20,99 €
Mehr erfahren.
- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Bildung
- Sprache: Englisch
Explore how students are disrupting education by using digital resources to support self-direct learning Free Agent Learning: Leveraging Students' Self-Directed Learning to Transform K-12 Education explores an emerging cohort of students that are self-directing their learning around interest-driven topics, the tools they're using to scaffold these experiences, and their motivations for these out-of-school learning behaviors. Readers will find new insights and frameworks for effectively leveraging the lived experiences of their students and transforming their schools' cultures, norms and practices. In this book, readers will learn how education leaders can translate a newly emerged understanding about students' self-directed learning into actionable knowledge to improve teaching and learning Free Agent Learners also offers: * Info dispelling the myth that real learning only happens in a classroom * Discussions of how modern students are using digital tools, content, and resources for purposeful learning outside of teacher direction or sponsorship * Actionable tips and accessible strategies for the use of the Free Agent Learner Ecosystem to support school improvement Perfect for K-12 school and district administrators and decision-makers, Free Agent Learners is an eye-opening read for anyone involved in the education of primary and secondary school students.
Sie lesen das E-Book in den Legimi-Apps auf:
Seitenzahl: 479
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022
Ähnliche
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
About the Author
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: Understanding the Student Vision for Learning
A Free Agent Learning Experience: Chad
The Four Learning Environments for Students
Power and Technology in the Four Learning Environments
Comparing the Four Learning Environments at a Glance
The Origins of the Student Vision for Learning
Studying the Evolution of the Student Vision for Learning
Decomposing the Student Vision for Learning into the Four Essential Elements
Notes
Chapter 2: Defining Free Agent Learnership
The Link between the Growth in Technology Usage and Free Agent Learning
The Four Key Attributes of Free Agent Learning
Education Frameworks for Understanding the Motivations of Free Agent Learnership
Self-Determination Theory Extensions into Education
Connections to Free Agent Learning: Other Theories on Motivation
Notes
Chapter 3: Motivations for Free Agent Learner Behaviors
Gaining Insight into Four Primary Motivating Factors
Passionate Motivation: Self-Remediation
Free Agent Learning Experiences to Support Self-Remediation
Passionate Motivation: Skill Development
Free Agent Learning Experiences to Support Skill Development
Passionate Motivation: Curiosity
Free Agent Learning Experiences to Support Curiosity
Passionate Motivation: Career Exploration and Preparation
Free Agent Learning Experiences to Support Career Exploration and Preparation
A Free Agent Learning Experience: Anna
Chapter 4: Meet the Free Agent Learner
Identifying the First Free Agent Learners
The Role of Technology Within Free Agent Learning
A Free Agent Learning Experience
Notes
Chapter 5: Free Agent Learning Activities and Behaviors
The Pull of Tradition Even in Innovative Schools
Free Agent Learning Activity Typology
Frequency of the Free Agent Learning Behaviors
Free Agent Learning Experiences: 2014–2021
Analysis of Free Agent Learning Activities Using Demographic Variables
Note
Chapter 6: The Free Agent Learner's Perspective on School, Learning, and Technology
Distinguishing School and Learning
Technology Use and Student Engagement in Learning
Students’ Value Proposition on Technology Use in Learning
Making the Student Vision for Learning Real in School
A Free Agent Learner Experience
Notes
Chapter 7: Why Schools Are Not (Yet) Ready to Embrace Free Agent Learning
Barrier #1: Learning Happens Only in School
Barrier #2: Incomplete Valuation of the Role of Technology within Learning
Barrier #3: How Technology Access Is Changing the Traditional Power Equation in the Classroom
Notes
Chapter 8: Why the Free Agent Learning Ecosystem Matters Today—Student Engagement
The Forces Behind Educators’ Shock and Awe
The Challenge of Determining What Constitutes Student Engagement
Students’ Engagement in What They Are Learning in School—Speak Up Data Insights
Students’ Beliefs about the Value of Learning and School—Speak Up Data Insights
Learning about Student Engagement from the Challenges of Virtual Learning
Leveraging the Free Agent Learning Ecosystem to Augment Student Voice and Address Engagement Challenges
Notes
Chapter 9: Why the Free Agent Learning Ecosystem Matters Today—Equity in Learning
From NetDay to the Global Achievement Gap
The Four Types of Equity Education Leaders Need to Be Talking about Today
Free Agent Learning and Equity of Student Access to Learning Content and Tools
Free Agent Learning and Equity of Student Learning Experiences
Free Agent Learning and Equity of Opportunities for Student Success
Free Agent Learning and Equity of Student Agency and Empowerment
Notes
Chapter 10: Ten Things Education Leaders Can Do Today to Support Free Agent Learnership
Get to Know the Free Agent Learners in Your School or District
Discover the Power of Asking Students about Their Free Agent Learning Activities
Support More Effective and Equitable Free Agent Learning Through Information and Media Literacy Skill Development
Integrate Free Agent Learning Strategies and Tools into Everyday Classroom Instruction
Empower Students with the Ability to Exercise Free Agent Learning During the School Day
Enable Students’ Free Agent Learning Activities When They Are Outside of School
Recognize Outcomes from Free Agent Learning in Your Graduate Profile or Portrait
Provide Academic Credit for Learning Outcomes Derived from Free Agent Learning
Encourage Teachers and Administrators to Be Free Agent Learners with Their Own Professional Learning
Create a Culture Around Free Agent Learning Concepts and Principles Within your District
Notes
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
Chapter 1
Table 1.1 Characteristics of the four environments for student learning.
Chapter 2
Table 2.1 Students’ views on the benefits of virtual learning (2020–2021 sch...
Chapter 5
Table 5.1 Free Agent Learning activity typology.
Table 5.2 Free Agent Learner behaviors by community type and majority studen...
Chapter 6
Table 6.1 Grade 6 students’ identification of the outcomes of using technolo...
Table 6.2 What is the best device to help you with these schoolwork tasks?...
Table 6.3 Middle school students’ interest in using digital tools to support...
Table 6.4 How students are creating and curating content on YouTube disaggre...
Chapter 7
Table 7.1 Teachers’ comfort levels with new digitally enabled instructional ...
Table 7.2 French-Raven types of social power—in the classroom.
Chapter 8
Table 8.1 Regular usage of various social media tools—US adults vs. US high ...
Table 8.2 Students’ levels of engagement with learning in school (2019–2021)...
Table 8.3 Grade 6–8 students’ attitudes about school over time (2017–2021)....
Table 8.4 Students’ attitudes about learning and school across three school ...
Chapter 9
Table 9.1 What teachers say they need to implement digital learning more eff...
Table 9.2 Grade 6–8 students’ Free Agent Learning behaviors—disaggregated by...
Table 9.3 Grade 6–8 students’ beliefs about school—disaggregated by the five...
Chapter 10
Table 10.1 Students’ perceptions of their information and media literacy ski...
Table 10.2 How teachers and principals are using online, social, and digital...
List of Illustrations
Chapter 5
Figure 5.1 Percentage of high school students engaged with Tier 1 Free Agent...
Figure 5.2 Percentage of high school students engaged with Tier 2 Free Agent...
Figure 5.3 Percentage of high school students engaged with Tier 3 Free Agent...
Chapter 6
Figure 6.1 Grade 6–12 students’ valuations on school and learning—three-year...
Chapter 7
Figure 7.1 Top 10 skills students need to develop for future success.
Figure 7.2 Graduate Profile from El Segundo Unified School District.
Figure 7.4 Teachers’ assimilation of technology in the classroom—the journey...
Guide
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
About the Author
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
Index
End User License Agreement
Pages
i
ii
v
vi
vii
xi
xiii
xiv
xv
xvii
xviii
xix
xx
xxi
xxii
xxiii
xxiv
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
323
324
325
326
327
Praise for Free Agent Learning
“Free Agent Learning explores how students might become co-designers and stewards of learning experiences that extend beyond school walls and receive credit for anytime, anywhere, passion-driven learning. Evans explains how having a meaningful choice in the path and pace of the learning process is important to students based on Speak Up data from surveying students since 2004. She lifts up a fundamental principle—a majority of students want to be in control of when and how they learn. An important consideration is how education systems will need to evolve to shift power to the learner, in hopes students can build agency over the path and pace of their learning with a focus on purpose and student goals, and underscores how advanced digital learning can support this vision.”
—Susan Patrick,President & CEO, Aurora Institute
“As educators and researchers debate the problems on mental health that ready access to smartphones creates for students, Julie Evans explores the flipside: the unbridled access to engaging learning opportunities this access unleashes. How to balance the positives that Evans outlines in this book with the observed challenges makes this volume more than worth it.”
—Michael Horn,Author, From Reopen to Reinvent
“Vital skills like collaboration and leadership can be learned and coached—but not taught. Free Agent Learning describes how we can support young people in ‘experiential learning' that involves both doing and reflection.”
—Chris Dede,Timothy E. Wirth Professor inLearning Technologies, HarvardGraduate School of Education
“For decades, home schooling families have used any moment of the day, any place in the world to ‘school' their children; the rest of us are just now catching up. As a brilliant education researcher, Julie examines in detail how students today learn outside of this place called school and how these learning experiences prepare them to be engaged, self-motivated, lifelong learners. This book provides a blueprint of free agent learning for teachers, leaders, and parents to draw upon and encourage personalized, interest-based learning as the learning norm as opposed to the exception.”
—Julie Young,Vice President Education,Arizona State University,Outreach and Student Services
FREE AGENT LEARNING
Leveraging Students’ Self-Directed Learning to Transform K–12 Education
JULIE A. EVANS
Copyright © 2023 John Wiley & Sons. All rights reserved.
Jossey-BassA Wiley Imprint111 River St, Hoboken, NJ 07030www.josseybass.com
Simultaneously published in Canada
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, phone +1 978 750 8400, fax +1 978 750 4470, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, phone + 1 201 748 6011, fax +1 201 748 6008, or online at www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: Although the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
Jossey-Bass books and products are available through most bookstores. To contact Jossey-Bass directly, call our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 800–956–7739, outside the U.S. at +1 317 572 3986, or fax +1 317 572 4002.
Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Evans, Julie (Education entrepreneur) author.
Title: Free agent learning : leveraging students’ self-directed learning to transform K-12 education / Julie Evans.
Description: First edition. | Hoboken, NJ : Jossey-Bass, [2023] | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022029595 (print) | LCCN 2022029596 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119789826 (hardback) | ISBN 9781119789840 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781119789833 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Self-managed learning. | Autonomy (Psychology) | Individualized instruction.
Classification: LCC LB1066 .E93 2023 (print) | LCC LB1066 (ebook) | DDC 370.15/23—dc23/eng/20220729
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022029595
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022029596
Cover Design: WileyCover Image: © SofiaV/Shutterstock
FIRST EDITION
To my favorite Free Agent Learners:Elizabeth, David and Matthew
About the Author
Dr. Julie A. Evans is the Chief Executive Officer of Project Tomorrow (www.tomorrow.org) and the founder of the heralded Speak Up Research Project, which annually collects and reports on the authentic views of K-12 students, parents, and educators nationwide on key education issues. Dr. Evans serves as the chief researcher on the Speak Up Project as well as leading national research efforts on the impact of emerging learning models and interventions in both K-12 and higher education. Her work includes helping education leaders embrace change and innovation in education and learning how to effectively leverage the voices and views of their local stakeholders, including students, as an asset in education transformation efforts.
Dr. Evans's background includes executive and management positions with a Fortune 500 multinational information technology company and two education technology start-ups prior to joining Project Tomorrow. As a national thought leader and influencer, she brings to discussions about the future of education a unique perspective because of her experiences working in both the for-profit and nonprofit sectors as well as within education. Dr. Evans is a graduate of Brown University and earned her doctorate in educational leadership from the University of California San Diego and California State University San Marcos. She is a frequent facilitator, speaker, and writer on new learning models within education, most notably around digital learning. Among her many accolades and awards, Dr. Evans was named in April 2020 as the winner of EdTech Digest's National Leader award.
Acknowledgments
This book is the result of nearly 20 years of research and reflection on the how K-12 students use technology to support their learning, both when they are in school and when they are self-directing learning outside of school. Thus, there are many people who have been part of this journey with me and have had a direct or indirect hand in getting these important insights about Free Agent Learning to this stage. I appreciate each of you, and you hold a special place in my heart for your contributions to this work.
It should not be surprising that my first acknowledgment must be to the over 4 million K-12 students who have shared their views on school and learning through Project Tomorrow's research activities, most notably the Speak Up Research Project. Through your completion of a Speak Up survey or participation in the hundreds of focus groups and panel discussions I have facilitated over the past 20 years, I am especially grateful for your willingness to share your authentic, no-spin zone feedback on your classroom learning experiences, and how you have embraced technology to support your self-directed learning activities outside of school. I also want to thank you for your bottomless well of optimism that schools can improve and your belief that your ideas can make a real difference, if only someone would listen. It has been a true privilege to provide a way through the Speak Up Research Project for your views to have a tangible impact on local, state, and national programs and policies on education. A special thank-you is due to the students who shared with me their own personal Free Agent Learning experiences to serve as examples and representations of the many varied ways that students are self-directing their own learning. To all students, I urge you to keep speaking up and sharing your ideas about education. Your voices are more important than ever!
I would also like to acknowledge the many teachers, school principals, district leaders, and parents who every day encourage and empower our nation's youth to speak up and share their ideas about how to improve school and learning for all students. Special thanks are due to the many school and district leaders who each year facilitate the opportunity for their communities to participate in the national Speak Up Research Project, providing a way for the voices of their students (and other stakeholders such as teachers and parents) to be a valuable input into local planning. You are not only building student agency, but you are paying it forward in terms of creating a new momentum around the value of student voice and choice in education decisions. Thank you for your efforts to improve education through your valuation of students' ideas.
Many thanks must be extended as well to the school and district leaders who over the years have shared with me their own experiential insights about how to bridge the gap between the too often disparate aspects of students' learning lives at home and at school. I am especially appreciative of the education leaders who shared with me through the experience of writing this book their own ideas about how school and district leaders, can utilize this new knowledge about Free Agent Learning to create a more inclusive culture in their schools and communities.
None of this work on Free Agent Learning or even the Speak Up Research Project would be possible without the incredible team of innovators who have been part of the Project Tomorrow family over the past 20 years. Many thanks are due to the original members of the NetDay and subsequently, the Project Tomorrow Board of Directors, who always enthusiastically supported the Speak Up Research Project and continue to lend their considerable time, talents, and treasures to sustain this important work. I am also very appreciative of the many corporate, nonprofit, association, and philanthropic partners that have provided financial support, guidance, and advice as scaffolding for the research work of Project Tomorrow. Your friendship and willingness to engage in this work with us is a gift that I will always cherish. My deepest appreciation is for the many team colleagues from both the NetDay and Project Tomorrow eras who through their hard work and dedication turned my “big crazy idea” into a reality with the design and implementation of the Speak Up Research Project. You have shared my vision over the past 20 years and thus, in so many ways, this book about Free Agent Learning is your legacy as well.
Throughout all my years of research on digital learning, my favorite study team has often been my own children, Elizabeth, David, and Matthew. They have been participants in this digital learning revolution, and while they often chided me with, “I don't want to be a research statistic,” it has been the greatest experience of my life to learn along with them. Finally, I would like to recognize my greatest cheerleader, my husband Ron, whose love and support throughout this book journey has made this all possible.
Introduction
It was during middle school that Samantha developed a personal interest in learning more about the stock market. Her curiosity about the stock market was not the result, however, of something she studied at school or a homework assignment. Rather, being a socially aware eighth grader, Samantha kept up on current events. In particular, the social justice movement stimulated her interest in learning more about how wealth is acquired and leveraged for societal good. Understanding the ups and downs of the stock market and its impact on the economy was derivative of that interest. To satisfy her curiosity to learn more about the connection between the stock market and the economy, she googled information about the various markets, read online stock reports about companies that caught her eye, watched cable business shows such as Mad Money and Squawk Box, and followed financial news reporters and commentators on social media. As her interest-driven knowledge increased, Samantha expanded her self-directed learning to include the foreign exchange markets, and ultimately to start using her allowance and babysitting proceeds to make some small investments and trades herself.
Her personal access to technology not only helped her learn about the stock market, but it also proved to be invaluable in managing her nascent trading career, in addition to supporting her schoolwork life. Samantha used the calendar function with the Google suite to get reminders about tomorrow's math test and next week's book report for English class and to keep track of critical financial industry events including when Apple was announcing its quarterly earnings. Electronic worksheets were useful for documenting her lab results in science class as well as helping her plan and track her stock trades. As Samantha explained to me, her self-directed learning about the stock market was not simply a hobby, but rather, it was preparing her to be successful in the future, most notably in terms of developing financial literacy and personal capabilities for making informed decisions about money. Empowered by her personal access to the Internet and a wide range of digital resources and tools, Samantha turned a curiosity to learn about the workings of the stock market into an educational and life preparation experience that was beyond what she was learning in school, and in many ways through a more meaningful learning process. And her intrinsic motivation for more information and knowledge continues to grow.
When I spoke with her in October 2020 as part of a virtual panel discussion, Samantha was starting to research and learn about Bitcoin. On that day, Samantha was also very proud that one of her early morning 10 cent trades on a stock that she had heavily researched was already up $2 by noon. There was no class in her middle school or unit of study in the prescribed curriculum that was helping students like Samantha develop real-world financial literacy or having contextually relevant experiences like this to learn about the ins and outs of the financial world. And while not every student may share Samantha's personal interest in this topic, curiosity is a human condition and thus, it is not unreasonable to assume that our young people have other learning interests that are beyond what is happening in their classrooms. Empowered with personal access to technology and an intrinsic motivation to learn more about the stock market, Samantha felt a personal imperative to address what she perceived as a gap in her education by taking her educational destiny into her own hands to pursue intellectual curiosities, academic interests, and career preparation goals on her own outside of school. Samantha is a Free Agent Learner.
Free Agent Learnership, the subject of this book, is the process by which students self-direct highly personalized learning experiences outside of school around topics and subjects of strong interest or academic passion for them as independent learners and owners of their own educational destiny. I call the students who are engaged in these self-directed, interest-driven learning pursuits “Free Agent Learners.” The name is a take-off on a term commonly used in professional sports. In the professional sports world, Free Agents are athletes who are not bound by commitments or artificial structures that restrict their actions or limit their ability for example to negotiate better contracts with other teams. Central to an athlete's free agency is their self-determination, their ability to make their own choices relative to the direction of their career. The professional athlete who has Free Agent status has the capacity to pursue their own goals, whether that is to play for the highest bidder for their talents or for the team in their hometown. Likewise, students are Free Agents regarding their learning today because they now can also exercise greater self-determination when it comes to learning. Learning for today's K-12 students is not limited to the classroom or the afterschool program but rather happens across a variety of settings and through a seamless flow of practices from morning to night. The increasingly ubiquitous availability and access of digital tools and resources such as social media, mobile devices, online communities, and digital games is the fuel that is propelling this new learning paradigm of Free Agent Learning. Students' learning potential is no longer restrained by the knowledge of their teacher, the resources within their classroom, or their ability to visit a local library or museum. A world of knowledge and learning experiences can now be accessed with a few clicks or swipes on their personal smartphone. Empowered with access to technology and a passionate motivation for highly contextualized learning experiences, students are now “Free Agents” in the sense that they can drive their own educational destiny just as professional athletes with free agency have the capacity to direct their own career fate. Most importantly, the experiences that students are having outside of school, driving their own learning experiences, using a wide range of digital tools and resources, and using those experiences to prepare for their future success, are influencing their expectations for in-school learning as well. For today's education leaders, understanding Free Agent Learning is not just about gaining an appreciation for their students' out-of-school activities, but rather, it is an essential input in the ongoing process of transformation of K-12 education to ensure that all students are well prepared to become tomorrow's innovators, leaders, and engaged citizens of the world.
In my role as Chief Executive Officer of Project Tomorrow®, a national education nonprofit organization, I have been studying the role of technology in supporting student outcomes and teacher effectiveness for nearly 25 years. Starting in 2003, those research efforts were consolidated into a groundbreaking new initiative that not only provides annual national reporting on the digital learning trends but affords an efficient and effective way for K-12 schools and districts to understand the views and values of their local stakeholders on the use of technology within learning. Each year, Project Tomorrow through our Speak Up Research Project® provides a suite of online surveys for K-12 leaders to utilize to collect feedback from their students, parents, teachers, and principals and other district administrators. Any K-12 school or district can use the Speak Up surveys, and Project Tomorrow provides access to all locally collected data with appropriate state and national comparative data for benchmarking. By design, Speak Up is a free service with a mission to help all education leaders realize the benefits of incorporating the views of their stakeholders into local planning and decision-making. Central to the Speak Up Research Project is a unique focus on listening to the ideas of K-12 students about their own learning experiences, both in school and out of school. The nationally aggregated Speak Up data and insights about digital learning trends is widely shared through national reports, infographics, briefings, and conference presentations. The data and insights about Free Agent Learning shared in this book are derivatives of the Speak Up Research Project.
My personal journey to identify and appreciate the phenomenon of Free Agent Learning started in spring 2003. During a three-month period, I conducted focus groups with middle school and high school students in five of our nation's most challenged urban and rural communities to learn how students were using digital tools to support their learning, both in and out of school. The existing literature on the student perspective was limited to a few case studies, mostly involving students in suburban communities. I felt a strong need to hear from students in less advantageous situations about their digital learning experiences. I learned three fundamental truths from those student discussions that transformed my professional practice and my world vision. First, like the students in the suburban communities, these students in the less resourced communities I visited were using a wide range of technologies to support self-directed learning outside of school. This was especially poignant given that most of the students I met with did not have Internet access or computers in their homes in 2003, but they had the resourcefulness and personal drive to seek out places and people who could provide them with technology access on a regular basis. This reality obviously challenged the prevailing views and assumptions about the Digital Divide. Second, the students felt frustrated and disappointed with the lack of sophistication in how their teachers were using digital tools, content, and resources in school to support their learning potential and with their teachers' seeming unwillingness to listen to their experientially based ideas about digital learning. Third, the students believed that their future success beyond high school absolutely depended on closing the digital disconnect between their aspirations for digital learning and the deficiencies that they saw in their learning environments. A 12th grade girl from Rosedale, Mississippi, summed up her peers' perspective succinctly when she asked me, “Why is it that our teachers do not realize that when they hold back on using technology in class, they are holding back our future?” Through the shared experiences of these students across five very different communities, it was obvious to me that our K-12 schools and districts, as well as our nation, needed a better way to understand the views and values of our students regarding their learning experiences and the role of technology within those experiences. And that the views of students, especially based on their experiences with using technology for self-directed learning, could be an asset for transforming student learning experiences in schools. Since that time, the Speak Up Research Project has continued to collect and report on the ideas of students, as well as parents, teachers, and administrators, and the research findings are used annually to inform local, state, and national policies and programs on education and digital learning. It has been my honor and privilege to facilitate opportunities for students in particular to have a greater voice in education decisions through the Speak Up process.
Remarkably, the Speak Up results each year continue to validate the same three truths I uncovered in 2003: Students use technology regularly outside of school to self-direct learning around areas of personal interest, they are frustrated by the continuing lack of sophistication in how digital tools are used in their classroom, and they feel a strong personal imperative to take matters into their own hands to ensure they are well prepared for their future success. The students I talked with in 2003 were certainly Free Agent Learners. You will see that they share similar motivations for self-directed, interest-driven learning with the students you will learn about in this book. Despite the significant investments that have been made in classroom technology and teacher professional learning, especially since the COVID pandemic, the Speak Up Research continues to document each year that students' aspirations for more effective learning experiences in school, what I refer to as the Student Vision for Learning, is still not fully realized in most schools and communities. The goal for this book, therefore, is to provide education leaders with new information about students' self-directed learning experiences, especially with technology, that can be translated into actionable knowledge to close the gap between students' expectations for more effective learning and their current in-classroom experiences. To that end, the book is organized into two primary sections. Chapters 1 through 5 focus on understanding Free Agent Learning motivations and behaviors; chapters 6 through 10 provide insights about why it is important for today's education leaders to appreciate Free Agent Learning and ideas for how to incorporate this new knowledge into your school and district plans. Speak Up research findings are used throughout the book to substantiate the way students are using technology to empower self-directed learning and their frustrations with current classroom learning practices. Additionally, the book leans into several key educational theories and frameworks that provide validation for Free Agent Learning. Included in various chapters are authentic vignettes about students and their self-directed learning experiences that will provide further understanding of the motivations and aspirations of Free Agent Learners and hopefully inspire education leaders to inquire about their own students' views and values on self-directed learning. Student names have of course been changed in the narrative to protect their privacy and identities.
Too often in education, conversations about improving learning experiences for students devolve into a binary choice between making incremental changes or undertaking a wholesale transformation of classroom practices. Both are usually unsustainable for different reasons. Small changes though easy to implement often do not yield tangible outcomes that make a significant difference and thus are frequently abandoned when budgets are squeezed or key staff leave the school or district. Widespread adoption of new practices requires very careful planning, a high degree of buy-in from stakeholders, and a significant amount of patience before real results are evident. A lack of patience and/or the ability to articulate measurable benefits or outcomes is too often the death knell for innovative initiatives in education. Free Agent Learning: Leveraging Students' Self-Directed Learning to Transform K–12 Education provides a new research-based road map for education leaders interested in improving learning experiences for their students by recognizing that students' self-directed, interest-driven learning outside of school can provide the impetus for rethinking and reengineering classroom practices and school cultures. But it starts with being open to new ideas and setting aside existing assumptions and out-of-date conventional wisdom about your students, their use of technology outside of school, and their expectations for in-school learning. Consequently, the quote attributed to the French novelist Marcel Proust, “The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes” is an appropriate send-off as you begin your voyage of discovery about Free Agent Learning. For the sake of Samantha and all students who are Free Agent Learners, my wish is for you to approach this book and the study of students' self-directed, interest-driven learning with new eyes.
Chapter 1Understanding the Student Vision for Learning
Learning for today's K–12 student is not limited to the classroom or the afterschool program but rather happens across a variety of settings and through a seamless flow of practices from morning to night. The increasingly ubiquitous availability and access of digital tools and resources such as social media, mobile devices, online communities, and digital games is the fuel that is propelling a new learning paradigm, Free Agent Learning.
Free Agent Learning acknowledges that school is no longer the sole repository of knowledge and embraces the concept that students increasingly have the agency and the means to adopt new self-directed, interest-driven behaviors outside of school. Yet, for the most part, these self-directed, interest-driven digital learning experiences, which are fundamentally beyond the sponsorship of teachers or other adults in formalized learning environments, are still often discounted and devalued as trivial by educators. Existing research on student learning with technology focuses primarily on how students are using digital tools and resources under the direction of teachers or other adults in both formal and informal settings. However, emerging research from Project Tomorrow presents a case for how students are actually using digital and new media tools to self-direct learning around academic interests and personal curiosities about their world. I call these students “Free Agent Learners.”
Evidence of students’ interest-driven digital learning validates the need for education leaders to think past traditional learning settings and to appreciate the ways that students are self-directing meaningful learning experiences without the sponsorship of teachers and other adults. Beyond the classroom and school building walls, students are developing their own learning ecosystems and networks that highly value collaboration, knowledge sharing, and peer mentoring. Their interest-driven participation with digital tools results in personal identification as learners and experts and in the development of the workplace-ready skills that are the desired outcomes of state educational standards and what employers are increasingly demanding of new employees.
Additionally, these self-directed learning behaviors are not limited to students of privilege or those students with certain demographic qualifications. Rather, the use of digital tools, content, and resources by students outside of school to self-direct learning appears to be a universal phenomenon characterized by a strong orientation to the purposeful motivations driving the behaviors. The existence of this phenomenon has significant implications for addressing equity considerations in education. Most notably, this brings to the forefront the need for students to have access to technology and the Internet outside of school not only to do homework or participate in remote learning but to be able to pursue interest-driven, highly personalized learning experiences if desired.
A key aha moment for education leaders to realize is that today's students are not waiting for their teachers to transform the classroom learning experience to better fit their needs for skill development, to help prepare them for an uncertain future, or even to answer their questions about science, history, or politics. That ship has sailed. Armed with Internet connectivity in their pocket, backpack, or palm of their hand, students have the capacity now to self-direct learning around academic passions or personal curiosity about their world. They are using a variety of digital tools, content, and resources and developing a host of new learning behaviors to support these interest-driven activities. At the center of this self-directed learning is a series of highly developed purposes that are propelling today's students to take their educational destiny into their own hands, quite literally. An opportunity exists for educators to learn from these student experiences and use that knowledge to spearhead a new morning in education, a morning that values students’ self-directed learning experiences and aims to create in-school experiences that are innovative, relevant, and purposeful.
A Free Agent Learning Experience: Chad
As a senior in high school, Chad enjoyed every day in his physics class. The teacher was personable and knowledgeable, and Chad was one of those students teachers love; he was like a sponge soaking up everything in the curriculum. To cover all of the required content in this introduction to physics course, the high school teacher moved quickly though the prescribed pacing guide to ensure that the class covered all of the topics in the state curriculum. This meant that not every subject or chapter in the class textbook was covered. This is the reality in many K–12 classrooms.
In Chad's physics class, one of the chapters in the course textbook that was skipped was on quantum mechanics. Though not assigned or covered in the class, Chad read that chapter on his own and found the content very compelling. His curiosity propelled him to want to learn more about quantum mechanics, the science of examining how matter and light work at the atomic and subatomic level.1 To address that very personal learning need, Chad did some research online and found an online forum about quantum mechanics. The participants in the forum included college professors and students in higher education physics programs. While observing the interactions and communications on the forum, Chad noted that many of the participants kept mentioning the same textbook, David J. Griffiths’ Introduction to Quantum Mechanics.2 At that time, Chad was not aware that this textbook was the standard in many college-level physics courses, but he thought it might be a good resource to support his personally directed learning path about quantum mechanics. Chad did some investigative work and found that he could buy a used copy of the Griffiths text on Amazon. He bought that book and used it to initiate a new, interest-driven educational process on quantum mechanics on his own beyond the sponsorship or facilitation of this teacher. This learning process was not to satisfy a course requirement, nor to specifically help his grade in his physics class. And it was definitely not a homework assignment.
For Chad, this experience was about learning something that he was interested in, pure and simple. He was able to do this on his own time, unencumbered by the traditional structural components of school that sometimes bog down the learning experience such as restricted learning time, a focus on testing results, and adherence to a standardized curriculum or pacing guide. And he was able to pursue an academic passion that had high personal resonance for him. This self-directed learning process was also highly efficient for Chad. As Chad explained it, he certainly could have asked his high school physics teacher about quantum mechanics, and he is sure that the teacher would have welcomed the opportunity to provide information. But Chad was not looking for a lecture on quantum mechanics or even questions about why he was interested in an academic topic that was beyond the high school curriculum. Chad was very specifically seeking a self-directed learning experience that could be highly personalized to his interests, and one in which he could self-direct and manage the learning process. Like many high school seniors, Chad had a full plate for activities taking up his time every day beyond his academic course load, including community service activities and working on his college applications. He needed an efficient learning process that would fit into his overall 24/7 learning day, whether that was at 10 p.m. on a Tuesday night or 3 p.m. on Sunday afternoon; just not necessarily second-period physics class on a Wednesday. His self-directed, interest-driven learning involved the purposeful use of digital resources and was focused on a topic of academic curiosity.
The key here is that Chad had a very clear purpose in mind when pursuing the self-initiated learning. As we will discuss further in this book, purpose is a powerful stimulant for Free Agent Learning. Taking place outside of school, in his own personal environment, Chad was in charge of his own learning destiny on quantum mechanics. Chad was a Free Agent Learner. Today, Chad is a college professor and researcher studying artificial intelligence and robotics.
The Four Learning Environments for Students
As we will discuss further, Chad's story is not unusual. The learning process for students has always taken place across four distinct environments (see Table 1.1 later in this chapter). Most adults find it easy to identify three of those learning spaces: school-based learning, homework, and extracurricular programs. The fourth learning space, the self-directed, interest-driven space described in our example about Chad, is the one that most educators are challenged identifying.
School-Based Learning
The three traditional environments that adults easily recognize are typified by a learning process that is guided, sponsored, or facilitated by a teacher or another education guardian in the student's life. Consequently, when asked to identify questions about what, where, how, or when students learn, the first impulse for most adults will be to point to a school or classroom setting, the first of the traditional learning environments. Education has traditionally given the classroom teacher the primary responsibility for sponsoring or facilitating learning experiences for their students. That is exactly what was happening in Chad's physics class. The teacher, probably very effectively, was teaching the key concepts of physics so that the students could successfully gain the knowledge needed, either to satisfy a graduation requirement or even to potentially enhance their ability to be successful in a college physics course. The learning experience may have included hands-on labs and engaging inquiry-based discussions to help connect the theoretical academic content to real-world situations such as recommended by the College Board.3 The form and function of these types of experiences are what we all traditionally consider learning.
Table 1.1 Characteristics of the four environments for student learning.
Environment characteristics
Environment #1: School-based learning
Environment #2: Homework
Environment #3: Extracurricular programs
Environment #4: Self-directed, interest-driven learning
Location
In person or virtual classroom
At home or beyond physical classroom space
At school or in another learning space such as a community recreation center
Wherever the student is
Goal
Facilitate learning activities that will prepare students with knowledge they need to be successful in the future as deemed by education authorities or policy leaders.
Provide students with activities to support the classroom instruction. This may include remediation or repetition activities as well as flipped learning experiences.
Provide students with enrichment or alternative learning activities that supplement in-school learning. These are often focused on particular topic areas or discrete skill development.
Provide students with learning experiences that meet their particular needs or curiosities.
Source of learning direction
Teacher-directed and -sponsored
Teacher-directed and -sponsored
Adult-directed and -sponsored
Student self-directed
Structure
Formalized structure with curriculum and standards driving learning process.
Learning activities are structured to align with classroom goals. Students may have flexibility in terms of where this happens, but often these types of learning activities have a due date for completion.
Learning activities are structured around program goals or desired student outcomes.
Informal learning structure that is set by the students themselves or by the types of learning experiences they choose.
Focus of expertise
Teacher as content and pedagogy expert.
Teacher as content and pedagogy expert.
Adult program leader as content and pedagogy leader.
Diffused levels of expertise depending on the sources that the students use for their self-directed learning.
Framework for technology use
Technology is used primarily as an engagement tool or source of content to support classroom instruction and management. In remote learning, technology serves as learning platform.
Technology is used to facilitate homework assignment completions and to facilitate communications between school and home.
Technology is used as an engagement tool and depending on the program may be used to support the program activities and goals.
Technology facilitates students’ access to learning content and resources and levels the playing field for students to self-direct their own learning.
Frequency of technology use
Technology use is usually sporadic and not integrated effectively into a seamless flow of classroom or instructional activities.
Students often use technology to support homework activities even if it is not assigned as such.
Technology use frequency is dependent on the program learning activities and goals.
Technology is the foundation for the self-directed learning, and thus usage is frequent but also highly purposeful.
Value of the learning environment by educators
Highly valued as the most important learning experience.
Despite mixed research on the value of homework experiences, teachers continue to assign it and parents continue to expect homework to be assigned.
Learning experience is highly valued as a supplement to classroom instruction, not as a replacement.
Not valued as valid learning.
Homework
It is quite probable that Chad's physics teacher may have also assigned homework to their students to help reinforce those key learning topics and support students’ remediation on some of the difficult course concepts. That homework may have included reading assigned chapters in the textbook or writing up notes from the in-class lab. Despite debates and conflicting research on the value of homework as a learning modality, most teachers continue to assign homework or out-of-school directed learning as part of their everyday instructional practice. Some teachers have taken the homework modality and flipped it so that many aspects of the traditional in-classroom learning experience such as listening to a lecture or watching a demonstration or lab happens at home with classroom time spent on more collaborative or interactive activities. This innovation, popularized by Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams, is often referred to as the Flipped Classroom model of teaching and learning.4 So, for example, using this model, a physics teacher may create a video of their lecture on thermodynamics or a demonstration of gravity at work for students to watch at home as a homework assignment, and then class time can be used to support project-based learning activities, discussions, or teacher-supported remediation work. Whether it is through traditional homework or potentially a Flipped Classroom implementation, this process of students engaging with teacher-assigned, time-specific learning content outside of the classroom represents the second traditional learning environment for students.
Extracurricular Programs
The third traditional learning environment for students is an extracurricular program that takes place after school, on a weekend day, or during school breaks. Schools have long valued and encouraged students (and their parents) to participate in these types of extracurricular, enrichment learning opportunities and an entire sector of K–12 education is devoted to providing students with these types of out-of-school learning programs. One nonprofit organization, the Afterschool Alliance, promotes, supports, and advocates for effective out-of-school learning experiences for students.5 Chad's teacher may have encouraged their students to participate in such extracurricular activities to help the students extend their learning such as through participation in the highly regarded PLTW (formerly known as Project Lead the Way) programs, which introduce students to STEM fields through real-world learning experiences and skill development activities.6
Many of the organizations or programs that support this third learning environment have evolved over time to meet the changing needs of students. For example, 4-H started as a way to provide hands-on learning experiences for students around agricultural topics. Today, the organization considers its mission to provide a wider universe of STEM learning opportunities for students through its out-of-school programming, in-school enrichment experiences, clubs, and camps including addressing computer science and coding as new focus areas.7
While some aspects of these types of learning experiences may certainly have elements of self-directed learning, the overall flow, content, and learning process are still primarily adult-sponsored and facilitated. Also, students need to formally join a school or community-based program to reap the benefits of these experiences. There is a planned action that is required for participation. Similarly, like school, extracurricular programs have a time and place component. The 4-H chapter meets every Saturday at 10 a.m., for example, and the learning experience happens primarily during this dedicated time period. Unlike school, which has a universality of access and compliance requirement, afterschool, Saturday, or summer programs are really only available to students who know about them and/or have the resources to participate, whether that is financial, time, or transportation. Despite all of the good work that has been done to promote and value these learning experiences, they are simply not easily available to all students.
Self-Directed, Interest-Driven Learning
Chad's pursuit of external sources of knowledge beyond his teacher is an example of the fourth environment for learning, where students pursue self-directed, interest-driven experiences to satisfy a particular learning purpose. This type of learning is not adult-sponsored, -facilitated, or -directed, but rather the impetus for this learning experience is generated by the students themselves. The students define the learning purpose for these experiences and instigate the process on their own terms and at their own discretion regarding pace and place outside of school. And their motivations are driven by an intrinsic passion to learn something that is of meaning to them.
Self-directed learning around areas of personal interest is not a new type of learning. For example, the public library system is a manifestation of people's interest in self-directed learning. Before having everyday access to learning content through one's personal smartphone, the most accessible way for anyone, formal or informal student, whether they were 8 years old or 80 years old, to pursue an interest in learning more about dinosaurs, the history of England, or even physics was to go to their local library, find a book on that subject, and check out the book with a promise to return it in two weeks, for example. We probably have all experienced this type of limited self-directed learning and benefited from the learning experience.
The limitations on this version of interest-driven learning are many, however. Did that local library have books on the topic that you were interested in learning about? And if it did, was it available for you to check out to read when you wanted to pursue that self-directed learning, or was it already being used at that time by someone else? Was the collection of books or other learning content the most appropriate for your interest or even the best representation of the content available? Those types of content vetting and curation decisions were not made by you but by someone else, most likely the librarian purchasing the books. Your access to that learning material would also be limited by the time limit set by the library for borrowing a book. Your learning time therefore would be restricted to a few days, maybe a few weeks, but not forever. The library owned the content; you were simply leasing access to it for a finite period of time. And before virtual libraries or online databases of content, you had to physically go to a library building to access the learning content. This inherently limits the access to only those people, including students, who could navigate transportation options to get to the physical library location, whether that library is in your hometown or many miles away. Additionally, libraries are not usually open 24/7 to accommodate self-directed learning curiosities or even have open hours that support students. This is true of many libraries nationwide as local municipalities struggle with funding their local libraries. This is even true in the city of Philadelphia where Benjamin Franklin started the first public library. Today, for example, in West Philadelphia, one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city, the public libraries are not open on Saturday or Sunday, days that may be most convenient not only for student-age learners but also for adult learners interested in pursuing this type of self-directed learning.
Power and Technology in the Four Learning Environments
There are two additional aspects that illuminate key differences across the four domains of learning. The first has to do with power, the second with technology.
Power
Much has been discussed and written for years about the distribution of or lack of distributed power in the average classroom. Teachers are considered to exert power over students through their selections of class materials to use, the lesson plans and learning activities they implement in the classroom, and the level of student discourse and discussion that is allowed to take place. Students correspondingly exert their power by engaging or not engaging in the classroom learning activities and their responsiveness to various teaching processes.
Most recently, a common flashpoint for these power distribution conversations has been around student choice within school-based learning. From longstanding Speak Up Research, we know that a majority of students in grades 6–12 say that they like learning when they can be in control of when and how they learn.8
