Let’s facilitate that.CONNECTed
Dennis Littky, the city is our floorplan.
Like we were learning/understanding about homeless people, and would later learn from student experience in the Lab,
you really can do anything you want, but you have to want it.
So we were beginning to see how a plan to redefine school really could change the world. We were beginning to see that if we could facilitate each person’s passion by providing resources and a sense of belonging through a culture of trust, with at the least a 1-1, face to face mentor, and permission and space to follow your fancy… guided, if need be, through detox…
…well, we were beginning to see that this really could happen. Little could be huge. Amateur could be pro. Poor could be rich.
Thinking on space (physical, emotional, mental) .. The making of a dream.
A bit of history – (cont)
Thinking on space (physical, emotional, mental) ..
We talked to the Mayor about what we could do. He gave us hard work. Work he can’t do alone.
Working on this dream: tunnel jamAnd this one to share stories : street art
We talked to community members, as potential mentors. Would they be willing? Would they be interested?
(Barry video)
We talked to city people, about planning together, legalizing street art, occupying space, sharing stories, bringing people together.
(Felicia and/or Marcie video)
A bit of history – (cont)
Aimee & Noah on teen shelter & homelessness.See Michelle’s human trafficking event -slide 100.
Aimee sharing their current thinking for a teen shelter.
The beauty of becoming yourself, making yourself, noticing more and being more mindful, is that it empowers you to let go of yourself.
You start working for that something bigger than… … that something beyond.You start needing others. You start knowing others.
You find yourself dreaming. Dreaming boldly.
So now, in sketching such spaces of collaboration, we’re using YOUmedia as an existing visual.
Dream boldly with us. Let’s start today.
What’s next… is now.
Parent on googleAmazing what this open environment has produced. A 10 year old that I need a dictionary to talk to. I’m currently borrowing his 2 inch thick html code book, he read 2 years ago.A 6 year old that just the other day had 140 views on her latest dog story.1-1 provides every kid with this. Per danah boyd, the best filter is a human one.
Parents making connections, strewing more curiosity, as they follow their kids’ fancy.
Teachers in the classroom catching the allure.The goal of the lab is to see what happens in a free space in order to encourage others (teachers/students/admin) to bring more of that freedom into their already existent spaces. Tom is one in particular, fully embracing Erica McWilliams: be usefully ignorant.
It’s a family affair. When matters to them, it matters to me.
Sharing talents because we’re connected.
Suggestion for Lab
click to see suggested book reads
It’s more about a mindset than anything…
High recommends for this slideshare’s ideas:
Ellen Langer, Mindfulness(how to live)
Lisa Gansky, The Mesh(how to find resources in unlikely places)
Steven Pressfield, The War of Art(how to fight the Resistance)
Dennis Littky’s, The Big Picture, Ed is Everyone’s Business(modeling the 1-1 mentor, the transcript/expository/portfolio at end of yr)
So many others.. Reality is Broken, The Element, DIY U, Rework, Linchpin, Talent Code, Mindset, Cognitive Surplus, Secrets of a Buccaneer Scholar, The Power of Pull, A New Culture of Learning, The Design of Business, The War of Art, Do the Work, What Technology Wants, Tribes, Blogs Wikis Podcasts, The New Brain, The Human Project, The Blue Sweater, Drive, Greater Than Yourself, Wounded by School, Teaching Unmasked, ….
We can do more than act as sensors and share data: we can share our ideas, our frameworks and solutions for sustainability.
We have the connectivity – any innovation can spread across the entire planet in a matter of seconds. This means that six billion minds could be sharing – should be sharing – every tip, every insight, every brainwave and invention – so that the rest of us can have a go, see if it works, then share the results, so others can learn from our experiences.
- Mark Pesce The Social Sense , The Human Network
one
plan
et
previously slides are one story deck of the narrative deck:
The entire narrative deck can be accessed here.. Or you can go to the next slide to access another story deck…
4-39: mindset - the skinny
40-79: redefining success: school as a business … community as a school43-49: the dandelion effect50-53: is respect for every voice a part of your soul54-63: we don’t need more resources, we just need to be more resourceful : on health & wealth64-72: Joi Ito as an exemplar – nothing is for everyone73-79: declaration of interdependence - as glue
80-89: findings in failings : history (deliberately not teaching, homeless analogy) : detox (process/what, unpacking/why, doing/how)90-95: vision/floorplan96-97: connected adjacency
98: suggested book reads 99: faq
100-111: mindset
Suggestion per parents, if you were only going to look at 2 things: slide 37 and detox.
as story
just out: awakening indispensable people via videoswarning – poor quality – ie slidedeck with voice