Open Way Learning with Ben Owens

In this interview with Ben Owens, we discuss Ben’s transition from working as an engineer to working in K-12 education, opensource as a metaphor for teaching and learning, various stakeholder reactions to opensource resources and learning, bridging the gap between out-of-school and in-school learning, iterating on teaching and learning, and so much more.

  • Welcome back to another episode of the

    csk8 podcast my name is jared o'leary

    each week of this podcast is either an

    interview with a guest or multiple

    guests or a solo episode where i unpack

    some scholarship in relation to computer

    science education in this week's episode

    i'm interviewing ben owens and we

    discuss ben's transition from working as

    an engineer to working in k-12 education

    open source as a metaphor for teaching

    and learning various stakeholder

    reactions to open source resources and

    learning bridging the gap between

    out-of-school and in-school learning

    iterating on teaching and learning and

    so much more as always you can find

    links to some of the things that we

    mentioned like other podcasts and books

    by visiting the show notes at jared

    o'leary.com or by clicking the link in

    the app that you're listening to this on

    you'll notice that this podcast is

    powered by boot up which is the

    nonprofit that i work for if you haven't

    been to their website boot up pd.org you

    can find a bunch of free computer

    science education resources that i've

    created and learn more about our

    professional development but with all

    that being said we will now begin with

    an introduction by ben hi everybody my

    name is ben owens i am the co-founder of

    an education nonprofit called open way

    learning and

    i've had a torturous path into the

    education arena you might say i actually

    started my professional career as an

    engineer and did the multi-global

    engineering firm thing traveling all

    over the u.s and locations from

    california to the midwest and the gulf

    coast and all sorts of places in between

    and then like

    most engineers do actually not but i

    decided to become a public school

    teacher and landed in rural appalachia

    where i taught physics and math at an

    innovative high school wall-to-wall

    project-based learning school did that

    for 11 years before starting my

    non-profit so delighted to be here today

    and look forward to the conversation

    with jared i'm really curious about like

    catalysts that lead to like career

    shifts or just like changes like big

    shifts in life so going from engineer to

    educator can you tell me the story

    behind that yeah

    it's interesting even when i was you

    know doing the corporate thing in

    engineering and i worked for

    the multinational firm dupont if you're

    familiar with them there were many

    opportunities for me to

    move from one location to the next so

    where i could have just stayed at a

    single location probably for my entire

    career i always wanted to look for

    something different and see what i could

    apply my skill set into a different

    context so

    that

    environment sort of seeded this

    conscious thought of me always wanting

    to do something different and obviously

    moving from an engineering career to an

    education career was a pretty big move

    much to my wife's chagrin

    because it did involve a bit of a pay

    cut as you might imagine yeah

    she in fact called it my volunteer work

    benefits i guess for me i grew up the

    son of educators my dad was a college

    professor my mom worked in the central

    office at the local school that i spent

    my k-12 experience with and so i just

    sort of had education in my blood and

    denied that for the longest time and

    then finally decided through my

    experience

    working in all of these different

    locations where i was either directly or

    indirectly responsible for hiring talent

    at these various locations and that was

    operators mechanics technicians

    even engineers and

    what i noticed was we consistently had

    problems finding the talent we needed

    and this was happening again in the gulf

    coast it was happening in the midwest it

    was happening in california it was

    happening in charleston west virginia

    and it just told me there's something

    fundamentally wrong if we

    as one of the highest paid organizations

    plant sites or research labs in these

    various locations can't find the talent

    we need and even having to go overseas

    to find the talent we needed that just

    told me there's something fundamentally

    wrong with how we are doing this public

    education thing and sort of the

    intersection of my background of again

    denying

    that that's probably what i really

    wanted and needed to do in life and then

    that experience

    led me to say all right time to go to

    grad school you know learn a little bit

    about this education thing

    and at the time i was just sort of like

    all right this will be something at some

    point in the future maybe when i retire

    yeah but then this sort of perfect storm

    of my wife and i looking for land to

    retire and then this school that i

    mentioned before this really innovative

    school in western north carolina which

    was part of at the time what was called

    the north carolina new schools projects

    and it was

    an early college so the school was

    actually on a community college campus

    so students would come and they would

    take college classes right you know as a

    freshman in high school and leave with

    an associate's degree as well as a high

    school diploma often two weeks before

    they got their

    high school diploma they would get their

    associate's degree which is the coolest

    thing in the world even if they didn't

    get their associate's degree they would

    get on average of 60 plus hours of

    college credit so

    theoretically those kids could go into a

    university setting then or whatever

    other thing they wanted to do

    with two years of college paid for by

    the state of north carolina which was

    really phenomenal anyway that's a long

    way of answering your question it was

    just too good of an opportunity to pass

    up and it just seemed like this was

    something well aligned with my idea of

    wanting to do something differently than

    just be a standard math and science

    teacher so there's a concept in teacher

    education known as apprenticeship of

    observation and i forget if it's lordy

    who talks about it or bouge but it's

    basically the idea that most people go

    through a k-12 tenure and they are

    apprenticed through observing teachers

    and they kind of have this idea of what

    it means to be an educator and so my

    idea of that i thought was very

    different from like when i actually then

    started teaching in the classroom was

    like oh this is what it's actually like

    so i'm curious for you like having gone

    through school to become an engineer and

    like your k-12 tenure in college and

    whatnot like what did you believe about

    education when you were an engineer and

    then when you actually got in the

    classroom like did you no longer believe

    what i believed about education going

    through engineering school for example

    was you know this process of going

    through you know a pretty rigorous

    engineering program i brag on my

    alma mater georgia tech it's pretty well

    known as a good engineering school but i

    will say

    that with the exception of a couple

    classes i mean yes i needed to know

    advanced differential equations i needed

    to do design classes and mechanical

    engineering and all these other things

    but i see that it was more of punching

    my ticket what i really needed both in

    the k-12 experience as well as

    in my

    engineering school experience and i did

    have some classes like this particularly

    my lab classes or one of my

    thermodynamics classes which was really

    hands-on was

    the ability to simply solve problems i

    mean i'm talking about real-world

    problems not a

    five-page

    derivation of some equation but

    although you know there is some merit to

    that i won't diminish

    that ability but what was really

    important what i found and especially

    once i got into the working world is

    when i was able to find colleagues who

    really knew how to get together and

    let's collaborate and let's solve this

    problem let's look at all the different

    angles let's go through a formal design

    process i did not learn that until

    essentially doing even though it wasn't

    called an apprenticeship i was basically

    an understudy with a lot of senior

    engineers who knew how to do that really

    well and that to me was sort of my

    epiphany moment of these are the things

    i really need to know and then the cool

    thing was in that process we inevitably

    brought in what one is in the design

    community would currently call our user

    you know so we would talk to customers

    we would talk to the mechanics on the

    front lines we would talk to the

    operators that were there at 3am running

    the process and really try to understand

    their perspective and then bring that in

    and again none of that unless i was

    totally asleep that day

    none of that was really taught in

    engineering school are really certainly

    not my k-12 experience those types of

    things i think when combined

    with you know the things that one needs

    to know as an engineer or one could make

    the same argument that one needs to know

    as a lawyer or as a paralegal or a

    physician i think it's those

    sort of transcendent skills that

    really need to be brought to the fore a

    bit more in our traditional education

    systems k-12 as well as higher ed so how

    did you learn how to teach and then

    how is that understanding evolved over

    time well fortunately when i went to

    grad school i was living still

    practicing as an engineer with dupont at

    the time in charleston west virginia so

    i went

    to marshall university had a graduate

    program there in charleston west

    virginia so their focus was on a

    constructivist approach so dewey paget

    i ate that stuff up because that really

    aligned well with my experience that i

    had had moving from a very traditional

    engineering school approach into a

    practitioner where i fully realized that

    you know learning by doing getting in

    with the mechanics and rebuilding a pump

    or a compressor that was infinitely more

    valuable to me than any calculus course

    i ever took

    so

    that whole idea of constructing one's

    learning by simply experiencing it was

    really the game changer for me then that

    was before i had any inkling that i was

    going to be an educator but once i got

    into the teaching world i had that

    strong value and the school that i

    taught at you know we intentionally

    targeted students who first generation

    college goers minorities low

    socioeconomic and just other kids that

    just the traditional system the

    traditional high schools weren't working

    out for them and that made up you know

    like 98 of our student body so we were

    dealing with kids who you know were

    traditionally the furthest from

    opportunity by and large

    although there were some students that

    you know this is the path i'm going

    because i get the two years of college

    paid but those types of students our

    challenge was how do we rekindle that

    joy and wonder of learning and my

    perspective and one that i think we

    eventually got that was consistent with

    the ethos of the school itself was get

    them experiencing to learn get them in

    into a position where they can do

    interdisciplinary work that looks like

    what the real world looks like and when

    they do that they see that wow i can

    make a difference in my community today

    and i don't have to just plan for

    making a difference later i can do it

    right now and that was pretty cool to

    see the way that you just described that

    really resonates with me and is how i

    prefer to learn how i prefer to teach et

    cetera but i'm curious how have people

    reacted to the approach that you're

    describing for teaching and learning

    well for many of the students they loved

    it again because they had been told

    either directly or indirectly that

    you're a failure that you don't belong

    here you know because you're not doing

    it my way that you somehow

    must not care about your learning and

    therefore we're gonna just do whatever

    is needed to sort of you know get you

    the minimum essential you need so that

    you can go on and do your thing and

    again that's not a indictment on any one

    single school or a teacher or whatever i

    think that's just the general system of

    you know you either get it with the

    approach you know you're either on board

    with my approach or you're not and if

    you're not tough i've covered the

    material and what we tried to do was

    simply say all right if you're not

    getting it it's not your fault it's my

    fault and i've got to work so i think

    when students saw that that they

    really had agency they that we listened

    to them that we really cared about what

    difference they wanted to make in the

    world and

    we did the heavy lifting to try to

    figure out how we could ensure that what

    we were responsible for teaching because

    my school was still a

    district school in the state of north

    carolina i was a public school teacher i

    had an obligation of teaching to the

    standards

    that whether i agreed with them or not

    so

    i took that very seriously but rather

    than simply say okay today we're going

    to do this we're you know i would look

    for how can i engage a student who

    really loves music in a way that we can

    connect these science and math standards

    to what they care about now other

    educators were a bit skeptical in some

    cases fortunately my principal was all

    on board with this approach and sort of

    let me do my thing and just make sure

    you're meeting your obligations and that

    you know whatever you're doing it is

    going to result in at least the ability

    that the accountability metrics that we

    have are going to look positive and then

    of course the good news was that they

    did not just me but my colleagues and i

    consistently had the types of test

    scores and all the other graduation

    rates all that other that would be the

    envy of any school but there were some

    parents particularly that saw this as

    just a dear election of teaching because

    in reality i was not teaching like what

    some students had become used to which

    was

    come in and sit down and you're going to

    listen to me blather on for 45 minutes

    about some topic and take notes and then

    you're going to do some problems and

    there will be a quiz and whatever rinse

    repeat and i wasn't doing that and in

    fact i refused to do that actually the

    students they could come to me and say

    hey mr o we really don't get this

    concept would you please relent and give

    us a lecture on it like all right so

    there was actually a group of parents at

    one time who developed a petition to get

    me fired this was in my i think it was

    my second year of teaching at that point

    i decided well gee is this teaching gig

    really something i want to do and if i'm

    going to have to deal with this level of

    backlash you know because it was really

    hard on me as i was like really

    questioning like am i doing the right

    thing is what they are accusing me of

    really true that i am you know

    not paying attention to what i should be

    and leading these students astray

    fortunately at the time when that

    petition land on my district

    superintendent's desk he basically said

    no way this guy is actually doing what

    we want him to do and i didn't have a

    whole lot of data at that time because

    it was still relatively early in my

    career but he trusted me my principal

    trusted me my colleagues trusted me and

    the good news is with some exceptions

    many of those same parents came back

    later and said thank you for persevering

    because i can see the result in

    my students that i don't think could

    have been matched with the traditional

    approach the things that they are doing

    now the things that they did in college

    is just you obviously knew something

    that we did and so that was coming full

    circle was probably the best accolade

    that i could have gotten of any award

    that i eventually got and they became

    our biggest cheerleaders for the school

    and for our approach because it wasn't

    just me i just happened to be an easy

    target because i was so blatant about it

    where some of my colleagues would do a

    little bit better job of hiding below

    the radar

    yeah again this is the apprenticeship of

    observation people think they know how

    to teach because they've observed it in

    any subject area i taught i'd have

    parents come back and be like well

    that's not how i did it when i was in

    school it's like you're right and we

    have a better understanding of how we

    learn

    like it's been

    well i mean our understanding like in

    research on this has changed a bit

    thankfully yeah yeah

    no for sure i think what that experience

    did do as painful as it was was it

    really reinforced this idea of for me to

    think about continuous improvement and

    innovation i i also needed to be very

    pragmatic about it i needed to think all

    right am i going too far too fast like i

    had done in my engineering career and i

    probably needed to do a better job of it

    as a teacher and listen to the parents

    listen to the students not only with all

    right what are you interested in but how

    can i help make this shift because you

    know if you're coming into my class as a

    sophomore in high school you've spent

    you know essentially 10 years in one

    modality and now i'm doing a fruit

    basket turnover

    and that's going to be new and strange

    to you and i need to ensure that i'm

    providing you the scaffolding and the

    other support so that you can be

    successful yeah your mention of like the

    continuous improvement and innovation

    that definitely resonates with me every

    year i'm teaching it's different than

    the previous year and like i'd have

    former students come back and be like

    why are you teaching it this way like

    why didn't you do that when i was in

    school well because

    continuing to learn and grow et cetera

    absolutely i really find a lot of value

    in learning from different sources and

    trying to apply them in unique context

    and whatnot in our prior discussions

    before we started recording like it's

    clear that you have been heavily

    influenced by open source and have

    applied that into teaching and learning

    i'm curious if you could expand upon

    that so i know for this audience is a

    little bit different than most and

    hopefully there's some educators also

    that are listening to this that aren't

    just steeped in computer science and

    stem and whatnot but for those who

    aren't you know the open source idea is

    that a coder can sit down and create

    something and put it out there in an

    open source environment and then that

    gets remixed and reused and so there's a

    saying in the open source community that

    the best code floats the top and that's

    through this

    idea of crowdsourced iteration that

    we're constantly looking at what can i

    do to tweak this and adapt it and remix

    it for my situation or for the situation

    as a whole i don't remember the specific

    research but it's

    one of the things that generally points

    to how if a bug appears in an open

    source type of code the time it takes

    for it to get resolved is much quicker

    than a proprietary because you've

    basically got the entire planet of

    coders who have the ability to

    troubleshoot that so that ideal really

    started resonating with me as i got into

    the education space you know again from

    my experience of just knowing that

    collaboration and empathy with one's

    user whether that again is the mechanic

    the operator the customer whoever that

    just casting that wide net for input on

    what am i doing what can i do to make

    this better how can i solve this problem

    really sort of was in my bones and

    finding in the education space that we

    really didn't talk to one another was

    troubling to that going to a unit to a

    conference and sitting down at the table

    and introducing myself to an educator

    and saying hey let's share email and you

    know i'll be willing to give you i

    remember this was in the days of the

    flash drive i was doing this at a

    conference in dc i met a fellow physics

    teacher i said here i'm going to give

    you this flash drop that has got

    everything that i've ever done at that

    time it was like my fifth or sixth year

    every project i've developed every

    activity everything that i've developed

    and it's yours here take it just remix

    it make it better and he looked at me

    like i was insane like what yep

    why would you do that

    you know that's worth gold like why

    would you give that away and my response

    was why wouldn't i i'm not in this you

    know to compete with you i'm in this to

    ensure that whatever we're doing in this

    collaborative environment we're helping

    kids make these connections that they

    need to make so they can be successful

    and what i'm offering is one simple way

    to do that and if you can take it and

    make those ideas better all the better

    so that whole ethos as i started

    learning more about the open source

    principles of transparency and community

    and collaboration inclusivity

    adaptability just really resonated at a

    level and i think for me it helped sort

    of solidify this

    ideal this ethos that i was embracing

    because i really couldn't put a label on

    it before and then when i started

    reading about you know the open source

    community and that approach i'm like

    that's it that's it my co-founder for

    open way learning we sort of stumbled on

    this about at the same time and in fact

    he was working directly with a coder and

    just had a conversation and i think

    that's he brought that conversation to

    me and i'm like that's it eureka

    that's what we've been after that helps

    define this really radical approach that

    we're using

    that really shouldn't be that radical i

    mean if there's any place that things

    like community and collaboration and

    inclusivity should be happening it's in

    the education space and one of the

    potential silver linings of the pandemic

    is i think it forced teachers and other

    educators to do more collaboration

    because they were in an environment

    where the rule book just got totally

    thrown away and if you want to reach

    students in an environment that's

    totally different than what you've done

    in the past you're going to have to

    reach out and listen to what others are

    saying listen to your user listen to

    your colleagues look at what things are

    working and then remix them for your own

    context and i think that was where we

    were seeing evidence of an open source

    approach that's my 10 minutes or

    whatever has been talking about how

    the whole ideal of open source and that

    by the way is in open way learning that

    word open is intentional because we

    believe the open way is those

    characteristics you know that i

    mentioned before that resonates in a lot

    of different ways so like the kanji that

    is around my neck and that is on

    tattooed on my side means the way uh do

    in japanese and like open source like

    for

    last 20 or so years on my website i've

    shared any resource that i use when

    teaching or create i just share it

    freely all the presentations i've done

    etc so like this really resonates with

    me but i have heard some pushback from

    some educators who have said but isn't

    this just free labor and so they're

    putting their efforts into something and

    then they're not getting like a return

    on investment for it so i'm curious like

    how you respond to people who say that

    if it is simply a one way where i'm only

    sharing and i'm not receiving that could

    be a valid argument but i will submit

    that anytime i share something whether

    it's the rule of karma

    or it's a tangible that person reaches

    back out to me and say hey ben i love

    what you did here here's how i remix

    that to me is gold because i can take

    what they have done and it gives me that

    whole different perspective of how they

    applied this lesson this resource this

    protocol whatever it was in their own

    context with their students that is that

    rapid prototyping mindset of let's take

    things and let's just constantly make

    them better and then just in general

    whenever you do that you build a level

    of trust among colleagues that you're

    able to form this network this network

    that you can tap into i used to play in

    the twitter world a lot more than i do

    today and i've found that as a teacher

    that was one of my best resources to

    sort of embrace this open source idea

    because i could go on and just say

    here's a resource that i've got and just

    send it out to my community of followers

    and say y'all try this out and tell me

    what you think about it and you know

    within 24 hours i would have 10 to 20

    comments

    that were

    you know real time that i respected of

    educators

    literally around the world

    who were looking at something and giving

    me feedback i can't put a currency

    on that that is just huge that helped me

    improve as an educator it helped me that

    day and helped me just going forward to

    be more attentive to listening to their

    different perspectives and you repeat

    that process again and again and again

    when you do this level of collaboration

    it always

    you find is more beneficial to you than

    anything that you can share out so yeah

    i get it i you know yeah i spent

    countless hours pulling stuff together

    but to me that's an easy investment for

    the type of collaboration network that i

    was able to experience in benefit yeah

    one of the so recurring conversations

    that i have with john stapleton who has

    been on the podcast a couple of times is

    talking about like having hyper local

    curriculum so there's this tendency to

    like create curriculum at scale where

    it's like hey everyone across the nation

    is going to use this exact same lesson

    but that like clearly is not going to

    connect with every community every

    student teacher etc so the thing that i

    love about like open source and like

    just that ethos is like if you go to a

    program or even just like a function and

    you copy and paste that into yours you

    have to modify it in order to fit your

    needs and i wish more educators saw

    lessons in that way as well like here's

    somebody else's lesson okay cool i'm

    gonna change it so it actually works

    better for the students that i'm working

    with as opposed to just taking it copy

    and paste and not making any kind of

    alteration whenever i get the

    opportunity i always

    remind teachers i'm working with do you

    know about the oer comments do you know

    about creative commons do you know about

    because legitimately we should not be

    copying and sharing copyrighted material

    that's just you know that's not cool

    now i would argue that you know in the

    education space with some exceptions we

    shouldn't have a whole lot of

    copyrighted material and if you're in it

    for proprietary reasons to make money

    with your textbook or whatever then i

    see you as the evil empire and

    i'll get a lot of pushback with that but

    i think it follows that mentality of one

    size fits all let's create a textbook

    that is this section is equally

    applicable in anaheim as it is in terre

    haute indiana and that's just

    not the case so i always

    you know refer people to oer commons

    where you can look at open source

    materials that have been vetted by their

    peers and they can take and remix to

    their own context and then load it back

    up and continue that process and that is

    infinitely more valuable than any

    textbook that's proprietary or any

    teacher pay teachers don't even get me

    started with that

    type of approach where we just simply

    say well if it worked over there it's

    got to work for me so i'll just take it

    and i'll regurgitate it in my classroom

    that's not really quality teaching now

    there may be cases where you could adapt

    it pretty much with no changes but

    anything that i would ever get i would

    always remix it and i would remix it not

    at just the classroom level but at the

    individual student level and that to me

    is the holy grail when we're really

    customizing the scaffolding the

    activities that we're doing with each

    individual student and that to me is the

    highest quality of teaching that's hard

    hard work yeah but it is an investment

    that is worth the payoff because when

    you can finally

    see that glimpse

    of oh i get it now because of the work

    that you've done at that personalized

    individualized level that's worth all

    the time that you invest to do it now

    you mentioned it kind of in passing but

    i'm curious can you explain what is open

    way learning yeah so open way learning

    it's an education non-profit that sort

    of our theory of change is that you

    can't just focus on the latest buzzword

    innovation

    right

    and which we see all too often in

    education like oh stem is the thing

    right now so let's all alert to that or

    project-based learning is the thing

    right now or personalized learning or

    sel whatever it is and that's not to

    criticize any of those programs but

    unfortunately they get treated like

    programs because we get used to this

    idea of seeing the latest thing you know

    oh this is the sexy thing coming down

    the pipe we've all got to do that

    what we don't do typically as schools or

    districts because it's hard work is to

    step back and say well what are the

    cultural elements that need to be in

    place for these innovations to really be

    implemented with the level of fidelity

    that will meet the intent like them or

    pbl or whatever it is i mean that's

    great when it's implemented at that

    level but when it's seen as a program of

    the month you know we as educators will

    simply say well this too shall pass so

    i'll do the minimum i got to do to keep

    my head you know below the radar and

    once it goes away then i'll do the same

    thing with the next big thing in the

    meantime i'm just going to continue

    teaching in a very traditional way so

    when we step back and say well let's

    start with understanding our why as an

    organization as a school as a district

    as a learning community and do that in a

    way that produces what we call a living

    mission and vision that is not just

    words hanging on a conference room or

    hanging next to the entryway but it

    actually lives you could shadow a

    student you could say hey take our

    mission state and walk around with a

    student today and tell us whether or not

    what you're seeing is consistent and in

    alignment with what we put on this

    document this aspirational dot they

    should be aligned so that's our first

    sort of criteria the second is this idea

    of collective autonomy if you've read

    daniel pink you know his thing about

    human motivation purpose mastery and

    autonomy and this goes back to that idea

    of just because you've got a title as

    principal or assistant principal or

    superintendent or department head

    doesn't mean you're necessarily a leader

    it means that you have the capacity to

    be a leader but we need to widen that

    net to say our students can be leaders

    our parents can be leaders our community

    members a first-year teacher can be a

    leader and be flexible in that

    definition and then give people the

    collective autonomy to bring that

    leadership to bear third is a culture of

    collaboration so we work on how do we

    ensure that schools

    don't have just dysfunctional plcs but

    that actually have true professional

    learning communities where we are

    spending time learning from our

    colleagues because that's one of the

    premises behind that is the expertise

    you need to be excellent as a school as

    a department as a district already

    exists in that learning community the

    key is how do you collaborate to bring

    those ideas forth and then that leads to

    the fourth idea which is when you have a

    collaborative community a true learning

    community to borrow from peter sinji's

    definition then you catalyze that with

    the open source

    chair of ideas of resources of knowledge

    with one another so sort of those four

    cultural elements that really get into

    the people and really get into the

    systems of living mission and vision

    collective leadership culture of

    collaboration and open source sharing

    now you've got the stuff in the water to

    take something like project-based

    learning to a whole other level

    something like personalized learning to

    a whole another level because

    all of those cultural ingredients are

    working together to manifest it in a

    really cool way and you've also got the

    ingredients to say you know this sexy

    thing coming down the pike isn't in

    alignment with our mission and vision so

    we're not going to invest the time to do

    it and that's not just one person's

    decision it's a collective decision

    because

    everyone within the learning community

    sees that there is incongruence with

    that thing and what they are doing to

    make the education spaces as good as

    possible for kids now there are

    obviously exceptions to that if it's a

    regulatory thing or whatever the god's

    own mentality say thou shalt do this

    obviously you don't have a whole lot of

    freedom but even there there's enough

    wiggle room that you can at least adapt

    it in a way that you can apply it so

    that it matches that culture so that's a

    really long answer to what is this thing

    called open way learning and it's just

    this idea it's the theory of change that

    we've got to be focused on this longer

    term systemic level cultural level

    stuff in order to be successful which

    often is a tough sell which is why we

    don't go to big trade shows because if

    i'm standing next to i won't name them

    but ed tech communities or whatever that

    have all the sexy buzzwords right there

    nobody's gonna pay us any attention but

    fortunately there are enough schools and

    districts out there that have said you

    know enough is enough we've really got

    to step back and take a different

    approach at this because what we have

    been doing by chasing the buzzword edu

    fad is just not working for kids so when

    i stepped into

    boot up working at the nonprofit it

    allowed me to work with districts in

    ways that i hadn't previously when i was

    in k-12 and even when i was teaching

    higher education and whatnot i'm curious

    for you like when you started working in

    the non-profit space how did that change

    or reinforce your understanding of like

    education or educators well i'll tell

    you just because it took a while to get

    my non-profit status you know and just

    going through the process there was a

    period of time about a year where i was

    simply an llc and i was struck by

    the difference between

    the types of conversation i could have

    with folks

    when i was a for-profit llc as opposed

    to a non-profit that could truly put out

    there and say i'm doing this work for a

    higher reason than just making a profit

    so i think just inevitably i would

    venture to say that's probably going to

    be true for any social space or

    environmental or wherever it just it

    allows you to have a level of

    credibility that i think

    my friends and the for-profit space can

    sometimes struggle with now there are

    some legitimately good for-profit

    organizations in the education space but

    we early on said for us to really

    embrace this open source

    ideal we've got to manifest that in

    every aspect of what we do we've got to

    be able to pass the red face test when

    we have a conversation with any educator

    that we're going to be doing this to

    co-design with your in-house experts

    what you need in order to be successful

    we're not going to come in with a paint

    by numbers approach although it will

    probably save us a lot of time if we

    just developed here's the 10-step

    process to change culture rinse repeat

    but it just doesn't work that way every

    school every district every teacher we

    work with is a remix is a start with

    empathy and listen and i think that to

    come back to your question the

    consistent feedback we get is you know

    this is refreshing everybody that we've

    ever worked with

    by and large has just come in and said

    do these things

    and you know giving us a workbook and

    giving us whatever and giving us the

    training and say now go off and do it

    and what you guys are doing is say let's

    start by listening to

    where you currently are and what your

    goals are and what your assets are what

    is the talent you bring and how can we

    collaborate how can we essentially in a

    theoretically a three-day workshop

    create an atmosphere that looks very

    much like

    what i described before with the living

    mission and vision the collective

    autonomy etc and they see that wow this

    is pretty powerful stuff

    and it's something that we can actually

    do to make a difference and i've had

    teachers approach me you know in tears

    to say no one has really listened to me

    in the 25 years that i've been teaching

    until what you guys just did in the last

    two days you put me in a space where i

    could express

    my ideas in a safe way not that my idea

    got implemented but my idea got heard

    and that was so powerful thank you it

    reaffirmed why i became an educator and

    to me again that's one of those like wow

    that is the best feedback i could ever

    get

    because it really means what we are

    doing which is if you want to boil it

    down and it's all open source anyway so

    you get anybody out there can take it

    you know become a competitor i suppose

    but i would just think we'd be helping

    raise all boats but you could take what

    we're doing which is

    just simply getting learning communities

    together and

    using things like the design process

    using things like empathy mapping to sit

    down and listen to students to listen to

    teachers and then take those ideas and

    remix them in a way that works in your

    local context for you not for the school

    over there for you and then what we do

    is we right up front say how can we work

    ourselves out of a job as quickly as

    possible so that we build that local

    capacity those systems so that it's not

    dependent upon open way learning or any

    other that you've got what it takes to

    be

    that learning community of constant

    innovation and

    continuous improvement is just now baked

    into your dna now if we were to zoom out

    from your perspective what do you feel

    is holding back either educators or the

    field and then what's something that we

    can actually do about that that's the

    the ten thousand dollar question my

    experience

    in the education space which you know i

    came in very naive you know

    then this former engineer is going to

    change the world

    or at least change how to teach stem or

    whatever and then this cold face of

    reality sits in

    [Laughter]

    so

    what i have learned to call it not

    surprising as a former physics teacher

    is the institutionalized inertia of the

    status quo that the

    systems we have developed over time

    where we just simply put in autopilot

    and do school are so baked in to

    our culture and and that's why i argue

    that unless you address culture you're

    going to simply reinforce and further

    manifest the dysfunctional culture that

    is not serving kids especially our kids

    who've traditionally been furthers from

    opportunity we've got to shake up the

    culture we've got to focus on those

    things and do it in a way that

    really means we're doing hard work that

    looks different than what we've done in

    the past and not just rely on the way

    that we've always done things as the

    only way that we can proceed so i would

    submit that there's no single

    institution whether that's a district or

    a department of education at the state

    level at the

    regional level

    national level no higher ed

    organization or community no nonprofit

    that will individually as an institution

    change this i think it will only happen

    if we have a crowdsourced approach that

    recognizes the best idea from wherever

    that idea comes from and we collectively

    take those ideas as a way to say there

    is a better way than what we've done in

    the past now the trick is how do you get

    those ideas to really come forward and

    again i would submit they already exist

    it's just we've got to encumber them so

    that they rise to the top and

    that means

    teacher is going to have to be

    vulnerable and listen to ideas from

    their students that means a principal is

    going to have to be vulnerable and

    listen to

    and follow through with ideas from their

    teaching staff from their support staff

    a superintendent

    a state superintendent whomever they're

    gonna have to say i may not have all the

    answers and so i'm gonna have to really

    rely on not just my collective staff

    here but i'm gonna have to rely on this

    crowdsource mindset and cast that net

    really wider and create the systems

    where i can constantly listen to and act

    on those ideas and again i would go back

    to when did that actually happen well we

    just had it happen recently in the

    pandemic when we made this massive shift

    in a very short period of time districts

    no longer were the necessary north star

    with all the answers to many of their

    teachers or schools or whomever so

    people had to be creative and had to

    look beyond what they had traditionally

    looked like so that to me was an example

    of a test case of the potential for

    really changing the paradigm so the

    optimist in me says well let's just

    continue doing that more and let's

    emphasize where it's actually beginning

    to sink in and have an impact the

    pessimist in me unfortunately sees too

    many districts just saying okay we're

    going back to the same old way that we

    did prior to the pandemic yeah it's

    difficult with the industrial model so

    heavily baked into

    what typically occurs in education but

    the way that you've spoken throughout

    this conversation has really discussed

    the value of bridging the gap between

    in school and out of school

    understandings practices problem solving

    ways of knowing etc but i don't know

    it's hard to kind of change the

    landscape when we have this factory

    model the industrial model that is so

    pervasive when what you're describing is

    more of a networked model and to be able

    to share across that so do you have any

    recommendations for educators who like

    want to break beyond those approaches

    and get into more open ways of learning

    well one that just immediately comes to

    mind is my friend grant lichtman and

    he's done some writing on this i know in

    the past couple years specific to the

    things that he's been seeing at this

    networked level during and post well if

    we are in a post-pandemic which i would

    argue would really not yet and he's the

    author of the book moving the rock which

    i would highly recommend so that's one

    example of if you really want to dig in

    further and look at

    a level of expertise someone that you've

    had on this podcast before arya cheering

    and her work at duke is another example

    of how we can obviously she being at the

    higher ed

    space is able to see an even broader

    perspective of how we can bring in this

    open source idea into

    many different applications including in

    her case she's working with the durham

    public schools on specifically a

    cs type of approach in general that then

    uses

    computer science and programming in an

    open source so basically both ends of

    the spectrum there in the book i wrote

    open up education or co-wrote with adam

    hagler my co-author we point to a number

    of other examples and that's not a pitch

    for the book

    it's just if you want resources find

    somebody who's got a copy and read that

    as well but that idea as you alluded to

    is still pretty radical it is still

    pretty good i mean even to this day when

    i speak to teachers who i know have been

    doing wonderful collaboration and i just

    bring up so tell me how you collaborate

    with your own district or maybe with

    your own region because i see them

    collaborating on twitter or on national

    networks or whatever well i never even

    considered that yeah

    so i think it's indicative of when we

    get into this industrial model system

    this paradigm is so strong it just tends

    to cloud

    this idea of what we could be doing and

    the idea is right there the methodology

    is right there it just sometimes it just

    simply takes a shift where like well why

    don't we collaborate why don't i go

    across the hall and just sit in a

    colleague's classroom and then we just

    have a conversation later about what did

    i like what did i wonder because when i

    was teaching that was the best feedback

    i could get sure the annual observation

    and the forum and all that you know that

    was beneficial to a certain extent but

    the best feedback was a colleague who

    does the same thing and works with the

    same students and is able to look and

    say hey ben did you know that what

    you're doing with these three students

    is just probably not very effective why

    don't you try this because that's

    working in my classroom like night and

    day oh wow i would have never even

    considered that and thank you for that

    insight so little things like that i

    think that we can do within our own

    sphere of influence but anything that

    you can do to collaborate intentionally

    collaborate and share be vulnerable with

    others you're going to become a better

    educator doing or you're going to become

    a better superintendent doing that it's

    so powerful we've got to get away from

    this idea that we may think that we have

    all the answers or because of our own

    experience or because of what we've done

    in the past we've always got to say what

    i'm doing today has got to be better and

    different than what i did yesterday and

    one of the things that i really

    appreciate that you have reiterated

    multiple times is like elevating student

    voice in this experience i'm curious

    what you would recommend specifically

    for that for educators who might

    immediately jump to oh i can collaborate

    with other educators but like how could

    they learn from and with students when

    open wave learning does our work we do

    have available if schools want to use it

    we don't force it on anyone but it's

    kind of like a maturity model of some of

    the foundational things that we've just

    seen that we know that work that should

    be

    part of that systemic ecosystem that you

    have in place and one of those is a

    vibrant advisory program whether that's

    at the elementary middle or high school

    level is are you spending the time

    developing relationships with students

    are you spending the time addressing

    social emotional needs of students are

    you listening to what their goals are

    what gets them up in the morning what

    makes them tick now sometimes that may

    be a hard conversation because if

    students have not been in that

    environment they may be reticent to

    share but if you are persistent and just

    invest the time to get to know students

    then they're going to develop that level

    of trust and respect mutual respect and

    you're going to also be a little bit

    vulnerable by asking them so tell me how

    i'm doing tell me what i could do

    that would make this class better that

    what could i do to make this lesson

    better this project and you may get some

    pretty biting response like

    i certainly did

    like mr o never do that project again it

    was awful

    okay

    you're exactly right i thought the same

    thing you just helped validate that

    so yeah having an advisory program in

    whatever form it is whatever way that

    you can do that and if your school is

    not supportive then figure out a way

    that you can bring that to your own

    individual classroom i promise you that

    investing that time and developing that

    solid relationship is going to pay off

    tenfold as you go forward so that is

    sort of the foundational level and then

    it's simply

    asking it's asking in a one-on-one level

    it's saying hey i want to have a focus

    group anyone that has a birthday between

    june and october i want to meet you over

    in this corner everybody else just

    continue working on what you're doing

    and you go and you simply have a

    conversation with those students i've

    got this this is what the idea i'm

    bouncing around what do you all think

    how could i make it better how could i

    make it where it has a more direct

    community impact and then the other

    thing we would do this from time to time

    is actually take students to the chamber

    of commerce meeting you know just say

    hey who wants to go to the chamber of

    commerce one was pretty striking

    where we as teachers would go to the

    chamber of commerce be in our school and

    sometimes we were the only educators

    there but that was where i could have a

    direct conversation with the plant

    manager of the local snap-on tools plant

    for example or

    with a physician at the local hospital

    or with a paralegal or whomever and i

    could say well what are some of the

    problems that you're working on that our

    students could also work on because

    chances are you've got some issues that

    you simply don't have the time money and

    resources and when students can engage

    in that conversation with someone that

    they respect in their community or that

    they just didn't know about it opens

    many many doors that you can take

    advantage of that's another helpful hint

    that i would encourage folks to do is

    just whatever it takes to blur the lines

    between what's happening in the school

    and what's happening

    do you have any recommendations for

    how to prevent burnout that can come

    with like that iteration like those were

    some excellent examples of like how you

    can like kind of practice and iterate on

    your own abilities by getting feedback

    from students and but it's difficult

    being an educator as you mentioned in

    the story about like being petitioned

    like how did you and do you work through

    stresses like that yeah i mean i'm sure

    there are folks that are listening to

    this saying yeah that's great there ben

    you're probably smoking something

    because

    there's no way

    that i could do that anything close to

    what you're talking about and i won't

    kid

    anyone listening that this is indeed

    hard work what i found was by doing that

    hard but different work that was more

    collaborative more inviting more

    inclusive was

    so much more rewarding that it was worth

    it it was worth the time investment and

    if i had worked half the number of hours

    that i did but was just sort of going

    through the motions and knowing that it

    wasn't having the impact that would have

    burned me out within a heart because

    what was motivational and this goes back

    again to i think what daniel pique talks

    about is that purpose mastery and

    autonomy i knew that at my school there

    was a clear living mission that provided

    purpose that was consistent and in

    alignment with what i wanted to do to

    make a difference in the world for the

    time that i'm on this planet that was my

    way to channel that and affect it with

    the students i was working with i had

    the ability to master things by knowing

    that i could collaborate with colleagues

    knowing that we could share ideas so

    that we could constantly get better and

    continue to become better teachers and

    master that approach and then i had the

    autonomy

    that didn't mean that i could just close

    my door and do my own thing i had the

    collective autonomy where again i our

    ideas mattered what i could bring as a

    passionate educator to my colleagues and

    they could listen and they could give me

    feedback was respected so i could leave

    at the end of the day knowing that with

    that purpose mastery and autonomy i'm

    doing good work that is in alignment to

    my core values as a person and i think

    that ultimately is if you were in that

    place which i was fortunate enough to be

    and i would also say i'm pretty

    fortunate enough to be since i run my

    own non-profit

    i guess i'm my own boss so i just make

    sure that ethos exists in this community

    as well that you can leave with a smile

    on your face and knowing that you've

    done good work that day now i think as

    you're alluding to you can also take

    that to the extreme and become just

    insane and my wife would probably argue

    that

    i do that on occasion

    it is imperative that you block time and

    i've i've gotten good at practices like

    just i'm gonna block a day and that's my

    day and it's not the weekend it's my day

    where i still may be doing work but it's

    work that i get to dictate i get to

    define i get to sit down and read or

    just do something that's totally

    different and it's not dictated by a

    meeting or whatever and then you know

    i'm also shut down at four o'clock every

    day i'm done unless there's a specific

    thing that others expect me to be in for

    whatever reason but i'm pretty stingy

    about what those can be that's the time

    where my wife and i and our dog and cats

    can enjoy being together and we can go

    walk in the woods

    i can go on a run or i can do whatever

    so i think it's having that level of

    discipline to know that you know when

    you're doing work you're going to go all

    in but you're also going to ensure that

    you protect

    time

    as well so that you're honoring self and

    don't treat that as being selfish but

    treat that as part of the entire system

    to stay healthy in all the different

    ways that are necessary yeah i really

    appreciate that response the work that i

    do literally will never end in terms of

    like the series of things that i can

    always work on so like having those firm

    here's when i start working here's when

    i stop working that definitely helps now

    i say that with full recognition of i

    started at 5 a.m this morning because i

    woke up at four and like it's just like

    one of those days where all right it's

    definitely gonna be like a 10 hour day

    but

    in general i try and do eight to four

    get my eight hours and

    we all have those days but

    yeah i think as long as we

    do it in moderation then uh we're

    they're honoring self so i'm curious

    what do you wish there's more research

    on that could inform your own practices

    i know that there

    needs to be more research on

    just the

    approach of using an interdisciplinary

    approach to education like what if we

    just simply de-siloed the process and

    got kids

    working on experiences whether it's

    project-based learning problem-based

    place-based profession-based whatever

    xbl you want to say i know there's some

    like university of michigan

    collaborating with michigan state just

    publish something that you can find on

    the lucas foundation about the impact of

    things like project-based learning

    experiential learning it shouldn't be

    just that's the one example that we can

    point to that shows the impact because

    anecdotally every situation whether it's

    in my own school or the schools i have

    the privilege of working with when

    teachers

    embrace that approach and move away from

    the industrial model it's a total game

    changer and especially for students who

    the light bulb has gone off and they're

    just like all right i'm going to bide my

    time until either i can drop out or

    until i graduate and just you know let

    me just kind of keep my head down when

    you're able to impact those kids where

    they are shining in a way that nobody

    expected themselves their parents

    included that's beautiful and i know

    there's a research

    piece of that that can validate it in a

    way that we can point to traditional

    metrics or whatever and so i think we

    need more of that and let's see other

    areas the reality of the fourth

    industrial revolution with ai and just

    so many things that are just racing by

    us there has to be something and if it

    is research that points to the fact that

    the current model is not working to

    sufficiently prepare our students for

    that reality and if the research is the

    thing that motivates

    folks to actually make that move to make

    cs more inclusive to make stem more

    inclusive to help ensure that yeah just

    because i'm an english teacher i'm not

    going to worry about coding to something

    where i'm going to worry about whatever

    it takes

    regardless of my diploma i have on my

    wall over here i'm going to do whatever

    it takes to equip these kids with what

    they need to be successful and i'm going

    to collaborate with my colleagues now i

    may bring a little bit of expertise in

    this area but the big picture is how are

    we preparing our kids to be the

    entrepreneurs the change makers the

    difference makers and not just the test

    takers i like that what's something that

    you're working on that you could

    actually use more help with like from a

    listener or something oh my gosh

    we're not the

    kid

    i think any listener who has heard

    something that i have said that can just

    point to either well what you said was

    bs because

    i have over time developed a worldview

    but i'm sure it's very biased and i'm

    sure it is not representative of

    especially

    as a white male you know i inherently

    bring a certain bias to this

    that i constantly am looking for and

    always know that i can do a better job

    of listening to others particularly our

    communities that have historically been

    oppressed by folks like me and i think

    that's one thing first and foremost and

    then others are just is there something

    out there that says well you know ben

    the work that you're doing could be

    catalyzed if you considered this or if

    you looked in this arena or here's an

    example that you could highlight that is

    actually making that difference because

    i think if we can look at those pockets

    of equipment look at those images of

    what's possible and elevate those and

    have folks then act on it like all right

    how can i replicate that because that

    community looks really similar to the

    community i'm working with how did they

    do it so i can do it and again take that

    idea of if we share and remix and

    localize it then i think we can get

    better so anything like that would help

    me as sort of the if i'm doing nothing

    else than saying hey you district a

    you need to collaborate with district b

    and this other non-profit because what

    they're doing is amazing and i never see

    a penny of that other than the fact that

    i got them together that's all good

    because that is beginning to make that

    shift happen from this industrial model

    to something that's more equitable and

    purposeful for kids i love how so many

    of your answers just embody the open

    source like way of being like it's

    phenomenal i don't know how intentional

    it was in that response but it was just

    like spot on

    very good it'll probably be on my

    epitaph that this was the open source

    guy who struggled with coding in python

    do you have questions for myself or for

    the field i guess the big question i

    always have is

    how radical

    is what i'm proposing from your context

    as you've had experience in the higher

    ed community you've had the experience

    teaching

    you know what the system and the

    resistance potentially so am i really

    out there in the tundra screaming to

    nobody's listening or do you think you

    see any elephant in the room that can be

    impacted by this by some element of what

    i'm discussing yeah that's an excellent

    question and this might sound like a

    non-answer but i've seen enough

    districts to realize that there's a huge

    continuum of what would be accepted and

    what would not like one district that i

    was in where i got put on a growth plan

    because i like created a lesson based

    off of the previous four lessons that

    they gave us and they came in on that

    one and they're like this isn't a

    district approved lesson plan blah blah

    blah i'm like okay like

    you didn't give me five lessons for five

    weeks so i made one up based off of the

    previous four weeks like and you love

    the lesson

    so districts like that would probably

    hear what you're talking about and go

    nope but then like other districts that

    i've been in and other districts that

    i've seen like their end goal is to just

    get kids interested in learning and to

    be able to do something with what they

    learn in school outside of school and in

    those districts yeah they'll listen to

    this and be like yes this totally

    resonates let's do this i'm on board

    with it the hard part is like trying to

    figure out with that first district well

    what is it that you value and how can we

    get at that through this approach that

    also really works probably even better

    for kids than what you are mandating and

    whatnot so like had i had the

    understandings that i have now if i were

    to go back to that first district that i

    taught in to be able to engage in those

    conversations with the administrators

    and just sit down and be like what do

    you hope students will learn and then

    what are some different approaches that

    we can use and how might we align this

    approach that i highly recommend with

    what you're trying to do and i think

    bridging those conversations would help

    but yeah i totally think everything

    you're talking about could totally be

    done in education it's just a matter of

    getting like administrators or even like

    you mentioned earlier like parents on

    board with understanding like hey this

    is a valid way of you know learning and

    teaching or facilitating et cetera great

    i appreciate that feedback and i think

    the way that affects the work i do is we

    intentionally don't try to evangelize to

    that first district and examples like

    that i mean

    because there are enough folks out there

    that are pointing to we've got to do

    something differently yeah and certainly

    with what we just experienced in the

    pandemic where the curtain got pulled

    back and we got to see the sort of the

    ugly underbelly of this industrial model

    that has just been existing for too long

    that needs desperate change so i can say

    and this again falls in the theory of

    change that if you get a coalition

    schools districts educators in general

    who are willing then that's where things

    like the collaboration and the sharing

    and the trust can affect the type of

    change we're after so that's my guarded

    optimism based on what you're saying

    there and i'm excited to continue to

    work with those folks because again

    not that i've got the answers but i

    think we've got a way that we can help

    their answers come to the top including

    listening to students along the way and

    letting them co-design with us something

    that's going to work better so where

    might people go to connect with you and

    the organizations that you work with so

    my email is ben at

    openwaylearning.org so feel free to

    shoot me an email whether you agree or

    disagree with anything i've said today

    or indifferent about it and

    openwaylearning.org you can just go to

    that url and you will see our website

    you can also find me on twitter

    at engineer teacher and at open way

    learning or our non-profit and we're

    also on linkedin and facebook same thing

    so if you just do open weight learning

    you'll eventually find us if it's not

    one of the first things that pop up

    that's my contact info and i'm always

    happy to hear from others and

    collaborate what can we do to develop

    that coalition of willing partners as

    you probably can tell by now i'm pretty

    passionate about not just doing it

    myself but having willing collaborators

    to co-design that with me so we raise

    all votes and with that that concludes

    this week's episode of the cska podcast

    i hope you enjoyed this interview as

    much as i did and i hope you consider

    sharing this with somebody else or

    sharing a review on whatever app that

    you're listening to this on this helps

    more people find it stay tuned next week

    for another episode and until then i

    hope you're all staying safe and are

    having a wonderful week

Guest Bio

As an engineer who spent a 20-year career in manufacturing locations across the US, Ben Owens saw first-hand the essential need to rethink student success so that it was less focused on siloed curriculum and test scores and more focused on the skills, knowledge, and dispositions needed for students to thrive in a rapidly changing world. Ben left the corporate world in 2007 to do something about this by becoming a public school teacher in rural Appalachia. He taught physics and math for 11 years at Tri-County Early College and in that role was able to work with a dynamic team of peers to craft and scale an engaging approach to student-centered teaching and learning that blurs the lines between what happens in school and what happens in the real world. This experience provided profound insights into why and how we must shift our approach to education in general and STEM education in particular - especially for historically marginalized students. 

Ben is the co-author of “Open Up, Education! How Open Way Learning Can Transform Schools,” a book that makes a compelling case for why our schools must be more open if they are to truly prepare students for a rapidly changing world. He was the recipient of the 2017 Bridging the Gap Distinguished Teacher in STEM Education; the 2016 North Carolina Center for Science, Mathematics, & Technology Outstanding 9-16 Educator Award; a member of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Teacher Advisory Council; a 2014 Hope Street Group National Teaching Fellow, and a former “Community TA” for the MIT Teaching Systems Lab. He is an Open Organization Ambassador and a National Faculty member for PBLWorks, and co-founder of the non-profit, Open Way Learning

Open Way Learning is a not-for-profit organization that helps schools create the cultural conditions that allow authentic, localized innovation to thrive in their own learning communities. The Open Way Learning approach rejects an inequitable and archaic factory model of school that prefers compliance over relationships, isolation over collaboration, and teaching to a test over authentic learning. This “Open Way” model focuses on four core elements that are rooted in the open source movement - one of the primary drivers fueling our innovation economy: a living mission & vision, collective autonomy, a culture of collaboration, and the free and open sharing of ideas and resources. This approach allows teams to attend to the cultural elements that enable them to develop, remix, adapt, and sustain innovative strategies such as competency-based learning, project-based learning, distributed leadership, design thinking, true personalized learning, and high-quality STEM teaching & learning. When baked into the DNA of a school, the Open Way Learning model enables it to nimbly respond to the just-in-time needs of each student so that they are equipped with skills needed to thrive in the 4th industrial revolution, rather than just the first.


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