Quotes from Will Richardson

Teaching is learning, and learning is the teaching.

Tony Wagner recently said, "There's no competitive advantage today in knowing more than the person next to you. The world doesn't care what you know. What the world cares about is what you can do with what you know." And,

the illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write. The illiterate will be those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." Consider

In this new narrative, learning ceases to focus on consuming information or knowledge that's no longer scarce. Instead, it's about asking questions, working with others to find the answers, doing real work for real audiences, and adding to, not simply taking from, the storehouse of knowledge that the Web is becoming. It's about developing the kinds of habits and dispositions that deep, lifelong learners need to succeed in a world rife with information and connections.

learning a passion to learn is more important for your practical success than learning any particular facts or skills.

Performance-based assessments, where students actually have to do something with what they know, tell us volumes more about their readiness for life than bubble sheets or contrived essays. No

Access doesn't automatically come with an ability to use the Web well.

the longer we wait to start a conversation around doing school "differently," instead of simply "better," the more we're putting our kids at risk.

that the new opportunities for learning require us to articulate a fundamental revision of the value of school and the roles of teachers and classrooms. The

By forcing schools and teachers to teach to the test, it has narrowed the educational experiences of millions of children and thus deprived our children, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, of a real education.

Work is learning, and learning is the work.

if you're waiting for the Twitter workshop, you're missing the point.

Students are encouraged to connect with others, and to collaborate and create with them on a global scale. It's not "do your own work," so much as "do work with others, and make it work that matters." To paraphrase Tony Wagner, assessments focus less on what students know, and more on what they can do with what they know.

can. If it's just about tests to graduate, grades to get into college, and scores for international comparisons — which, in large part, it is right now — school is about to be disrupted big time. I

We can raise the teaching profession by sharing what works, by taking the best of what we do and hanging it on the virtual wall.

How can we begin to move schools to become places of more relevant, connected, creative learning? Even with a plan, it won't be easy.

I'd go so far as to say that I want my own kids to be found by strangers on the Internet. (I'll let that hang there for a moment.) Certainly, I want them to be found by the right strangers, the ones who share their passions and want to learn with them. And I want them to be able to discern between good and bad strangers.

Eric Hoffer sums up where our emphasis should be in schools right now: "In times of great change, learners will inherit the earth, while the learned will be beautifully equipped for a world that no longer exists." Let

The adults in the room have to be skilled and literate by those 21st-century standards the NCTE is touting. And they have to exhibit the dispositions that will sustain their learning: persistence, empathy, passion, sharing, collaboration, creativity, and curiosity.

there's no question that a major moment of unlearning and relearning is at hand for educators of all stripes.

We have to stop delivering the curriculum to kids. We have to start discovering it with them." I

at least half of the time they spend on schoolwork must be on stuff that can't end up in the Friday Folder? That the reason they're doing their schoolwork isn't just for a grade or for it to be pinned up in the hallway? It should be because their work is something they create on their own, or with others, that has real value in the real world.

Before we can have a coherent conversation around what happens to schools, we need to get educated. We need to learn about modern, connected learning. And we've got to try to get others to do that work with us.

invited parents into a book study of Tony Wagner's The Global Achievement Gap.