WEBVTT

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I'd like to share with you all

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an idea which I believe

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will help shape the future 
of personalized learning.

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This is an idea that you and everyone

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can put into action today, for free,

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and will never be taken away.

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I call it a "Lifelong Learning Blog".

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In that, unlike other blogs,

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the idea is not to build a large audience,

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but to help young people learn.

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To start is simple.

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First, think of a kid or kids 
who you love.

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Next, set them up 
with a Google account, or equivalent,

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and help them set up their own blog.

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If you think they're too young 
to have their own Google account, 


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then they can just use yours.

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Final set up step,

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and this is the key:

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be sure to set up 
the email subscription widget,

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and immediately enrol yourself 


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and at least 4 other adults
who also love that kid.

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Now, if your family is like mine,

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you share a secret weapon:

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grandparents.

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There's an obvious synergy 


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between older people 
and younger people.

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They provide what last year's 
TED talk award winner, Sugata Mitra,

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calls the "Granny Cloud",

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a supportive nurturing presence 
that motives kids to do more.

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If your family is not like mine, 


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as more and more are not,

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particularly in urban environments 
like where I live,

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then there may be just one parent,

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and there may be technical 
and language barriers,

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but with almost all kids,

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there is a team of adults 
who cares about that kid

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and wants to help.

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It could be an after school provider,

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or a social worker,

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or a distant relative,

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or a teacher.

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So, it takes about 20 minutes

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to set a kid up 
with a lifelong learning blog.

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And I have free step-by-step instructions

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posted at a website: 
blogsandbadges.com.

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The next step is harder,

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but where the fun begins.

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With my younger son, Charlie,

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it started like this:

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"No, no, no, no, no!"

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Charlie had seen first-hand
the impact of blogging

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on his older brother, Max,

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and he did not think that he was ready
for the responsibility.

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Max had unenrolled 
in 6th grade last year

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to pursue personalized learning 
for 6 months

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in a "semester abroad in Geeklandia",

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as we came to call it.

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His experiences and blog,

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"Postcards from Geeklandia",

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helped show my wife and I,
both lifelong public educators,

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the power of blogging 
as a lifelong learning tool.

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Unlike MOOCs and Khan Academy,

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kids' blogging is fundamentally 
about learning by doing.

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Writing in a rich media form, 
like a blog,

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harvests 3 core characteristics 
that kids need

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to prepare them for the future.

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Number 1: Communicating with 
other human beings in writing

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powerfully and creatively.

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Number 2: Communicating 
with computers and devices

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technically and logically.

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Number 3: Developing 
independence and perseverance,

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that engine in the brain 
that motivates us

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to interact with humans and computers

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and to persist to completion.

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I struggled a bit to figure out

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how to explain what I'm talking about,

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because this idea is both 
exceedingly simple

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and infinitely extensible.

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Motivating kids to blog 
can be as simple

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as getting them to post 
existing homework assignments

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that they've already done.

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Or, it could be writing a few sentences

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as captions to pictures 
from a recent family trip.

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It could be 3 times a year, 
or it could be near daily.

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A little is good.

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A lot is great.

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Each post brings 
a burst of encouragement,

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from grandparents, parents 
and special family friends.

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Because I've subscribed 
to my kids' blogs,

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each post arrives in my inbox.

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So even I'm so busy 
to comment during the day,

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I'm still much aware of their work,

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and ready to talk with them 


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at dinner, or at breakfast.

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The blogging platform is not dissimilar 


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to the Facebook platform,

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but there is a crucial difference

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between the Facebook peer culture

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and the type of online culture created

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when a kid blogs to their parents, 


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grandparents and special family friends.

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By the time Max, Charlie 
and the other kids I know

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have graduated from high school

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and go on to higher learning, or jobs,

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they'll have assembled a rich, 


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hypertext indexed scrapbook of their work.

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They'll be able to use it to reflect

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on all they've accomplished
and all they've learnt,

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and they'll be able 
to create portfolios from it,

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of their best work,

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badges, certificates and diplomas.

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Many kids go through a phrase

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where they learn to love reading,

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but they still hate writing.

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Both take practise and are hard at first.

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Unlike reading and speaking,

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where we spend endless hours with kids,

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practicing with them, 


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from the time of their birth,

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writing gets scant attention,

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and is mostly outsourced to the schools.

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When you outsource writing 
to the schools,

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and I say this with 
total respect to the teachers,

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what happens is that kids do assignments

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that go into the black box 
for teacher feedback

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and come back 
some time later with red ink.

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I say that figuratively to make a point,

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but the math is simple.

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My wife is a 7th grade humanities teacher

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at a local public middle school.

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I see her working every weekend,

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grading papers 
and giving feedback to kids.

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In a typical elementary school,

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there are roughly 20 kids in a class,

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and so each kid gets roughly 
1/20th of a teacher's attention.

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If the kid has a learning blog,

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with 5 adults following the blog,

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the kid has 5 adults' attention,

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100 times what kids typically get.

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Now, I'm not saying

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that a grandparent's comments on a blog

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are the same as a teacher's 
written feedback on a paper.

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The time and timeliness 
are very different.

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Teachers are professionals,

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paid to work with kids, full time.

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But the rest of the adults
in a kid's "digital village"

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may not have 
the same skills as a teacher,

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but they bring support, encouragement,

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and a lifelong commitment,

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that is essential in other ways.

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In high school,

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where teachers typically have 5 classes,

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the improved ratio of blogging 
goes to 500 to 1,

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and that assumes 
that only the 5 original adults

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signed up for the blog.

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This is a profound system improvement.

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No other education initiative I'm aware of

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offers the same return on investment 
for time and money.

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So, if you believe

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that learning 
is most effective when doing,

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not passively receiving,

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that writing powerfully and creatively

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is an essential skill that all kids need,

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and that the motivation to write 
is profoundly influenced

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by the feedback 
from trusting, loving adults,

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then you see the profound system 
breakthrough that this offers.


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Kids' blogging to a team of loving adults,

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creates a 100-500 fold improvement,

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in one of the key cycles of learning:

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writing and reflecting with others.

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This is exactly like reading to your kids.

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Everyone here knows to do it.

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To neglect it would be 
to put your child in peril.

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Writing is the same,

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and there's something 
free and simple that you can do

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to improve this key variable 
by several orders of magnitude.

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So I ask you,

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will you set up a lifelong 
learning blog with a kid?

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Please raise your hand or stand,

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if you're ready 
to put this idea into action.

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Thank you very much.

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(Applause)