anya kamenetz
she blew us away with her book DIYU – it was a pot of gold – hailing the options available..
then – so that both could be free to read – mozilla financed – Learning, Freedom and the Web:
and Gates financed and The Edupunks’ Guide:
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latest version – edupunks’ atlas:
http://www.fastcompany.com/3015302/fast-companys-guide-to-the-generation-flux-college-degree
http://www.fastcompany.com/1325728/how-web-savvy-edupunks-are-transforming-american-higher-education
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here – she is hosting keynotes for dml’s Reclaim Open Learning Symposium:
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one of many ongoing great finds by Anya.. adding this one as it’s part of the nmc horizon report 2014
oct 2013:
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testing of 2014:
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may 2014 – npr ed:
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oct 2014 – Anya’s new site and book:
from amazon page on her book:
takes a step further to explore innovations in education—emerging solutions to the over-testing crisis—that are not widely known but that you can adapt today, at home and at school. And it presents the stories of families of all kinds who are maneuvering within and beyond the existing educational system, playing and winning the testing game. You’ll learn, for example, what Bill Gates, a strong public proponent of testing, does to stoke self-directed curiosity in his children, and how Mackenzie Bezos, wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and mother of three, creates individualized learning experiences for each of her children.
All parents want their children to be successful, and their schools to deliver true opportunities. Yet these goals are often as likely to result in stress and arguments as actual progress. The Test is a book to help us think about these problems, and ultimately, move our own children towards the future we want for them, from elementary to high school and beyond.
?
whoa.
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here’s an excerpt from #thetest in @salon! http://t.co/T34fNK4WaQ
Original Tweet: https://twitter.com/anya1anya/status/551403473611554816
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pbs hour interview:
Is ‘The Test’ failing American schools?
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As a mom, The Test by @anya1anya is must-read to play & win the testing game in schools; blog:http://t.co/EsfygxXwWt
Original Tweet: https://twitter.com/jbayha/status/551979054207733762
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Anya reporting on tfa nov 2014:
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find/follow her here:
She writes for fastcompany, huffington post, …
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older writings:
march 2010 – shift in higher ed
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random notes from early on:
monday, july 26, 2010
anya kamenetz at #wec10
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thursday, february 17, 2011
anya kamenetz
mike davis up first reminding parents – you model behavior for students.
Anya – live – how lucky am i.
her words as best i could capture them (i didn’t see anyone videoing this..shame if not)
ultimate lesson: exciting time to be a learner
i’m not an academic, not an educator, i’m a journalist , come from the outside and ask annoying questions
john meyer, stanford, speaks of oxford: a cathedral of rationality
such a bedrock articl of faith
the sacredness of that cathedrasl rationality has made it hard not to evolve
in america we made college ed the centerpiece of the american dream
1) higher ed for small % of white men
2) 1965- turned to open doors toa ll, 70″s community colleges popped up 1 every 2 weeks
the masterplan – charles reed, csu system today, says masterplan is dead (before 2008 crash)
no longer have resources to back the promises we made
college tuition has grown over any other good or services in last 20-30 years
1) massification – broad opportunity
2) cost shifting – play between fed/state level funding
3) student loans – cheap money gets people less sensitive to high costs
4) baumel’s cost disease – 1966 performing arts dilemma – you cannot outsource a string quartet, you can’t cut the cello, an immanable (?) 1st person experience
say ed is personal so no other way to do it
looking at not only what’s possible with tech – but what’s possible in lowering the cost with tech
45% – no significant gains 1st 2 years of college
36% – no significant gains over 4 years of college
remember this black box – when we’re trying to decide if change is worth the risk
are students taking responsibility – are they engaging
1) they are working harder – most have jobs
2) in the flow of communication (fb, twitter, text, google, youtube, etc) – too much is not happening in the classroom
this is a magnitude of missed opportunity
a waste of resources – how do we redeploy them
music industry – records replaced by digitial downloads people are seeking out personalization, through privacy
then they seek out face to face, because that’s immanable ? (want to find that word)
resources flow into in person experiences
cathy davidson – hastac
daniel pink: design/function, story/argument, symphany/focus, empathy/, play/, one more (get that slide)
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content, socialization, accreditation, all 3 are being affected with openness:
open courseware at mit, 95 mill access it, offered couple thous for profs that allow videoing, etc (which by the way encourages them to improve their lectures)
cost of distributing ivy league course drops to 0, so what will ivy league provide
teds, khan academy, etc
all moving faster than an official curricula can move,
computer based program, carnegie mellon, presented at levels like a video game, allow students to cover more material (and i would add – per choice)
flatworld knowledge – save $1000/year per kid on text books
2 bill for creation of vocational courseware
hopkin? (find him) asst to deputy, says unis will be irrelevant in 30-35 yrs, and not going away till irrelevant
socialization
pln’s everyone has one, not just people but info
youtube
if you can do it (learn via youtube) with a skateboard, how do you do it with a math trick, a resume, an app letter (again – per choice, only – just in time and per choice)
university of mary washington – blog platform, sharing w/world vs reports to be trashed
feedback from world brings intrinsic motivation
complementary, supplementary, and some replace all together
behance network, scott belsky, companies recruiting straight off this website, true peer review (whoa – hadn’t seen/heard of this – take a look at the gallery)
reputation based systems (we rely on them more than a priest/dr/etc)
the younger kids learn how to represent themselves on these networks the better
linkedin has 90 mill members – data driven career planning – how to use it
find out – what did the other math majors do as a 1st job, 2md job, etc
a lot of students make career based decisions based on too little info – this is huge – we need more of Anya’s message
#1 employer of ivy leagues – teach america/year in africa – nothing wrong with either, but if they knew more of their options at the front end..
the new way – college is a piece of success. options are huge
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from q&a:
as an employer, how do you start to evaluate students?
co-evolution has to take place:
1) institutions who’s basis is assessment, per specialization, you pay to get reliable vouching
2) portfolio – where you can see the work
3) reputation – large % of hiring here, has been this way before
hiring is an arbitrage process – so an arbitrage opportunity
in this new model – what about writing? i find it’s the hardest thing to teach.
internet is text based
(well has tons of text in it – google still just sees text but- is it not more video based -tapping into speakertext, 3d-ish, kelly’s what tech wants. i would offer the suggestion, the key is in words like teach, and run a class, etc, like Anya pointed out in the beginning, the black box, teaching writing doesn’t get at the essence of it, and excellent consideration, writing, because it is huge – would love to hear how Anya thinks she got to be such a good writer – here’s Kate)
is it (still wondering what people are defining it to be) going to make it more competitive?
there are more opportunities for people currently without a voice/invisible that have talent to rise and for those in high places with no talent to fall
(my thinking: competition becomes mute as people are allowed options to be themselves, no one can compare to you, so the competition, you could say, turns in to – how can i be the best me – everyone finding their nitch – comes down to godin’s – indispensable people)
what about those with learning disabilities?
there’s mass customization, it it’s tailored and not just thrown out there – ie: you find it – then tech can certainly be a plus
seems choices are highly complicating things, do you see simplicity down the road?
old dewey decimal system to google search box
google is simpler but system behind it is more complex
everything is miscellaneous, more simplified at the level of the user
(steven johnson’s adjacent possibilities, and again kelly’s – what tech wants: minimize to self, maximize to world)
what about organization establishing curriculum? seems very chaotic.
university = guild, community helping you funnel through
my notes from her talks on this – wec10 and tedxatlanta
how do you get kids prepared for this?
ed no longer as a service – like hot water, now has to be in hands of the learner
culture that says yes instead of no – allows for that (i’m assuming this means less rules/policy/filtering/etc)
huge: make failure part of learning. (godin again – part 6 video)
talked about how she didn’t let herself fail even through college
this is a supplement – ivy bridge – (not sure if that’s the right link, missed that connection/explanation)
how do you assess the merit of the content?
perfect answer – we’re comparing it to a black box – her very opening, that more than 1/2 – no significant gains
piece of improvement happens w/open courseware, profs lectures are now online, they improve, bigger audience
for optimal – we need the back end connection to employers, asking them to eval a portfolio, give feedback, recommend content, action, etc
what about the core curriculum and liberal arts that bring a continuity of community?
she’s found in her research, that continuity of these is merely an illusion
no – i meant community from common knowlege..
core vs specialization, this actually brings us closer together, bridges
she said – may still have groups – math people – sharing – with others not joining in, {i may be misrepresenting her here – well – all throughout, no? this is all my interpretation of what she said}
[Anya touches on this in her post on ed – it’s an overriding curriculum, if you will, of learning how to learn, no matter what:
No decision of curriculum, grade, or whatever should be imposed from above without students taking responsibility for their own learning. This would drive diversity within the system as it adapts to a multiplicity of needs, freeing everyone from the yoke of standardization.
this drives diversity to a limit, that limit forces us, or let’s us, finally, zoom out, to what we’re really after in the first place, how do you learn, how do you get better at things, etc… that’s our commonality, and it’s much more humane ]
what about the danger, who we trust, how do we teach kids how to discern, teaching discrepancy?
we need to be teaching them to question everything, even us
now we’ve got many resources to verify, etc, many eyes on all we do
[something we needed to be doing all along anyway – and ties in nicely with mike’s first comments, the first sentence above, we all need to be gracefully questioning everything.]
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friday, june 10, 2011
anya kamenetz
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wednesday, august 18, 2010
anya kamenetz on ted

i love this:
My contention is that many of the cool things that TED does spread more widely than the cool things that Harvard does, because of its
attitude toward
openness
and its use of
social media.
Post fueled by @edleader21 @anya1anya & fireside chat w @pammoran & @AndrewWymer10s How Do We Unstandardize Testing? https://t.co/E8uTyYZ7dy
Original Tweet: https://twitter.com/mshaas68/status/671142814927966208
…periodically participating in low-stakes “tests” for school responsibility to impart the guaranteed curriculum.
app/chip/updates…like this: a nother way
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@pammoranA radio interview The Test: Why Our Schls R Obsessed w/ Standardized Testing – But… (w/ Anya Kamenetz) #satchatyoutu.be/wiXhFa3exiY
using testing to ration out ed resources.. but intelligence.. not really able to measure..
testing starts as finding the stars.. then 60s.. testing to find holes..
main stream bill of rights groups back these tests.. thinking they would fill the gap..
problem is tests we are using aren’t high quality..
?
lot of memorizatinon.. not developing learning… not helping kid long term
testing and punishing schools is obviously cheaper than remedies
9 min – what is number one problem .. if i had to break it down – high stakes attached to tests… because tests are so limited… being hostage to test scores… ie: cheating scandal/trial in atlanta..
if you tell people job is on line.. a rational choice..
telling kids they are a failure and it’s hereditary
14 min – you have to change assessments and you have to change accountability.. if you trusted teachers.. you wouldn’t have to rely on outside tests.. professionals don’t rely on outsiders to decide if doing a good job.. and what about making it accountable the other way… accountable for resource gap
18 min – prep for 21st cent – means prepping for something we can’t predict.. ie: curiosity..
22 min – a lot using khan or dream box.. biggest application is math… stealth assessment… ie: tracking progress in video game.. whole class tracked.. and kids don’t even know they’re being assessed…
?
23 min – team monkey – schools starting to use self report surveys for emotional health in a school.. what are they coming into school with..
24 min – not fluff.. if taken over time.. gallop.. good indicator.. silly to attach high stakes.. but indicator for decision making..
or.. redefine it all.. ie: decision making
25 min – butterfly is project based assessment.. places i’ve visiting.. really engaged students.. feeling what they are doing is real..
27 min – unicorn – games and situation.. to give high level assessment as team butterfly.. in data rich way – hard to compare kids performance across schools… game generates game engine gathering evidence decisions made through game and can determine ie: this student understands rhetoric, systems thinking at this level
29 min – those who want tests as element of control will never be convinced.. but also those who are concerned about equity.. rigor.. high standards.. and see high stakes tests as only way to enforce for all children.. open ness potential… building consensus on what we all believe is most important for kids
consensus ness… can we not be past that..?
30 min – i wrote the book.. people come to me saying how awful.. and i say.. you know it might be getting better now..
whoa..
31 min – pendulum swings and kids caught in middle.. hopefully over next 10 yrs.. we’ll see some (up swings)
10 yrs ..? whoa
33 min – i’m not a politician.. i’m a journalist who’s trying to tell the story… i think the parent’s revolt is important… ie: long island… opt out parents going into school boards… as far as how assessments are changing we do need to offer an alternative… ie: what do you got instead..
34 min – our business world wants people who can succeed and compete… the way to get better isn’t going to be some mechanistic solution. great creative teachers and empower them… to me that’s a powerful tactic..
competition.. oy
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book talk at bookstore jan 2015
tests are games and tests can be gamed..
on the kind of society/people/kids we want to cultivate and what we are holding kids accountable for .. i want to talk about expectation and achievement gap… you manage what you measure..
oy..perhaps we let go of both.. managing and measuring..
8 min – all the stuff i did w/ higher ed.. then i had a kid.. so i wrote diy k-12 about all innovations going on.. homeschoolers/unschooling/maker movement/ pbl/et al.. it was really cool stuff.. connected educators on twitter.. amazing stuff going on .. yet none of these have broken into mainstream…
10 min – if so great.. why isn’t this breaking into mainstream.. problem… no time to experiment..because of testing… led me to write about nclb.. nation at risk.. sputnik .. et al..
11 min – writing on higher ed – international.. writing on k-12 unavoidably personal/political
12 min – why i wrote book – who i wrote it for.. to offer alternatives… possible vision of change
(haven’t watched all yet – q and a starts at 13 min)
love the girl.
we’ve got to disengage from irrelevants. esp now.. facing a time of major irrelevants.. so major disengagement..
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Anya Kamenetz (@anya1anya) tweeted at 2:00 PM on Tue, Mar 20, 2018:
Lulu kindly telling me I was overexplaining something on the way to school: “It’s kind of weird to have an answer without a question.” #momsplainer
(https://twitter.com/anya1anya/status/976186634256437249?s=03)
very much the problem w school..
let’s fall in the love w the questions.. as it could be..
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