Cultivating Innovation and Futures Thinking in Education
In this episode, we explore the evolution of modern learning and the shift towards prioritizing innovation in education. We discuss strategies for integrating AI as a thought partner and examine the importance of developing critical inquiry skills from early childhood to prepare students for an uncertain future.
Resources
- Jared Colley on LinkedIn
- Mount Vernon Ventures, the Research, Development & Consulting division of The Mount Vernon School
- Imagine Then, Act Now: Futures Literacy for Learning Organizations, MV Ventures’ Spring 2024 Transformation R&D Report for education professionals and leaders
- A People-Centered Organization Living in an AI World, MV Ventures’ Summer 2023 Transformation R&D Report for education professionals and leaders
- “How might we build skills for life through eSports?”, article
- How Does Competitive eSports Shape Personal Growth and Real-World Skills?, podcast episode
- What are the trends, issues, and opportunities for implementing Al in schools?, podcast episode
- And What Do You Mean By Machine Learning?, article
- How Can Future’s Literacy Transform Organizational Success?, podcast episode
- Little Learners with Big Ideas: A Field Guide for Design Thinking
- AI, What's Your Position, Not Your Policy: A Scenarios-Based Approach to Strategic Foresight in the Age of Structural Uncertainty, article by Jared Colley on RootedEdu.com
- Creating Assessments with Complexity in the Age of AI, a guide to developing assessment complexity
- Using Future Studies To Cope with Top Challenges: School leaders need to envision multiple possible outcomes when facing risks and opportunities., article by Jared Colley, from NetAssests on NBOA.org
- Artificial Intelligence + Academic Integrity, a resource for teachers using a scenarios-based approach
- The Innovator's DNA: Mastering the Five Skills of Disruptive Innovators, by Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, Clayton M. Christensen
- The Innovator’s DNA: Five Skills to Develop Your Creativity, article adapted from the book, from BYU Marriott School of Business
- Designing Regenerative Cultures, by Daniel Christian Wahl
- Minds, Brains, and Programs, paper by philosopher John Searle
- Hospicing Modernity: Facing Humanity’s Wrongs and the Implications for Social Activism by Vanessa Machado de Oliveira
Transcript
Peter Frank:
Phil, welcome to Talking Technology with ATLIS,
Peter Frank:
the show that plugs you into the important topics and trends for
Peter Frank:
technology leaders all through a unique Independent School lens.
Peter Frank:
We'll hear stories from technology directors and other
Peter Frank:
special guests from the Independent School community,
Peter Frank:
and provide you with focused learning and deep dive topics.
Peter Frank:
And now please welcome your host, Kristina Lewellen,
Christina Lewellen:
Hello, and welcome back to talking
Christina Lewellen:
technology with Atlas. I'm Kristina Lewellen, the President
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and CEO of the Association of Technology Leaders in
Christina Lewellen:
Independent
Bill Stites:
Schools. And I am Bill Stites, the Director of
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Technology at Montclair Kimberly Academy in Montclair, New
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Jersey, and
Hiram Cuevas:
I'm Hiram Cuevas, Director of Information Systems
Hiram Cuevas:
and Academic Technology at St Christopher school here in
Hiram Cuevas:
Richmond, Virginia.
Christina Lewellen:
Hello, gentlemen. How are you today?
Christina Lewellen:
Doing? Well, yes, likewise, I'm really excited. I know you guys
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get to be on a campus every day. I don't, but I do try to get to
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an independent school campus as often as I can. And this week, I
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went to a darling k8 school in Charlotte, North Carolina,
Christina Lewellen:
Trinity Episcopal School. And the head of school there and
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their IT director had heard me speak at an SA is event in
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Charlotte. They brought me back. And so I was there with Kelsea
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Watson, and we went, and we were, of course, talking to the
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leadership team about, primarily about AI, but also student data
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privacy and all of the cyber things. But it never gets old
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for me walking down the hall and seeing all the artwork and all
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the little kindergarteners and through little uniforms, it was
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so cute. When would I get sick of that like, when does that go
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away? Do you guys still walk down the hallway and get like
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all the feels about the artwork on the wall,
Hiram Cuevas:
particularly in the Lower School, I do,
Hiram Cuevas:
especially when they're doing their self portraits, the full
Hiram Cuevas:
body self portraits, those are hysterical. I
Bill Stites:
do enjoy it. We're three different campuses. My
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office is located at our middle school campus. I enjoy getting
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back to the Lower School as well. It's always a very special
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place. There's something about middle school, though, because
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our middle school spans grades four through eight, and you
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have, like, full grown people in eighth grade and sub grades,
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because, you know, there's boys that are, like, 6162, they're
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bigger than I am. And then you've got all the little ones
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that you would have had at the middle school. And just the
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blending of all that in our space is particularly enjoyable
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to see, not only because of the size differential, but also just
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how well they take care of one another. I mean, given the range
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their age, I think it's a special place, and it never gets
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old.
Hiram Cuevas:
And middle school, it's that place where you know,
Hiram Cuevas:
you find out that God has a sense of humor.
Bill Stites:
Indeed, because those six two kids don't know
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how to navigate a six two body. Yeah, yeah. Little awkward, and
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that's happening so quick. I mean, it could be like six
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inches over the summer,
Hiram Cuevas:
they're on the cusp of their voice is changing
Hiram Cuevas:
too. Uh, yep. When
Christina Lewellen:
I was at Trinity Episcopal, the IT
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director there, Teresa. Shout out to her. She's incredible,
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and she's a big Atlas fan. And if you haven't met her yet, I'll
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introduce you guys at the conference. But she was telling
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me, yeah, you know, yesterday there was some stress and a
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couple things I was juggling, but it was also the 100th day of
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kindergarten, so she just wandered down into the
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kindergarten space and, like, there was little kids with
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rollers in their hairs, and the little walkers with the tennis
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balls, and she goes, and then I was better. And so I don't know,
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like, I need, like, an emotional support kindergarten so that on
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tough days I can just go hang out with the littles and, like,
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my heart is happy or something, does it all the time. Or maybe I
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need to find make friends with a local independent school, so
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that when I'm having a day, I can just show up on campus and
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get a little visitors, tag and go wander the hallway. But
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anyway, so I got my experience this week, which I don't get
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very often. So thank you for letting me gush about it. I
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don't think it's ever gonna get old. I've been here for almost
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six years, and I just love having the opportunity to walk
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around to campus. It makes my heart so so happy. And I'm not
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even a teacher, and I love it, so today, let's keep this
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conversation going about all the fun with the littles and beyond.
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But we do have Jared. Cole is with us, and Jared is the upper
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campus head of learning and innovation at the Mount Vernon
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school, a very innovative school that gets a lot of attention in
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our space. Jared you're upper campus head, so you probably
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don't get a lot of time with littles, but tell us your
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journey. Have you had any experience along the way with
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the lower school kids? And welcome to the podcast, by the
Christina Lewellen:
way. Well, thank you
Jared Colley:
for having me. I was thrilled to get this
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invitation. I'm very excited to share this space with you and
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get to have a great conversation. But to answer your
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question, well, one, I have a seven and nine year old daughter
Jared Colley:
who go to the Lower School at our campus, so I find a lot of
Jared Colley:
excuses to get over there. Are they
Christina Lewellen:
embarrassed by you or not? Yet, they're too
Christina Lewellen:
young to have dad show up. They're still at
Jared Colley:
that sacred age where. They get excited when I'm
Jared Colley:
over there, which is great. So I'm soaking it in. Sometimes
Jared Colley:
I'll schedule a meeting with somebody over there, no purpose
Jared Colley:
to it, but it's really just so I can get over there and maybe
Jared Colley:
spot one of my kids love it, and have that moment. So I do get to
Jared Colley:
spend some space in the Lower School. I would say that the
Jared Colley:
Mount Vernon school, we believe that we're better together, and
Jared Colley:
we're super intentional about collaborative engagement. So I
Jared Colley:
do spend a lot of time in our lower school doing professional
Jared Colley:
work as well, and I have a wonderful counterpart over there
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who shares a similar title, and we get to work a lot about
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innovation and academic alignment and continuity of
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experience and a building of capacity around certain
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competencies that we value at Mount Vernon, some of those
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competencies being ones that you would probably see anywhere, and
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some that I think really differentiate us, like our
Jared Colley:
design thinking program that really runs through pre K all
Jared Colley:
the way to 12th grade. So we have a lot of opportunity for
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the lower campus and the upper campus to come together and
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really align our vision so that there is this great continuity
Jared Colley:
of experience, and we do approach it from a competency
Jared Colley:
based perspective. And so it's important that we do that. I
Christina Lewellen:
love this. I can't wait to get into the
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scaffolding that you're talking about, how you take it through
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the whole journey for your learners, but let's talk a
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little bit about you. How long have you been with the school?
Christina Lewellen:
What was your journey like to get here? I
Jared Colley:
believe I'm in my fifth year at the Mount Vernon
Jared Colley:
school. That's a really significant number, if you think
Jared Colley:
about what was going on five years ago, I was at a school in
Jared Colley:
Texas. Before that, a lovely School in Arlington, Texas
Jared Colley:
called the Oak Ridge school. When I was at the Oak Ridge
Jared Colley:
school, I was the English department chair, and I also, in
Jared Colley:
my later time there, served as our director of professional
Jared Colley:
development and also as our kind of, our Chair of our curriculum
Jared Colley:
coordination team that worked a lot on alignment at that school.
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And that's the Oak Ridge school where I was before and around
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2020, I had been watching the Mount Vernon school for a long
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time they were school I was paying attention to due to a lot
Jared Colley:
of the work that they were doing that I was attracted to. And I
Jared Colley:
think one of the things I was really attracted to is that I
Jared Colley:
was given a lot of freedom, where I was before to do certain
Jared Colley:
things, but I wanted to be at a place that had the capacity to
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do it at scale, and so mastery based or competency based
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learning would be a good example of that. But there are other
Jared Colley:
examples I could share too. And so it was around right before
Jared Colley:
the pandemic hit that a job opportunity became available at
Jared Colley:
the Mount Vernon school for head of learning and innovation, and
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I very aggressively tried to get my foot in the door and talk to
Jared Colley:
the people here, and sure enough, I flew over. Did the
Jared Colley:
whole, as we all know, the one to two day intensive interview
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that we Independent Schools love to do, came back home, and I
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think about a week later, we all were sheltering in place for the
Jared Colley:
pandemic.
Christina Lewellen:
That's pretty intense. It was
Jared Colley:
talk about a VUCA moment of volatility,
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uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, and I got the job
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offer, so I'm sitting there with my wife, and I'm like, Hey, how
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do you feel about moving across the country in the middle of a
Jared Colley:
pandemic, when we're not even supposed to leave our house? And
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we had that conversation, and to be just completely like Frank
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and vulnerable, she says, Yes, but she looks at me, she goes,
Jared Colley:
don't screw this up.
Christina Lewellen:
You know what? Always a little levity
Christina Lewellen:
from the wife. That's right, but it's kind of weird. I mean, let
Christina Lewellen:
me just call something out here. You're an English teacher,
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English chair, not necessarily the first department I would
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think of when it comes to innovation in teaching. That's
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kind of a leap. So you definitely clawed your way into
Christina Lewellen:
that, yeah, or did you have some background in demonstrating that
Christina Lewellen:
you had this interest in innovation?
Jared Colley:
Well, I would love to toot my horn and say, Oh, I
Jared Colley:
was an English teacher who was integrating technology and very
Jared Colley:
creative ways and kind of ahead of the curve on, you know, we
Jared Colley:
were all talking about that Samer model, and I was
Jared Colley:
redefining the classroom of what an English classroom could look
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like. But I could sit here and say that and tell a story that
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way. But I also would love to give a shout out to somebody who
Jared Colley:
I do think sits on your board, who, at that time was our
Jared Colley:
director of technology and modern learning at the Oak Ridge
Jared Colley:
school. And that's Jason Kern.
Christina Lewellen:
Oh, yeah, I love Kern. Nice. So I hope he
Christina Lewellen:
listens to this episode. You can know that I will make him Jason,
Jared Colley:
at that time, was leading us in terms of the
Jared Colley:
adoption of technology in classrooms. He was leading us in
Jared Colley:
terms of thinking about like, what does as we were calling at
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the time, what does modern learning look like at this
Jared Colley:
moment, and as department chair of the English department, and
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also as a curious lifelong learner, and also what I like to
Jared Colley:
call a mischievous collaborator, I was connected. With people,
Jared Colley:
and we were having a lot of conversations about, what could
Jared Colley:
we do differently in English classrooms that technology now
Jared Colley:
makes possible, that before, maybe it just wasn't accessible,
Jared Colley:
or we couldn't think of ways to do it. And I could give several
Jared Colley:
examples, but one that I would share is we were very early on
Jared Colley:
in my English classroom of using blogs and using digital
Jared Colley:
platforms in a way that we could connect with other English
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classrooms, whether they were down the street or across the
Jared Colley:
country or across the world. And early on, I started what I call
Jared Colley:
the time a literary Colloquium. And what it was is I was trying
Jared Colley:
to model for English kids like, what do English scholars do?
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What would that even look like? And one thing that people who
Jared Colley:
have a advanced degree in humanities do is they often go
Jared Colley:
to conferences and present papers, and there's usually
Jared Colley:
probably a discussant, someone who's gotten your paper ahead of
Jared Colley:
time, they've read it, they've thought of some critical
Jared Colley:
questions, and then after you present your paper, there is
Jared Colley:
this great discourse with a diversity of people in the room
Jared Colley:
from all different institutions, all exchanging ideas and
Jared Colley:
furthering each other's scholarship. And so I was really
Jared Colley:
thinking about this in a traditional way, and I was like,
Jared Colley:
Oh, I'm gonna go find all the email addresses of all the
Jared Colley:
English department chairs I can and the surrounding area, and
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I'm just gonna email and be like, hey, what if we all read
Jared Colley:
the same book, like, at the same time, and had kids all write
Jared Colley:
papers and submit them, and then we, like, run a conference
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that's student driven. And I sent out this email to maybe
Jared Colley:
2030 English department chairs, and I totally probably violated
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norms of just going to websites and getting these emails and not
Jared Colley:
asking permission to send this out. I send it out, and it's
Jared Colley:
crickets, and then a couple people responded, and one person
Jared Colley:
that responded that I really encourage people to look up who
Jared Colley:
is, I believe, still doing work as an English teacher in a
Jared Colley:
department chair at Green Hill School, which is in North
Jared Colley:
Dallas. And his name is Joelle Garza. He also started the book
Jared Colley:
chat hashtag on Twitter, when that space used to be a space
Jared Colley:
where we had more good faith inspired exchange in terms of
Jared Colley:
discourse, and he started a group of English teachers who
Jared Colley:
were coming together to have conversations about, how do we
Jared Colley:
diversify literature and get more representation in classes?
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And so I share that because he was thinking innovatively too.
Jared Colley:
And he sends me this email about my conference idea, and he's
Jared Colley:
like, I think it's a great idea. I think we should do this. But
Jared Colley:
he's like, but why should we wait for a conference? And I'm
Jared Colley:
like, email back, like, Well, what do you mean? He's like, we
Jared Colley:
got blogs. We could record podcasts. There's so many ways
Jared Colley:
that we could start exchanging ideas with our classrooms. And
Jared Colley:
so this is years ago, but we set up a blog, and we decided it was
Jared Colley:
the 100 year anniversary of the publication of James Joyce's
Jared Colley:
short stories Dubliners, and that was a strategic choice.
Jared Colley:
One, okay, anniversary, great moment for a bunch of schools to
Jared Colley:
read that book. Two, it's short stories. So this is easy to
Jared Colley:
shoehorn into your curriculum. Why don't you join us? And
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before we knew it, we had this critical mass of teachers who
Jared Colley:
were all very interested in this idea that we were all going to
Jared Colley:
read the same book and our students were going to interact
Jared Colley:
on a blog together. And at first, again, there's a lot of
Jared Colley:
stages of evolution. So we were like, managing the blog. We're
Jared Colley:
like, all right, what do you want to put up there? I'll go
Jared Colley:
put it up there for you and post it. And so maybe one of my kids
Jared Colley:
had something that they wrote, All right, I'll go get that up
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there for you. Another kid, maybe they recorded a podcast or
Jared Colley:
an exchange at that time. I think we're just calling them mp
Jared Colley:
three files, and they want to post that on the blog for the
Jared Colley:
other schools to react to, and we're using the comment
Jared Colley:
mechanism on the blog for doing that. But at some point we were
Jared Colley:
like, Why are we gatekeeping as teachers? Why aren't they the
Jared Colley:
editors of this blog? Why aren't they the ones who are creating
Jared Colley:
the content directly? Why aren't they making those decisions? And
Jared Colley:
so before we knew it, we had probably about 12 different
Jared Colley:
schools, and this is happening in iterations through a few
Jared Colley:
years and selecting different texts each year. But it started
Jared Colley:
with just three schools, Hockaday school, the Green Hill
Jared Colley:
School and the Oak Ridge school, we came together and had a
Jared Colley:
conference too. And I think we all would tell the story that
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what we learned there, there was an interesting dialectic between
Jared Colley:
the traditional and the digital, reinforcing and supporting and
Jared Colley:
strengthening each other. And so I guess what I mean by that is
Jared Colley:
we knew there was gonna be this conference, so there was skin in
Jared Colley:
the game. And these kids were engaging on this blog in a way
Jared Colley:
that they like. Knew that there was high stakes, but healthy
Jared Colley:
high stakes, not like I'm going to fail you if you don't do
Jared Colley:
this, right? No, we're going to get together in person, and
Jared Colley:
you're going to stare at these people face to face and have a
Jared Colley:
conference experience. So there's a lot of reasons to make
Jared Colley:
these digital exchanges go well, but also the. Conference now had
Jared Colley:
this much greater meaning to it when we came together, as you
Jared Colley:
all know, because you have physical conferences too, and
Jared Colley:
you know the value add of not just interacting asynchronously,
Jared Colley:
interacting digitally, like we are right now, but also
Jared Colley:
committing to the idea that we're all going to be in the
Jared Colley:
same physical space at this time, and we're going to see
Jared Colley:
each other, and we're going to have exchanges, and we are going
Jared Colley:
to inspire each other, and we're all going to come back with new
Jared Colley:
ideas. And so over the years, we began to build that and build
Jared Colley:
that and build that. And it went from picking books like James
Jared Colley:
Joyce's Dubliners, and then one year, it was Frankenstein, 200
Jared Colley:
years later, and that was a fun year that we read Frankenstein,
Jared Colley:
because we started doing more than just having kids submit
Jared Colley:
papers. We had kids who were thinking about maker space
Jared Colley:
artifacts, having an exhibit space for that. We brought in
Jared Colley:
fine arts, and kids were making films and making paintings and
Jared Colley:
posters. And so we started to have these exchanges that became
Jared Colley:
more than just, say, literary analysis, and then it evolved
Jared Colley:
even more where we're like, why are we reading dead authors,
Jared Colley:
when we could do this with people who are living right now,
Jared Colley:
and we can invite them to come to these events and be keynote
Jared Colley:
speakers, interact with our students. And there was this
Jared Colley:
evolution that happened, and that really brought me into the
Jared Colley:
technology world, that for me to go back to an acronym that I
Jared Colley:
think we all know, but, and probably most people who listen
Jared Colley:
to this podcast know the same or acronym of, are we using
Jared Colley:
technology to substitute like, Okay, write notes with a laptop
Jared Colley:
now instead of a pencil? Are we augmenting, okay, instead of
Jared Colley:
giving a book report by getting up and just talking, you've got
Jared Colley:
a slide deck. Are we modifying all the way to I feel like we
Jared Colley:
found a way to redefine what English classrooms look like,
Jared Colley:
and that was made possible by new accessible technologies that
Jared Colley:
earlier either we didn't know about or they just weren't
Jared Colley:
around yet or accessible yet. And so that was my entry point
Jared Colley:
from going from a quote, unquote, traditional English
Jared Colley:
teacher to somebody who saw the intersection of Yes, classical
Jared Colley:
education is important, but technology can really redefine
Jared Colley:
it in ways that we can do it differently. And that brought me
Jared Colley:
into the Atlas community. I started presenting at Atlas very
Jared Colley:
early on, more as an English teacher and coming to Atlas and
Jared Colley:
being like, here's how I'm using technology. I got really
Jared Colley:
immersed in the gamification culture when that started to
Jared Colley:
become a thing, and I started redesigning my classrooms around
Jared Colley:
the idea of, like, what brings kids back to video games over
Jared Colley:
and over again, even when they fail over and over and over.
Jared Colley:
There is something about the structure of a video game, a
Jared Colley:
design of a video game, and what could we learn about that in
Jared Colley:
curricular design? And so I got really involved with that too.
Jared Colley:
And of course, technology helped Augment, modify and redefine how
Jared Colley:
we might do that. And again, I was presenting at Atlas about
Jared Colley:
topics like that as well, and sooner or later, that led me to
Jared Colley:
leading professional development my own school, being a
Jared Colley:
curriculum coordinator over alignment of our entire
Jared Colley:
curricular scope and vision. That really gave me the skill
Jared Colley:
sets to then come to the Mount Vernon school and be in the role
Jared Colley:
I am now as head of learning and innovation.
Bill Stites:
So Jared, I have a question for you. You mentioned
Bill Stites:
two different things. One, as you talked about when you were
Bill Stites:
there, you talked about this being modern learning, and now
Bill Stites:
you're into innovation in terms of how you were describing these
Bill Stites:
different pieces. And you mentioned how you define these
Bill Stites:
different things. And I want to ask you how you would
Bill Stites:
differentiate what you were doing when you were calling it
Bill Stites:
modern learning and what it's now called now you're referring
Bill Stites:
to as innovation. It's what your titles got on it. How do you
Bill Stites:
because I think everyone does it slightly differently. We're
Bill Stites:
going through it right now at MKA. How do you define
Bill Stites:
innovation, and how does that differ from what you were doing
Bill Stites:
before that you were calling modern learning? What's in a
Bill Stites:
name.
Jared Colley:
First of all, I think that the word modern is
Jared Colley:
somewhat a loaded word that we need to interrogate and unpack.
Jared Colley:
If you have not heard about the book hospicing modernity, I
Jared Colley:
highly recommend it. I will credit Will Richardson for
Jared Colley:
recommending that book to me on a zoom call one day, and
Jared Colley:
modernity carries a lot of baggage. So first, I just want
Jared Colley:
to say that modernity is a concept that carries baggage,
Jared Colley:
such as growth is always linear. Modernity carries some baggage
Jared Colley:
around colonial mindsets that are somewhat Eurocentric. And
Jared Colley:
modernity, also to me, is like a fixation on the newness of the
Jared Colley:
technology or the products, things like that. And thereby, I
Jared Colley:
wonder if it's getting us to focus on the real value add of
Jared Colley:
what we do to move education forward. And so as I think about
Jared Colley:
innovation, innovation, too can become a word. With a lot of
Jared Colley:
trappings. I think innovation can become a word that could
Jared Colley:
stagnate us instead of move us forward. So I think it's also
Jared Colley:
really important to really ask the question, what are you
Jared Colley:
innovating for? Are you innovating for people to have a
Jared Colley:
meaningful, positive identity, development, restorative
Jared Colley:
experience? Are you innovating for efficiency? Are you
Jared Colley:
innovating for marketing reasons, to have a really flashy
Jared Colley:
value proposition that once we poke through it a little bit,
Jared Colley:
it's a little bit surfacey, and so I also caution that we
Jared Colley:
interrogate the word innovation a little bit, and what we mean
Jared Colley:
by that. And so I don't know if I can define innovation without
Jared Colley:
first defining and making explicit the values that one is
Jared Colley:
anchored in that they are thereby innovating for. So
Bill Stites:
how are you doing that? At Mount Vernon, what is
Bill Stites:
the definition of innovation at Mount Vernon, I had a very
Bill Stites:
similar conversation with Steve Valentine, who I work with here
Bill Stites:
at MKA, about what the idea of entrepreneurship means at MKA,
Bill Stites:
because it's something that we talk about, right, and
Bill Stites:
understanding what that word means to us as it relates to
Bill Stites:
STEM, STEM, plus ethics, all of those things. So that's the
Bill Stites:
context and the reason, to some degree from my question. So what
Bill Stites:
does innovation mean for you and for Mount Vernon, yeah,
Jared Colley:
and entrepreneurship is another
Jared Colley:
word, but ooh, you could get me talking about that for a minute.
Jared Colley:
And again, if we don't interrogate that word, I
Jared Colley:
challenge us not to get all Latin, but like homo economicus,
Jared Colley:
this idea that our purpose is to go out and make money, and our
Jared Colley:
purpose is to train people for the job force, and to think like
Jared Colley:
that, I think if that's what we mean by entrepreneurship, we're
Jared Colley:
missing a huge opportunity. I think that entrepreneurship has
Jared Colley:
a much wider application, or opportunity for application,
Jared Colley:
where it's really about like, how do you live well and how are
Jared Colley:
you going to get there. What is a life well lived? And what
Jared Colley:
skills do you need? What competencies do you need, what
Jared Colley:
experiences do you need, what mentorship do you need to find a
Jared Colley:
path, a path that is ethical, well intentioned, and thereby, I
Jared Colley:
want to define entrepreneurial skills as being able to have the
Jared Colley:
resourcefulness to bring that together, but to have it be
Jared Colley:
layered on top of values that you know what your values are,
Jared Colley:
and you know what a life well lived might look like. And so
Jared Colley:
for me to be an entrepreneur is what is living well for me, and
Jared Colley:
how do I make that a reality? So I know you're asking for a
Jared Colley:
definition of innovation. But I first just had to unpack that
Jared Colley:
you're talking to an English teacher, if you haven't noticed.
Jared Colley:
And so I like to unpack words. So is Steve. I would say this
Jared Colley:
about innovation. I think at Mount Vernon, we would first and
Jared Colley:
foremost point you to the book innovators, DNA. I'll tell a
Jared Colley:
story we have a class in our middle school called Impact
Jared Colley:
Design Lab. And think of this as a class for middle schoolers to
Jared Colley:
really start building their design thinking muscle. And I
Jared Colley:
think already told you there's a continuity going all the way
Jared Colley:
back to pre K in terms of giving kids opportunities to build
Jared Colley:
skills around design thinking. But the impact Design Lab, which
Jared Colley:
happens in eighth grade, is really a leveling up moment. And
Jared Colley:
the designers of that class were really wrestling with the fact
Jared Colley:
that they were, like, having a hard time communicating to kids
Jared Colley:
what they meant when they say, Okay, now let's go innovate. And
Jared Colley:
here they were wrestling with, like, how do we define it? And I
Jared Colley:
pointed them back to that book, and I don't take credit for
Jared Colley:
that. The Mount Vernon school identified that book as well
Jared Colley:
before my time here as a guide for us in terms of thinking
Jared Colley:
about what do we mean by innovation? And so innovation is
Jared Colley:
a very abstract, constructivist concept that I think we all
Jared Colley:
would have to come to an agreed upon definition before we could
Jared Colley:
move forward with any kind of sense of innovation. So let me
Jared Colley:
just say it this way. What if, instead of defining innovation,
Jared Colley:
we just started to talk about behaviors that lead to
Jared Colley:
innovative outcomes? And so one of the things that I really
Jared Colley:
appreciate about the book innovators DNA is it really does
Jared Colley:
that for you. So instead of like starting with innovation, it
Jared Colley:
starts with five activities that it tells you to build your
Jared Colley:
muscle around. Observing is one of them, networking is one of
Jared Colley:
them, associating is one of them, experimenting is one of
Jared Colley:
them. And Dang, I am missing the other one right now, and that is
Jared Colley:
okay, but people can go look up the book if you were engaging in
Jared Colley:
those five behaviors. Now, I'm not sure we really have to worry
Jared Colley:
about how we're defining innovation as much as we have
Jared Colley:
developed behavioral skills that we're getting better at and
Jared Colley:
better at. Are leading to innovative outcomes. So if I
Jared Colley:
dodged your question, I'm sorry, but that's one way I would try
Jared Colley:
to answer that question.
Hiram Cuevas:
So Jared, what's been fascinating about this
Hiram Cuevas:
conversation is we've taken the superficial, I think, when we're
Hiram Cuevas:
talking about some of this lingo, and really, I feel like
Hiram Cuevas:
we've been engaging in literary analysis in our conversation
Hiram Cuevas:
with you, and I really appreciate that when we were
Hiram Cuevas:
talking about the evolution of your community to engage in
Hiram Cuevas:
modern learning, there's a certain buy in that has to
Hiram Cuevas:
happen. And I think many of our conversations end up starting at
Hiram Cuevas:
that superficial level. And how do you get it into that in depth
Hiram Cuevas:
thought process about what is important to this preconceived
Hiram Cuevas:
notion in your mind of what modern learning looks like,
Hiram Cuevas:
knowing full well that it's a loaded term, and then executing
Hiram Cuevas:
that, such that you're looking at these new skills that these
Hiram Cuevas:
students are now going to acquire versus some of the
Hiram Cuevas:
skills that are going to be perhaps left behind or not
Hiram Cuevas:
utilized as much
Jared Colley:
so I think as a good pedagogue, because I also
Jared Colley:
do a lot of coaching and around teaching and learning in my
Jared Colley:
role, and we are big on the whole backwards design approach,
Jared Colley:
in terms of how we think about building a unit, building a
Jared Colley:
Performance Task, or whatever it might be that we're engaging
Jared Colley:
students in. Let's apply that same principle here. And what an
Jared Colley:
interesting time to apply that principle, because we live, and
Jared Colley:
I think I've mentioned to you probably before the recording,
Jared Colley:
that one of the areas I am really engaged in right now is
Jared Colley:
futures thinking. And futures is intentionally used in the
Jared Colley:
plural, because none of us can predict the future. None of us
Jared Colley:
can forecast with great certainty that this is what is
Jared Colley:
going to happen next. And so the end in mind is a really, really
Jared Colley:
perplexing, baffling thing right now, because our students are
Jared Colley:
entering a world where more and more it becomes difficult to
Jared Colley:
predict in forecast. And so how are we building the skills and
Jared Colley:
capacities for a world where there are alternative futures
Jared Colley:
that are all equally plausible, that could happen? And so I
Jared Colley:
think one way that we might think about modern learning is
Jared Colley:
that we've never faced that challenge more poignantly, more
Jared Colley:
concretely, and maybe I'm historically biased to my moment
Jared Colley:
of lived experience in this moment in history. But let's
Jared Colley:
just go over what's happened in the last few years. How many of
Jared Colley:
us were talking about a pandemic before COVID hit? Not a lot of
Jared Colley:
us. How many of us were talking about racial reckoning before
Jared Colley:
the George Floyd moment. There are a lot of people who were
Jared Colley:
doing that work, but not a lot of people were how many of us
Jared Colley:
were going to be able to predict how polarized our political
Jared Colley:
landscape has gotten in recent years, and we, of course, just
Jared Colley:
gone through it again, a very difficult time for all of us,
Jared Colley:
socially, emotionally speaking, and also in terms of not being
Jared Colley:
able to predict what's going to happen next. And how many of us
Jared Colley:
now maybe the Atlas community be like, well, a lot of us, how
Jared Colley:
many of us were able to predict that large language models were
Jared Colley:
going to so quickly and so ubiquitously show up at schools
Jared Colley:
and be able to do so well what they're doing? And so we have
Jared Colley:
lived through so many interesting alternative futures
Jared Colley:
that were all plausible and maybe probable and definitely
Jared Colley:
possible, but none of us could have forecasted or predicted
Jared Colley:
they were going to happen the exact way they did. And so as I
Jared Colley:
think about the end in mind, the end in mind is so much more
Jared Colley:
nebulous right now compared to previous periods of the
Jared Colley:
educational landscape. I think that we are often still
Jared Colley:
operating on models that track kids in a way that whether
Jared Colley:
they're doing it explicitly or implicitly, probably implicitly,
Jared Colley:
a lot of times by way of how schools are structured, by way
Jared Colley:
how curriculum is structured by how instructional practices are
Jared Colley:
structured. We are still messaging a certain end in mind
Jared Colley:
that really isn't that accurate or honest about what we're
Jared Colley:
facing. And so the end in mind is one of alternative futures.
Jared Colley:
The End in Mind is one of great uncertainty. I like to call it
Jared Colley:
critical uncertainties, which is kind of a cross section of
Jared Colley:
something that's highly uncertain but also high impact.
Jared Colley:
And artificial intelligence is a great example of one. We just
Jared Colley:
went through, and we're still going through, artificial
Jared Colley:
intelligence isn't really interesting critical
Jared Colley:
uncertainty. It is very uncertain what's going to happen
Jared Colley:
and how quickly it will and we all know it's going to have a
Jared Colley:
huge impact. And so identifying critical uncertainties is
Jared Colley:
something we can do. And so what are the skills and competencies
Jared Colley:
that we need to be building in this next generation to handle
Jared Colley:
with temper? Insights, with strategy to handle, with
Jared Colley:
creativity and curiosity, a whole bunch of alternative
Jared Colley:
futures. And so I am so sick of hearing about we don't know the
Jared Colley:
jobs of the future. I think we have to go even deeper than
Jared Colley:
that. We don't know the values and the greater context of the
Jared Colley:
future. I mean, how do we talk about jobs if we're not talking
Jared Colley:
about the ecological uncertainties of our entire
Jared Colley:
planet? How do we talk about here's how you're going to
Jared Colley:
create value in the economy when a lot of resources that make our
Jared Colley:
economy valuable are under threat. And so before we even
Jared Colley:
talk about jobs of the future, I think there's other things of
Jared Colley:
the future that we have to talk about, but we can't talk about
Jared Colley:
them with certainty. And we have to think about a different
Jared Colley:
approach, and that is a different kind of backwards
Jared Colley:
design approach, because a lot of times backwards design is be
Jared Colley:
absolutely explicitly clear on the standard you're trying to
Jared Colley:
get this kid to master. But as I think about modern learning, I
Jared Colley:
think modern learning differentiates itself from
Jared Colley:
previous forms of learning on those terms,
Christina Lewellen:
it's really interesting. So with this
Christina Lewellen:
uncertainty in mind, and looping back to this scaffolding that
Christina Lewellen:
you provide at the Mount Vernon school, from even the pre case
Christina Lewellen:
you mentioned, like, how do you then weave this into the entire
Christina Lewellen:
life cycle of the students? As you think about some of these
Christina Lewellen:
uncertain outcomes,
Jared Colley:
we start with questions, and we build that
Jared Colley:
mantra into our students, and we call that a mantra. We start
Jared Colley:
with questions, not with answers. And I think that we
Jared Colley:
build that mantra, we build that mindset in preschoolers, we
Jared Colley:
build it in our lower schoolers, we build it in our middle
Jared Colley:
schoolers, and by the time we get to our upper schoolers,
Jared Colley:
hopefully the scaffolding is a little bit taken away, and they
Jared Colley:
are driving the questions that we're starting with. There's a
Jared Colley:
wonderful thinker named Christian wall. He writes a lot
Jared Colley:
about the environment, and he's written a book called Designing
Jared Colley:
regenerative cultures. And regenerative is a huge buzz word
Jared Colley:
that I think we have to interrogate as well, because I'm
Jared Colley:
not sure we all know what we mean when we say regenerative.
Jared Colley:
But one thing I'll say about that book, that he said that I
Jared Colley:
thought was so interesting, is that a lot of times we think of
Jared Colley:
questions as the vehicles to an answer, whereas in reality, what
Jared Colley:
he says is and he uses the three horizons framework, which I'm
Jared Colley:
not sure our listeners will be familiar with, the three
Jared Colley:
horizons framework, But if I were to use an example. First
Jared Colley:
horizon like, how do we as a business get people to consume
Jared Colley:
movies? Oh, we're gonna set up a brick and mortar blockbuster
Jared Colley:
where they're gonna come and they're gonna rent movies,
Jared Colley:
right? And so then second horizon might be Netflix being
Jared Colley:
like, Oh, we're gonna mail DVDs to your house and there's no
Jared Colley:
late fee. Mail it back when you're ready, and then you can
Jared Colley:
get your next one. And I'm probably dating myself, because
Jared Colley:
some people listening are being like, What are you talking
Jared Colley:
about? That's not what Netflix does, but that's that second
Jared Colley:
horizon, right? They were disrupting the blockbuster
Jared Colley:
business model. But then there's a third horizon, which is now we
Jared Colley:
have streaming services, and I don't even need you to mail me a
Jared Colley:
DVD to my house, but I want to go back to what I was saying
Jared Colley:
about Christian wall within this three horizon framework. It's
Jared Colley:
not that streaming is the answer. Now we have new
Jared Colley:
questions, because streaming is using a lot of energy, and
Jared Colley:
there's a lot of carbon emissions going on, and we're
Jared Colley:
generating a lot of heat through all this consumption of video
Jared Colley:
online for our convenience. And so if anything, the new answer
Jared Colley:
brought us to new questions. And so to go back to what I first
Jared Colley:
said, it's not that questions are the vehicle to answers.
Jared Colley:
Answers are the vehicle to new questions that we need to ask.
Jared Colley:
And so we're never going to get to a final horizon. The third
Jared Colley:
horizon just brings us to a whole new set of questions that
Jared Colley:
we need to interrogate. And so if everybody on this planet were
Jared Colley:
to stream at the same volume at the same time, I think we all
Jared Colley:
know it's unsustainable. I think there's a reason that Google and
Jared Colley:
a lot of other companies out there are buying nuclear
Jared Colley:
reactors scanning signals here as a futures thinker, they know
Jared Colley:
that when we go to scale with artificial intelligence and the
Jared Colley:
demand of energy, the demand of carbon emission, that that is
Jared Colley:
going to exact upon our planet. How are we going to do that? And
Jared Colley:
so there are new questions to be asked. There are not answers
Jared Colley:
that have now solved as much as they have brought us to a new
Jared Colley:
horizon for new questions. So not only should we start with
Jared Colley:
questions, we also end with questions, which begins in.
Jared Colley:
Start. So going back to that was a really kind of roundabout way
Jared Colley:
of answering one question you asked, but we start with
Jared Colley:
preschoolers with start with questions, right? And we want to
Jared Colley:
build that curiosity, and we want to build that lack of
Jared Colley:
complacency, that answers have been answered, there's always
Jared Colley:
new questions to be asked, and that is one way that we try to
Jared Colley:
build something in our students, a mindset, a mental model, a way
Jared Colley:
of comporting oneself to the world, that they continue to
Jared Colley:
build a capacity in, that they continue to work that muscle in
Jared Colley:
as they move all the way through till they get to grade 12. And
Jared Colley:
there's a lot of other ways to answer that question of how we
Jared Colley:
are building continuity around competencies that we think are
Jared Colley:
important in a modern learning context or in a futures thinking
Jared Colley:
context, but that's one example I would give.
Bill Stites:
One of the things you said there when you were
Bill Stites:
just really focusing on the questions. You know, one of the
Bill Stites:
things that we ask people here a lot of questions about is their
Bill Stites:
thoughts on AI. And one of the things that I think has come up
Bill Stites:
about questions in general, at least in the conversations that
Bill Stites:
I've been in, is that questions almost become the check for
Bill Stites:
understanding. When you worry that AI can give you all the
Bill Stites:
answers, it becomes less about the answer that you get or that
Bill Stites:
you write down on the paper more about your ability either to ask
Bill Stites:
the question or have a conversation and ask deeper
Bill Stites:
questions that truly represent what you were able to learn from
Bill Stites:
that. So one of the things that I'm seeing, and I'm kind of
Bill Stites:
interested in tracking, is if the concern around AI is about
Bill Stites:
it giving you the answers, then we need to focus more on exactly
Bill Stites:
what you're saying, the ability to generate those questions in
Bill Stites:
meaningful ways that point to what it is I've gathered from
Bill Stites:
the work that I've done, Hiram posted in the chat, and you can
Bill Stites:
jump in on this more if you want to. It's the idea of AI being
Bill Stites:
that thought partner in a lot of the work that we're doing. But
Bill Stites:
you've still gotta have those competencies and those
Bill Stites:
understandings to be able to question things in the right
Bill Stites:
way. Absolutely,
Jared Colley:
I'm gonna respond to that. But I also just wanna
Jared Colley:
say, and this is the educator coming out in me, is that we
Jared Colley:
have to be careful. And I'm gonna use an educator framework,
Jared Colley:
depth of knowledge framework, so those that are listening that
Jared Colley:
might be more in the technology world and not as much in the
Jared Colley:
curriculum world. Depth of Knowledge is just a framework to
Jared Colley:
think about complexity of what you're asking kids to do, right?
Jared Colley:
So Dok one is recalling facts, being able to know things. Dok
Jared Colley:
two, next level might be application and explanation in
Jared Colley:
the ability to do that. And we might say that Dok three is now
Jared Colley:
okay. Now take that and start to think really strategically about
Jared Colley:
what you're going to do with all that. And you know, dok four
Jared Colley:
might be like, how are you transferring all this to totally
Jared Colley:
new context that you couldn't even predict were going to
Jared Colley:
happen? So Extended Thinking. And so I first just want to say,
Jared Colley:
I think something we have to be cautious about is that Dok one
Jared Colley:
is just as important as Dok two, dok three, dok four. And so AI
Jared Colley:
is doing a great job as a thought partner of leap frogging
Jared Colley:
kids to Dok three and four work as a thought partner how to
Jared Colley:
think strategically, how to extend their thinking. But
Jared Colley:
students need to know things. I think about that even. You know,
Jared Colley:
I'm not getting political, but let's just say, for the sake of
Jared Colley:
our democracy, kids need to know things, and they can't just rely
Jared Colley:
on technology to give them answers. And so I had to have
Jared Colley:
that soap box moment. And everybody on my campus will tell
Jared Colley:
you, I'm the proselytizer of you got to integrate AI in your
Jared Colley:
class, so I'm not the guy here that's saying, oh my gosh, AI is
Jared Colley:
doing something dangerous. It's dialectical, isn't it? Both
Jared Colley:
truths are true, right? There are things that we have to be
Jared Colley:
worried about, and there are things that we got to be so
Jared Colley:
excited about, where AI is this thought partner? But to your
Jared Colley:
question about being a thought partner, I'll just share it an
Jared Colley:
answer through story telling, which is, although I'm out of
Jared Colley:
the classroom and Kristina, I love the beginning of our
Jared Colley:
conversation, where you said you visited a school, and it just
Jared Colley:
reminded you of the joy of being in a hallway and seeing student
Jared Colley:
work. Let me share my own version of that. I'm teaching a
Jared Colley:
course right now, even though I'm a full time administrator,
Jared Colley:
I'm also a consultant for our NV ventures, R and D company, but I
Jared Colley:
also teach a class, and the class I'm teaching right now is
Jared Colley:
called philosophy in the age of artificial intelligence, and we
Jared Colley:
are doing three things in that class, and our mission statement
Jared Colley:
at Mount Vernon is we are a school of inquiry, innovation
Jared Colley:
and impact. So every single week we are inquiring
Jared Colley:
philosophically. What I really mean by that is we're reading
Jared Colley:
academic papers by John Searle about, can a machine ever be
Jared Colley:
conscious, or is consciousness in some way necessarily tied? To
Jared Colley:
biological systems. So we're inquiring philosophically, but
Jared Colley:
we are also innovating experimentally, and we are also
Jared Colley:
examining technology's impact. And that latter way that we do
Jared Colley:
that is we also read a fun sci fi story every week, and it's
Jared Colley:
usually some sort of sci fi story that's showing the impact
Jared Colley:
of technology in some speculative future, and it gets
Jared Colley:
us talking about it, ethically, gets us talking about it,
Jared Colley:
philosophically, speculatively. Where is this going? But I want
Jared Colley:
to go back to the middle one. The other thing that we do in
Jared Colley:
our class every week is we are innovating experimentally. And
Jared Colley:
so the kids have a task board. It's like a tic tac toe board,
Jared Colley:
and each of the boxes is like something that like go try this
Jared Colley:
with AI, and I'm Trojan horsing them a little bit because the
Jared Colley:
prompts are very much getting them to use AI as a thought
Jared Colley:
partner, not as an answer giver, not as the problem solver, but
Jared Colley:
as something that they have to engage with and start to get
Jared Colley:
better at asking it the right questions, getting better at how
Jared Colley:
to evaluate the answers it gives back, or the suggestions it
Jared Colley:
might be prompting them to think about. And they go and they do
Jared Colley:
something every week. I'll just give an example. One of the
Jared Colley:
boxes says, like build a bot that is a study partner for
Jared Colley:
something that you need to drill down on and study or build it
Jared Colley:
for a friend and test it, get feedback and come back and tell
Jared Colley:
us how it went. And that's not the end of the assignment. They
Jared Colley:
also have a series of questions they have to answer, and it's
Jared Colley:
based on one of the project zero thinking routines. And so what
Jared Colley:
new ideas did it get you to consider? It also asks you, what
Jared Colley:
could have been improved? Where did it not work well, and where
Jared Colley:
did it fall flat? And so they also, as they go through this
Jared Colley:
routine every week of experimenting with AI
Jared Colley:
innovatively, they're really thinking about it evaluatively,
Jared Colley:
which is the ok for by the way, they are thinking about it
Jared Colley:
evaluatively, and where is it a good thought partner? Where is
Jared Colley:
it a good task partner? Where does it not work well? And they
Jared Colley:
reflect on that every week. We assign things through what we
Jared Colley:
call a proverbial card. They use this card, and they go through
Jared Colley:
that thinking routine. They show the evidence of a chat log, or
Jared Colley:
whatever it is. They need to show evidence of of how they
Jared Colley:
used it, but they're also doing that evaluative reflection, and
Jared Colley:
so that gets them back to asking the right questions about AI,
Jared Colley:
about the human role, about the human advantage, about the AI
Jared Colley:
advantage, and how those two things come together to create
Jared Colley:
what I call collective intelligence. And if we go back
Jared Colley:
to SAMR, right? Are we just using AI to substitute? Maybe
Jared Colley:
not that great. Are we using AI to augment something we do? Are
Jared Colley:
we using it to modify something we do, or has it redefined
Jared Colley:
something for us? Right? And so it's getting them to ask those
Jared Colley:
questions without necessarily making it the same or model, but
Jared Colley:
it's getting them to interrogate, like, Where does AI
Jared Colley:
fit in? Well, because a competency that is important for
Jared Colley:
our students to thrive in the age of intelligent machines is
Jared Colley:
to be able to work well with machines, and that is something
Jared Colley:
that these students need to practice. And I understand why
Jared Colley:
some classes are struggling with figuring out how to give kids
Jared Colley:
that opportunity. I have great empathy for a lot of teachers
Jared Colley:
who are threatened by what AI is bringing into their classroom,
Jared Colley:
and I think we have to approach this conversation with teachers
Jared Colley:
with great understanding, with active listening and with a deep
Jared Colley:
sense of empathy, because there are things, there are stories of
Jared Colley:
an assignment that I have given for years, and I have these
Jared Colley:
memories of these experiences and these relationships I built,
Jared Colley:
and AI is disrupting that in the bad way, because now my kids
Jared Colley:
aren't doing it the way we used To do it, and it's easy, I
Jared Colley:
think, for us that are thinking creatively and we have time to
Jared Colley:
think creatively about technology's application, it's
Jared Colley:
easy for us to be like, Oh, get a growth mindset. But no,
Jared Colley:
there's a lot of mourning, and I mean that M, o, u, r, N, I N, G,
Jared Colley:
there is a lot of mourning and processing that I think a lot of
Jared Colley:
great instructors are having to go through right now in terms of
Jared Colley:
what AI might be doing to their classroom. And so I understand
Jared Colley:
why some of the things I'm getting to do in my class may be
Jared Colley:
a little bit more difficult in some other contexts. And I just
Jared Colley:
want you to know on my task board, it does say, if you're
Jared Colley:
going to use this AI experimentation another class, I
Jared Colley:
have to have written permission from that teacher. I, in no way
Jared Colley:
am going to be the person who encourages you to go use AI in
Jared Colley:
another teacher's class without us, First all, being on some
Jared Colley:
sort of shared understanding level of agreement.
Christina Lewellen:
So Jared before we run. Out of Time, I do
Christina Lewellen:
want to circle back to the ventures piece of things,
Christina Lewellen:
because I think that that's a really interesting and creative
Christina Lewellen:
aspect of your school that is a little unusual. There's
Christina Lewellen:
incredible publications coming out of the space that I really
Christina Lewellen:
enjoy, but Mount Vernon Ventures is your research development and
Christina Lewellen:
consulting division of the school. Can you just take a
Christina Lewellen:
minute and tell us a little bit about where that came from and
Christina Lewellen:
how in the world, does that fit in the larger mission of the
Christina Lewellen:
school?
Jared Colley:
Yes, I'll start with where it came from, and
Jared Colley:
that predates me, and so I want to start by apologizing to those
Jared Colley:
who predate me if I don't tell the story to the utmost fidelity
Jared Colley:
and accuracy, forgive me. But it started with the Mount Vernon
Jared Colley:
Institute for Innovation, M, V, I, Fi is what it was called, and
Jared Colley:
it was a group of people who were doing great, innovative
Jared Colley:
work that was getting the attention of other schools. And
Jared Colley:
people were asking questions, and people were wanting to know
Jared Colley:
more. And a group of people on this campus, led by Bo Adams, I
Jared Colley:
know a lot of listeners who are going to probably listen to this
Jared Colley:
podcast will know exactly who Bo Adams is. He's had a great
Jared Colley:
impact upon the educational community across this country.
Jared Colley:
Bo was leading a team of MVI phi Mount Vernon Institute for
Jared Colley:
Innovation, and I think it was just born out of we were doing
Jared Colley:
interesting things with design thinking. We were doing
Jared Colley:
interesting things with just curricular innovation. We were
Jared Colley:
doing interesting things with project based learning. We were
Jared Colley:
doing interesting things with what we might call expeditionary
Jared Colley:
learning, where it doesn't have to happen in the four walls of
Jared Colley:
our classrooms, getting kids out into place based learning
Jared Colley:
scenarios. And I think a lot of schools were wondering like, how
Jared Colley:
are you doing that at scale? And it became very, very obvious to
Jared Colley:
us that there's a service that we could provide, but greater
Jared Colley:
community of schools. And I think we've always had the
Jared Colley:
philosophy that we're not just here to be a school that's
Jared Colley:
changing in a way that we know is research based and also best
Jared Colley:
for our students. But we want to also change the educational
Jared Colley:
landscape beyond our school as well, and we want to have a role
Jared Colley:
in that. I know that Atlas wants to have a role in that, that we
Jared Colley:
are all probably have a shared vocation, passion and motivation
Jared Colley:
to not keep these things to ourselves and not just be the
Jared Colley:
innovative school and everybody else is still doing it a more
Jared Colley:
traditional way. But how might we transform this so that we
Jared Colley:
design a better world? And that is a phrase that we use here at
Jared Colley:
Mount Vernon quite often. How might we design a better world?
Jared Colley:
It started there, and then we rebranded as NV ventures in
Jared Colley:
recent years. And I would say that NV Ventures is really doing
Jared Colley:
two or three things, but two things that also sometimes leads
Jared Colley:
to a third thing. The first is we're doing research and
Jared Colley:
development. And thank you, Kristina, for saying that you've
Jared Colley:
enjoyed reading some of our publications. I am the editor of
Jared Colley:
our R and D reports that comes out, and so a lot of times that
Jared Colley:
means I have the privilege of getting to read research that's
Jared Colley:
going on, read other people's synthesis of research as editor,
Jared Colley:
and other times I'm the primary writer of some of these reports.
Jared Colley:
I wrote one of our reports on it's called Imagine, then, act
Jared Colley:
now, futures literacy for learning organizations. A year
Jared Colley:
or two ago, I wrote one called a people centered organization,
Jared Colley:
living in an AI world. And so those are ones where I got to be
Jared Colley:
a primary writer, but I also serve as an editor for other
Jared Colley:
researchers and other writers that are a part of our team that
Jared Colley:
are doing great work and synthesizing great work that's
Jared Colley:
out there, and so that research and development aspect, I think
Jared Colley:
one way I would also explain why we think it adds value is that
Jared Colley:
most of us, our bandwidth is full, and most of us don't have
Jared Colley:
time to go around and synthesize a lot of research and show up at
Jared Colley:
meetings and be able to lead a team with confidence and say,
Jared Colley:
here's how we need to be thinking about this. So I think
Jared Colley:
AI is a great example writing that report about AI. What I
Jared Colley:
hope it did is it gave school leaders a document to read with
Jared Colley:
a playlist at the end of everything that got cited, so
Jared Colley:
that they could have what they need to know to be able to go
Jared Colley:
into a meeting and lead with intentionality, lead with
Jared Colley:
purpose, but also lead from a informed perspective on
Jared Colley:
something that needs to be talked about, but who has the
Jared Colley:
bandwidth to do the research. And so that is one service that
Jared Colley:
we at MV ventures are trying to provide for the greater
Jared Colley:
educational community. I think the second thing that we also do
Jared Colley:
is we work with clients, and so we work in a consulting capacity
Jared Colley:
around a lot of different issues, whether that's brand
Jared Colley:
development, whether that's working on strategy, strategic
Jared Colley:
plan, we like to talk about strategic positioning and a
Jared Colley:
futures thinking framework, whether that be going to scale
Jared Colley:
on transforming your assessment practices, because you want to
Jared Colley:
move to a competency based model. So there's a. Lot of
Jared Colley:
things that we consult with schools on. And the third thing
Jared Colley:
that that sometimes leads to is product development, developing
Jared Colley:
our own tools that we often provide for other schools.
Jared Colley:
Sometimes it's free, sometimes they cost something. But product
Jared Colley:
development is not our primary purpose. It's a bonus outcome of
Jared Colley:
that more important work that I think we're doing around
Jared Colley:
research synthesis and consulting work to help
Jared Colley:
transform schools that perhaps need a little bit of support in
Jared Colley:
doing that. Do
Christina Lewellen:
you have an example of a product that you've
Christina Lewellen:
developed? I mean, like aI chat bots or, like, what kind of
Christina Lewellen:
product as an example? I
Jared Colley:
could give several, but I'll stick to one.
Jared Colley:
A while back, we did a product that's called it's a design
Jared Colley:
thinking Field Guide to borrow from Harvard's Project Zero.
Jared Colley:
It's kind of like visible thinking routines that help a
Jared Colley:
team do more intentional outcomes focused design thinking
Jared Colley:
work. But I share that product as well, because now we have a
Jared Colley:
design thinking Field Guide for littles, because at first like,
Jared Colley:
oh, adults can do design thinking. But what we quickly
Jared Colley:
started using this resource for, and a lot of other schools are
Jared Colley:
using it for, is they're having students use this resource and
Jared Colley:
use these tools in their classes. It helps scaffold them
Jared Colley:
on giving better feedback and peer to peer feedback with
Jared Colley:
certain thinking routines. It helps them and their design
Jared Colley:
process and their iteration process and whatever project
Jared Colley:
they working on. And so not only are adults using that field
Jared Colley:
guide, so are students, but it became evidently clear we need
Jared Colley:
one for littles. And so a recent product that we developed is our
Jared Colley:
design thinking Field Guide for littles. And so the language and
Jared Colley:
the complexity of the tools are developmentally appropriate for
Jared Colley:
that age group. And again, it's also another example of us
Jared Colley:
having a continuity of building capacity around a skill that we
Jared Colley:
think is important at Mount Vernon, from the little ones all
Jared Colley:
the way to the adults. And to borrow a quote from our former
Jared Colley:
Director of Innovation diploma, Brad droke, age does not equal
Jared Colley:
capacity. And littles can do great work. Middle schoolers can
Jared Colley:
do amazing work. High schoolers can do amazing work, just like
Jared Colley:
we adults. That's
Christina Lewellen:
really cool. What a full circle kind of
Christina Lewellen:
conversation we've been having here today. I love it. You put a
Christina Lewellen:
lot more research and deep thinking around where we started
Christina Lewellen:
this conversation, but it's been really, really insightful. You
Christina Lewellen:
know, as we kind of wrap up here, I do have just a couple
Christina Lewellen:
questions for you. What are you reading and thinking about right
Christina Lewellen:
now, in your own world, what's interesting you or capturing
Christina Lewellen:
your attention?
Jared Colley:
I'm reading two things right now. One has to do
Jared Colley:
with some research that we're doing, which is, I'm reading a
Jared Colley:
lot about how do we put into place, from a systems thinking
Jared Colley:
point of view, programs that lead to professional growth that
Jared Colley:
is personalized, that is customizable, but is also
Jared Colley:
mission aligned, and is also ensuring equity and growth for
Jared Colley:
everyone, and providing pathways for growth that lead to greater
Jared Colley:
opportunity. So we've developed, for instance, our own system of
Jared Colley:
competencies for faculty and our system of competencies for
Jared Colley:
administrative leaders. And what does a systemic approach to
Jared Colley:
improvement for every individual in your organization? What does
Jared Colley:
that look like? And how can you do that at scale? And how can
Jared Colley:
you do that at scale again, in this context where what does it
Jared Colley:
mean to improve? And we don't know what schools look like in
Jared Colley:
10 years, and so that's one area that I'm doing a lot of reading,
Jared Colley:
and another area that I'm doing a lot of research right now is,
Jared Colley:
I think it's very important that we don't forget about the fact
Jared Colley:
that we need to build ecological literacy and competencies, and
Jared Colley:
to our students and to our staff and to our organizations. And so
Jared Colley:
I'm also reading a lot of literature around like, what do
Jared Colley:
we need to get skillful at to handle the wicked problems that
Jared Colley:
extreme weather events, that climate change, that depletion
Jared Colley:
of resources are going to be presenting, not just to us, but
Jared Colley:
really to our next generation of learners. And it's not up to
Jared Colley:
them to solve it. It's up for us to start thinking about that now
Jared Colley:
and to start building the frameworks that provide a vision
Jared Colley:
of what those competencies and skills look like. And so again,
Jared Colley:
getting back to collective intelligence, there's the human
Jared Colley:
and human centered design is really important. There's the
Jared Colley:
technology, and the technology as a thought partner and an
Jared Colley:
augmenter and a modifier is important. And there is nature.
Jared Colley:
And we also need to be thinking about the more than human world
Jared Colley:
and the more than human centered design perspectives that are
Jared Colley:
really important right now. That's my long winded answer to
Jared Colley:
say. I'm reading a lot of books about that stuff.
Christina Lewellen:
I love it. And will we see you at the Atlas
Christina Lewellen:
conference coming up in a couple of months?
Jared Colley:
You're gonna be in my hometown. I will be here, and
Jared Colley:
I think I'm doing a session with two great friends. This
Jared Colley:
organization, Vinnie rotney And Matt school, that's a good one
Jared Colley:
can't miss. Yes, please come visit with us, even if you don't
Jared Colley:
come to our session. Let's talk. Let's talk in the hallways. But
Jared Colley:
also just, I want to just say thank you. We've had a couple
Jared Colley:
students that are have been invited to be on a panel this
Jared Colley:
year at the Atlas conference here in Atlanta, and I am so
Jared Colley:
excited that all of you are going to get to see and hear
Jared Colley:
from our Mount Vernon students and how they're thinking about a
Jared Colley:
lot of these things.
Christina Lewellen:
I know I'm really excited. I'm glad you
Christina Lewellen:
brought that up last year. Dr Paul Turnbull, from the Mid
Christina Lewellen:
Pacific school out in Hawaii, pulled me aside on the final
Christina Lewellen:
morning and said, you know, Kristina, this conference is
Christina Lewellen:
just so cool. We've got to get students here, and we found a
Christina Lewellen:
few different ways to honor and recognize and elevate our
Christina Lewellen:
students voices. So I'm really looking forward to that. So
Christina Lewellen:
thank you for being a facilitator in all of that.
Christina Lewellen:
Yeah, well,
Bill Stites:
thank you judge. The one thing I want to say is
Bill Stites:
good luck with both Vinnie and Matt. You're gonna need to be on
Bill Stites:
your A game to keep the two of them focused and going in the
Bill Stites:
right direction. But the one thing I honestly want to do, I
Bill Stites:
was joking in the chat, you know, I said to Kristina in the
Bill Stites:
back end here that my head is about to explode after this
Bill Stites:
conversation in all of the best ways, right? And I've been
Bill Stites:
watching and I'm challenging Peter Frank, who is our
Bill Stites:
producer, who's been filling in all of the show notes with every
Bill Stites:
reference. I'm sitting here, I'm taking notes, I'm googling
Bill Stites:
stuff. I'm like, what was that? What did he just say? So I want
Bill Stites:
to thank you for what was truly a mind expanding conversation,
Bill Stites:
as you said, a lot of deep thinking, a lot of really good
Bill Stites:
stuff that I'm gonna have to go back to. I said, before you came
Bill Stites:
on, you know, I was re listening to some of our recent episodes,
Bill Stites:
and I'm gonna have to give this one another listen, because
Bill Stites:
there's a lot of great stuff here, and I think everyone's
Bill Stites:
gonna get a lot out of it. So thank you,
Unknown:
100% Absolutely. Thank
Jared Colley:
you, Bill, yeah,
Christina Lewellen:
thank you for challenging us. This was
Christina Lewellen:
wonderful. Jared, thank you for your time.
Peter Frank:
This has been talking technology with Atlas,
Peter Frank:
produced by the Association of Technology Leaders in
Peter Frank:
Independent Schools. For more information about Atlas and
Peter Frank:
Atlas membership, please visit the atlas.org if you enjoyed
Peter Frank:
this discussion, please subscribe, leave a review and
Peter Frank:
share this podcast with your colleagues in the independent
Peter Frank:
school community. Thank you for listening. You.
