The 4Cs Locally/Nationally/Globally
As the school year is almost complete, I was reflecting on the process within the Foundry Makerspace. Throughout my time at the Foundry, I have had several discussions with people of all backgrounds, regarding the topic of why making is important, and more importantly, why an educational makerspace is necessary. I my travels over the past year, I've talked to students, teachers, parents, non-parents, individuals, young & old, residents in cities, suburbs and rural areas, through my travels in various geographic areas - PA, MA, NY, MD, and NC. I've amassed quite a bit of anecdotal information on the topic of Makerspaces and STEAM. One thing that I learned from the process, is to frame the discussion in 21st Century Life & Learning, with the 4Cs: critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity (National Education Association).
The 4Cs could be seen in a classroom approach that focuses on experiential learning. This is most prominent in John Dewey’s 1938 book, Experience & Education. This type of educational model relates to the Makerspace and Design Thinking that I have spoke of in the past blog articles.
“Experiential [learning] is a philosophy and methodology in which educators purposefully engage with students in direct experience and focused reflection in order to increase knowledge, develop skills, and clarify values” (Association for Experiential Education, para. 2).
“Broadly, experiential learning is any learning that supports students in applying their knowledge and conceptual understanding to real-world problems or situations where the instructor directs and facilitates learning. The classroom, laboratory, or studio can serve as a setting for experiential learning through embedded activities such as case and problem-based studies, guided inquiry, simulations, experiments, or art projects" - (Wurdinger & Carlson, 2010)
Along with Experiential Learning/Education, I think it is possible to draw the connection to a newer process called Systems Thinking. The term Systems Thinking was coined by Barry Richmond's 1994 paper System Dynamics/Systems Thinking: Let's Just Get On With It.
"Systems Thinking is the art and science of making reliable inferences about behavior by developing an increasingly deep understanding of underlying structure."
It is exciting that the definition frames it as both an Art & a Science, as there is an interrelationship between the two. Unfortunately, the definition is a bit shallow as it doesn't dig deep enough in connecting the parts to a whole. Looking at things as a web of interactivity, seems to best describe the process.
"The ability to see the consequences of my own actions. You could also look at it from slightly different angles and say, to see the connections in any situation, and to understand better how things unfold over time. Because again we're reacting to an immediate situation, that's always assumed. Something happens and we react. We don't see how that situation may in fact been influenced by things we did, or contributed doing in the past. So to see more clearly how things unfold over time, and to see the web of interconnectedness, within which we always live and act, is really the technical definition of Systems Thinking." - Russell Sarder, Sarder TV interview with Peter Genge, Youtube, 6/4/2015
When we look at this diagram, we should be reminded of Design Thinking. The two are similar, however with System's Thinking the goal is in understanding the connections and not a goal of moving closer and closer to solving a Design Problem. Let's put a hold on this conversation and take a little more time to get back into the 4Cs.
The 4C Hierarchy - Embedded Creativity:
While I have no definitive proof that the 4Cs are purposely ordered the way they are, I think they might exhibit a hierarchy of student growth at any age K-12. I think that a student progresses through each of the 4Cs, the inevitable tie is to each is Creativity. It is undiscovered or untapped. Let's look at each of the 4Cs and consider the tie back to Creativity.
Critical Thinking & Creativity:
Personally, I believe that Critical Thinking is highly creative, because one must push beyond what is seen plainly. This is where the Scientific Method is extremely helpful. It causes one to put observation in a framework of steps.
Make an observation.
Ask a question.
Form a hypothesis, or testable explanation.
Make a prediction based on the hypothesis.
Test the prediction.
Iterate: use the results to make new hypotheses or predictions.
When looking for the exact steps for this method, I found that the Kahn Academy , has added an extra step #6 = Iterate. This sounds very similar to the FEEDBACK LOOP shown in the Systems Thinking diagram above. It also relates to the Design Thinking ITERATIONS, that I have spoke of in a previous March 2017 Blog article.
Communication & Creativity:
As for Communication, I believe this involves creative process of going beyond one’s headspace or one’s self. From our first steps, we see the world as revolving around us. We have needs as organized by Maslov = Basic Needs, Psychological Needs, and Self Fulfillment Needs. As we grow our mental capacity develops from concrete thinking to abstract thinking. A shift occurs through maturity, where we have an awareness beyond ourselves. To be successful, we must master our communication - written, verbal, and nonverbal.
Successful communication involves our creative ability to construct our arguments, sentences, and acquired information in a way so that an audience may receive it. If the message is not well received, I must be able to adapt and rephrase it through input. This is the extreme challenge of public speaking or teaching in a classroom for 180 days. A talented teacher can help frame the material in ways to reach the most students.
It should be noted that students should take an active role in trying to learn from a teacher, who might not be successfully conveying the material. This is extremely important at the college level. It is not a guarantee that every single teacher will be stellar, nor one of your favorites. Ideally, by the end of High School, students should have the ability to dig into subjects beyond their interests, no matter the role of a teacher. I personally believe that much of one's success in college is in one's ability take unfamiliar material and digest it.
On the other side of Communication there is listening. It takes creativity to shift into Empathetic Listening - http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/empathic-listening One must let go of personal bias, influences, and beliefs to successful walk in someone else’s shows. “Don’t judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes” Native American Cherokee Proverb
This takes imagination and helps to see our connections with others. It also helps us better define our own identity. Overall, in the process of Making, Communication helps to build “buy-in” for new ideas or techniques in groups who might be unfamiliar or thinking in a traditional way.
Collaboration & Creativity:
It goes without saying that Collaboration is essential in today's digital global environment. Even in Central PA, there are a multitude of opportunities to cross paths with many types of people from diverse backgrounds. There are many books that have discussed this topic, but one that I return back to was Thomas Friedman’s 2005 book, The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century. While the Internet has been one of the key driving factors in "world flattening", Friedman coined the term Triple Convergence in his research:
Global Playing Field (breakdown of geography and language barriers)
Horizontalization (disintegration of physical walls in buildings, or social boundaries)
Individual vs Organization (small scale individual engagement at the global level)
In all of this globalization we must not forget that we are not independent, but interdependent. Our work is relational. We have limited resources and if we collaborate those resources are shared in a way that can benefit all. This is especially true in art, because a created thing is either (1) influenced by other created things, or (2) influences a future created thing. We love to say that something is new or innovative, but in reality, there are bits cobbled together in a new way.
“What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.” - Ecclesiastes 1:9
The 4Cs Locally/Nationally:
In this discussion of the 4Cs, I see it in light of almost everything that is currently active at the local, state and federal levels. The 2016 Presidential Election stirred up a lot of discussion about inequality. This was evident in the areas of race, class, geography, educational attainment, and so forth. Over the past two months, I’ve picked up two books that I am trying to connect. The first is Richard Florida’s The New Urban Crisis: How Our Cities Are Increasing Inequality, Deepening Segregation, and Failing the Middle Class—and What We Can Do About It.
While this book looks at cities larger than Harrisburg (less than 50,000 in population), Florida provides plenty of insight of current trends. I believe these trends relate to smaller cities, and more importantly I believe there are lessons to learn in the transformation of those other cities. I believe that a paradigm shift in the 4Cs, through out Harrisburg and our nation, could be a step to benefiting everyone. This is extremely critical in light of a 5/26/2017 PennLive article looking back at the 2010 Census data, Are more people moving out of Harrisburg, York, Lancaster and Pittsburgh?
The second book is Thomas D. Davenport’s 2007 book, Human Capital: What It Is and Why People Invest It. In the book Davenport researches how companies view employees and poses a new terminology that values human capital and fostering it in any organization. The decades old thinking of "workers as assets" evolves into "workers as investors".
Unfortunately, that discussion will have to continue in next month's blog post, which will be the last for my time as a 2016-2017 Foundry Fellow. In the article, I attempt to draw educational conclusions to Davenport's book, considering "students as investors".
SCITECH TEACHER OF THE YEAR AWARD
Congratulations to Ms. Sunada Roberts in receiving the High School Teacher of the Year on 5/15/2017. The award was provided by the Harrisburg Public Schools Foundation. It was great to be a part of this event and work with Sunada at SciTech during the 2016-2017 academic year. More information can be found on PennLive. The video of the award can be found on the Harrisburg School District's Facebook Page.
MAKERSHIFT EVENT & LESSON'S LEARNED
On May 6th, the Makershift was held in Midtown Harrisburg. Overall, the event met the initial purpose of shifting the discussion of making to a larger audience, while building awareness of STEAM. I was at the Harrisburg Midtown Arts Center to oversee the Engineering category. It was at this location where we showcased robotics and had discussion about Engineering.
One thing that was a common thread was the need for STEAM activities/learning in Central PA. As I talked with students and parents who had visited the other areas, they continued to ask how they might be able to plug into learning. While it is easy for one to say, “just Google it,” it is not on people’s minds. A lot of the making happens in isolation, not by choice, but because the focus driving the making is more high tech. I saw this when I traveled to the 2016 World Maker Faire in NYC last October. There are those “in the know” who are trying to be open source, for the sake of helping others. I believe that some do not realize the importance of how they might connect to a larger audience. A wider, more diverse group is needed. In making, one should be considering access to resources, access to investment capital, and access to knowledge that is an underlying propellant to the maker movement. MakerEd is doing working to push into this area. We try and recognize this within the Foundry, and realize that the process is not perfect. It takes paradigm shift. Part of this shift is recognized by Robert Putnam as the "opportunity gap", which is the focus of Putnam's 2016 book, Our Kids.
This shift to 4Cs in education, provides a means to bridge the opportunity gap, and in the mindset of Davenport’s book, should be seen as an investor gap. If we consider “Students as Investors,” within the framework of making, students may see themselves invested in their own learning; the learning at a school, and in a bigger sense, lifelong learning back into their own community.
