Nonlinear+Curriculum

__**Nonlinear Curriculum (Open Curriculum)**__

Information is all around us today, from the nightly news, to RSS feeds, favorite web sites, to the grocery store. Our curriculum is in all those places and more. Teachable moments are everywhere around us.

What do I mean by Curriculum. In the most defined sense I mean the expectations for student knowledge in a set of subjects. Traditionally what is considered the content of primary and secondary or Kindergarten to 12th grades. The open curriculum concepts listed here would not preclude expansion to higher education, or niche skills or certifications, or individual topic modules like a specific state history course (often completed by students in elementary or middle grades). The common Core Initatitive provides a viable basis for an Non-Linear Concept Mastery based curriculum. The common core (explain 47 states...etc). What is missing currently is a means of documenting concept mastery in a meaningful way. Grades are not indictators of student learning and have no objective meaning from place to place. The acceptable quality of work at one school may be completely unsatisfactory in a school just 3 miles down the road.

Tracking mastery could empower students to explore topics that they need help on. Tracking mastery empowers educators with meaningful information so that can target instruction on specific areas of need that are already identified. Why give the basic instruction to the solar system to half the class if they can name all the planets already and could pass the chapter test before the instruction.

I think Honors classes and subjects could still have a value. I think that they should be not be entire year courses but sub-divided topic areas. For instance 8th grade Science part 3 might have an honors section and standard. The content mastery topics would be the same but depth of knowledge, relating the topics to future learning, and more open ended learning projects might be involved in the honors section. An entire year of honors what ever subject with a set pace does not account for the variety of learning paces and individual strengths and needs of the learners.
 * Honors versus Advancement.**

The American Educational Experience is built on primarily on the false primise that Learning is linear process. Every thing Grade Levels to courses are bases on the idea that A comes before B and C after that. Learning is not a train track with series of set stops but a world to be explored that needs clear signage, destinations, various methods of arrival, and passport stamps.

If you get tired of the travel metaphors another way of explaining it would be in video parlance. Education is not a 80's linear video game with level 2 being followed by 3. And big boss battle at the end of level 5 to move on, and on, followed by a series of big boss battles (tests) at the end. Actually There are and probably will be several big boss battles at the end for some time to come, but learning itself is a much more open process. As a educator I can tell you that my students often came to me with impressive levels of prior knowledge on a topic. And usually when I had difficulty teaching something it complete lack of prior knowledge was one of the major issues.

Instead of fake walls and video games with only 1 right way to complete the level. Our curriculum tracking and educational system as whole needs to recognize that learning for the student is a non-linear process. Kids know all sorts of things based off their interests, experiences, and instructional history. Every library or internet experience is a self guided experience where a student experience knowledge in a way that creates unique experiences, learning, and occasionally mastery of particular concept. In the video game industry games that don't have one right way to play them but have an Open World Curriculum at allows users to explore and complete activities/mission/objectives in a variety of different orders are called Sandbox. Sandbox design allows the users to roam and complete activities based on their own interests and styles. Most missions have several possible ways of completing them.

What about an open curriculum that does the same thing. I don't care how my students learn the parts of the volcano but I do care that they know it. They may have 3 different ways of demonstrating that knowledge, but how they learn it is up to them. I will teach it in variety of ways, using the principles of Universal Design for Learning. (Explain UDL).

Open Curriculum allow not only only

__**Clear Signage**__ One of the ways learning occurs is happens by connecting and relating ideas into larger systems.

__**Destinations**__ Defining the curriculum clearly to so individual destinations (content mastery points can be identified by the learner and educators).

__**EVERY ONE IS AN EDUCATOR**__ Nonlinear Curriculum could allow everyone to be an educator more effectively by relating their skills and information into a framework that was meaningful to the student.

motivating for students. Educational Merit Badges, From Field trips, to family outings, religious programs like sunday school, tevision, and expecially video games we can relate and make educationally relevant to students what they are experiencing. education would be much more motivating for many students if they understood what they were going to learn and how it related to their everyday lives. This would be increased by the defined framework of a non-linear curriculum that allows students to relate the world around them to their education. The concept that 2nd graders only learn second-grade things limits the potential of the 2nd graders and especially when engaged in ritual activities limits their motivation to excel especially when engaged in enrichment activities such as museums, parks, adventure activities, amusement parks, zoos, and other real-world places. The nonlinear mastery-based curriculum also would add value to virtual-based activities like videogames, instructional websites, social media websites, entertainment websites, mobile software apps, mobile software, and instructional applications that bridge multiple platforms. A Non-linear Concept Mastery based curriculum will would also prepare students for the blending of information delivered in the real world. augmented reality is going to be a defining force in learning. Establishing a framework of curriculum will allow learners of all ages and abilities to to receive timely manner that benefits the at interact with the real world. I first experienced the beginnings of this in the city of Bath in the United Kingdom. While touring the Roman baths I was given anaudio device that allowed me to enter a numerical code when I came to and object to received additional information. Augmented reality offers the promise that a user can engage with objects and receive both visual and audio information that is relevant to their interests.

Showing what you know. - options to test for mastery. Learning also needs to be recongnize as life long effort. Every single field trip or does not need to concluded with an exam. In fact likely if implemented like our current testing methods many student would eventually decide to opt out of the field trip to avoid an exam. Providing options to demonstrate mastery is more important that checking off content at a particular time.

Soft Test- based on honor system. Certification Test- monitored or observed.

__**Regression**__ er reason example why learning isn't linear. People forget things all the time, but having learned them once and being exposed to them makes mastering that knowledge that much easier. Built into this nonlinear curriculum framework could be regular practice questions and connections to previous learning, "Today we are working on multiplying fractions with decimals, it is very similiar to the way we multiplyied fractions last week. " Or in science today we are learning about Ions and Charge, Remember how we learned how electrons move in the Atoms, and the parts of an Atom, I can see you all have mastered that five or more times in the past. Now we get to take that information and find out what happens when we start adding or taking away electrons." This type of practice and information takes the established teacher practice of connecting to prior learning and adds a framework that informs teacher practice and provides a means of organizing that knowledge for the student.

What to teach in school Despite everything I just said I'm still a big fan of school and I believe school is the foundation for a nonlinear curriculum based on based on content mastery. While student should be able to demonstrate mastery on a topic at their own pace many of the students will be moving at similar rates. One possible solution to this would be to take a typical grade level subject like Fifth grade math and divide the year into 4 parts. In this example let's call them 4A, 4B, 4C, 4D. At a school a group of teachers would look at the students who are third grade age

__**SPECIAL EDUCATION**__ In some ways everyone in an open curriculum is getting an individualized education plan (IEP) except rather than hours of meetings every year to develop a plan which data shows general results in medicore outcomes. An open curriculum with mastery tracking included the data collection desires of the IEP with common sense and the common core curriculum. Expecting a multidisplinary team even of really intelligent people to pick a finite number of things a student with disabilities is going to learn in one year sells the students short often.

The end of academic goals and objectives. Students progressing toward a high school diplomia

Discussions we need to have.

Does everyone get the Same Diplomia? Do Diplomia's have layers, certifications, etc..

Is mastery taken with your as part of your High Education Transcript

What do employers have a right to be interested in about your educational experience? Should it be everything that happened, Or just the outcome/Diplomia /certificaitons.

How can we incorporate subjects outside of English, Math, Science and Social Studies.

What point of view is True. I may be nieve but I don't think this the big issue it gets made out to be. Most school systems already have curriculum content very well defined. Most of these battles have already been fought and decided several times. So lets take the major one first, Evolution and origin. First before I begin if someone seriously believes that whether we teach evolution or that many people believe that something intentionally created the universe and all in it, that we should not have defined curriculum and track what students know

__**References**__ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandbox_(video_games)