I don’t know about you, but being the researcher on Common Core Standards that I’ve become, I get quite a bit of email. So, imagine my surprise when I received the following excerpt, “Join us for this two-day opportunity to connect and collaborate with colleagues from the school, library, museum, and home learning worlds–and anyone interested in reinventing how we think about and facilitate learning.” After this there was the usual kind of details one expects when you get an invitation. Of course, at the bottom of the email are the links to learn more about those who are presenting and have provided resources before hand. One of those links will serve as our Riddle on this “Riddle Me This” Sunday. Will it lead us to Common Core? Let’s find out!
“What IF?…”
The riddle above (at least for the conference I was receiving this invitation to) was completed by the phrase “360 Learning” So the entire ‘riddle’ would read “What IF…? 360 Learning”. The main goal of the conference..ahh, my anti CCSS friends, why according to this invitation, it’s ‘reinventing education’!
“What If…360?”:
Website: http://www.whatif360.com/
The main feeling of the organization appears to be major change makers. Now, in certain situations, changes are fine, BUT with all the current ‘reinventing of education’ going on, I’m not sold that this organization’s any different. So, let’s continue dig into them, shall we?
Their philosophy in the classrooms for K-12: “Effective education relies on student-centered approaches and blurring the lines between learner and educator.”
Their philosophy in the classrooms for post-secondary: “encouraging people to take a more liberal arts approach to life into a movement empowering a global community to share their ideas, create networks of communication, and collaborate in designing actions.”
Pardon me, but does any of this sound the least bit familiar to CCSS?
Staffers and their ties to Common Core?
According to 360’s website 3 smiling faces comprise the staff. Here’s what I was able to find on them. (to see the staff’s 360 stuff: http://www.whatif360.com/about/ (scroll to the bottom)
Felicia Rateliff is 360’s ‘woman behind the curtain’. Her Common Core past, thanks to Linkedin features her work in MO for pushing for CTE (Career Tech Education) via Perkins Funding. She also spent 7 years writing CTE Curriculum (I’ve published several posts about CTE and the Common Core post secondary ties). (to see Ms. Rateliff’s CC past, https://www.linkedin.com/in/feliciarateliff)
Matthew Murrie is 360’s ‘leader of doers’. His CC present includes ‘edupreneurship’. If you’d like to see all the others interested in ‘edupreneurship’, head to Twitter and search for the term. You’ll be ‘pleased’ to know that Common Core Ed Tech is a big follower. (see: https://twitter.com/hashtag/Edupreneurship?src=hash) You can also see Mr. Murrie’s Huffington Post “What If?” entry: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matt-murrie/what-if-we-embraced-edupr_b_3342677.html *Note his shout out to the global initiatives and education.
Audrey Bellis is 360’s ‘program developer’. Her CC involvement includes advocating for STEM to STEaM reform. (see: http://community.good.is/steam) *Note: if you’ve not heard about the STEM to STEaM education reform, stay tuned. I can tell you the ties between CCSS, STEM and STEaM are no accident. If you didn’t know STEM is the main point and CCSS is the vehicle, with STEaM as an add-on, then be sure to see the post I wrote back in late 2014 called “PCAST, STEM and Common Core”.
Their promo video:
As you watch this short clip, consider asking ‘what if’? NOW knowing how supportive their work is towards CCSS.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsTROzLenso&w=560&h=315]
Others Involved:
The 360 group isn’t the only one who will be at the conference I was invited to. There are at least 2 others. One is titled “Reinventing Learning”, the other “The Learning Revolution”.
Links: http://learningrevolution.com/ (hosts on-line/in-person education events) *Note: between the partners and sponsors, plenty of CC backers, funders, and profit makers.
http://www.reinventing.education/ (companion site for all the conferences with the ‘reinvent ed’ theme)
Closing:
Well, I think the answer to our riddle today has been fairly easy to discover, do you?
Here’s a riddle I’d like to pose to all those who are so bent on re-imagining education via CCSS…What say we go away from illegally crafted, developmentally inappropriate education and get serious about the people involved instead of the nebulous cloud of global good?