Hacking Your Education

Dale J. Stephens

I’m Dale

mom

source: John Stephens

photo of parents

source: John Stephens

AGencyunschooling

summer hill

3 million copies 1960-1973

picture of book like THE HOMEWORK MYTH

Homeschool ≠ Unschooling

Do we trust people’s innate capacity to be curious?

Unschooling > Public School

I should also make it clear that we unschoolers all at one time or another tried out elements of school.

picture of school

Could I get into university? College admissions

Zinch LOGO

Hendrix Logo

Accepted MOVIE cover

“After a long life, and 30 years in public schools, I’ve concluded that genius is as common as dirt. We suppresses genius only because we haven’t yet figured out how to manage a population of educated men and women.”

-John Taylor Gatto

Working-class children learning outside of school—termed in the study as homeschoolers—outperformed upper class-children in school on their A levels and GCSEs.

picture of mom @ College graduation

picture of california schools

options and Dan Ariely organ donors

Source: US Department of Education

$27,000average debt upon graduation

Source: US Department of Education

credit card debt

one trillion dollars

But there’s more!

Source: Chronicle of Higher Education

36%36%

showed no improvement

path

source: qwrrty

What about the beer and girls?What about the beer and girls?

source: Tyler Driscoll

I prefer guys and champagne.I prefer guys and champagne.

source: Tyler Driscoll

source: vgm8383

decentralization

What does school provide?

What doesschool

provide?

Knowledge

Lectures free onlineLectures free online

18 minute talks18 minute talks

Videos lessonsVideos lessons

library.nu

Free textbooksFree textbooks

Quora

quora - knowledgequora - knowledge

à la carte textbooksà la carte textbooks

udacity

free online coursesfree online courses

Community

find mentorsfind mentors

Create online coursesCreate online courses

community learningcommunity learning

world-wide studyingworld-wide studying

studying on Facebookstudying on Facebook

Piazza

Piazza: q and aPiazza: q and a

coursekit -- new LMScoursekit -- new LMS

real-world labsreal-world labs

new edu brandsnew edu brands

Signal

creative networkcreative network

prove yourself with code prove yourself with code cdodecdode

affordable coursesaffordable courses

competency-based learningcompetency-based learning

build your networkbuild your network

Find all this and follow the revolution at:

uncollege.org

Academic Ghost town

picture of hackademic camp

uncollege gap year

Thank you for listening.

Find out more at uncollege.org

@dalejstephens on Twitter

dale@uncollege.org

What are learning journals?Learning Journals

How learning journals work:

•Once per day, you review your goals for the day, week, and year.

•Write down what you’re going to learn that day

•The next day, check if you met those goals.

•Repeat the process, and set new goals for the day

What are review boards?

Review boards

How review boards work:

•Once a week, students get together in groups of four to evaluate progress

•Each bring their learning journal, and shares the progress they have made

•This produces peer accountability. Students then discuss their goals for the week

•The next week, students hold each other accountable for their goals

independent critical thinkers

science behind self evaluation

Efficacy of Peer Tutoring

The lesson:Working with peers

increases learning outcomes

Idea: Competency based classrooms

Instead of making your students do all classwork, offer them the option to take the test

on day 1. If they past, let them learn more advanced material

Outside deadlines decrease

motivation and performance.

Self-imposed deadlines increase

motivation and performance.