The document discusses the importance of future-focused learning. It argues that students learn best when they are motivated, spend sustained time learning, and know when they have succeeded. However, traditional school focuses on timetables, subjects, and testing rather than giving students agency over their learning. The document advocates for project-based and collaborative learning that prepares students with the skills and competencies needed for an uncertain future, such as embracing diversity, discerning truth from misinformation, and making complex decisions. It emphasizes learning from history, looking to trends that impact the present, and living deliberately in the present through our choices.

1. Inspiring the next generation of leaders, thinkers and problem-solvers
derek@futuremakers.nz
@dwenmoth
www.futuremakers.nz
http://futuremakers.nz/blog
Deep and Long
The keys to future focused learning
Mini-Deeper Learning Symposium
Jefferson County Public Schools, Louisville KY
28 October, 4.30-5.00pm EDT

2. When did you last learn
something new?
What motivated you to do
this?
How long did you spend
learning it?
How did you know when
you’d succeeded?
Photo by Vadim Artyukhin on Unsplash
Photo by Vince Fleming on Unsplash
Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash
Photo by DAVID NIETO on Unsplash

3. This is what children
experience every day
What motivates them?
How long do they spend
doing it?
How did they know when
they’ve succeeded?
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
Photo by Alexander Dummer on Unsplash
Photo by David Straight on Unsplash
Photo by Alexandr Podvalny on Unsplash

4. Meanwhile back
at school they
experience…
• Timetables
• Subjects
• Standards
• External testing
• Age-based cohorts
• Curriculum

5. “Sustained higher achievement is
possible when teachers use
approaches that enable students
to take charge of their own
learning. Such approaches do not
leave the students to “discover” in
an unstructured environment.
Rather, they are highly structured
in supporting student agency and
sustained and thoughtful
engagement.”
Alton-Lee, A (2003) Quality teaching for diverse students in schooling; Best Evidence
Synthesis

6. Digital Badges at
Ormiston Middle School
see: https://vimeo.com/361200391

7. In essence, students work together
and are responsible for one another’s
learning as well as their own.
Emphasizing thinking and increasing
higher-order learning, it has a range of
educational benefits, including an
alternative to ability grouping and as a
way to prepare students for an
increasingly collaborative workforce.
Building Blocks for an ILE: OECD – The Nature of Learning

8. Future Focus
• Whose future? Who decides?
• Future focus curriculum?
• Future focus pedagogies?
• Future focus competencies?
Photo by Ameer Basheer on Unsplash

9. LEARN
from the past
Understanding our histories, and
the things that have shaped our
lives helps us see how past events
have relevance in our life now.
LOOK
to the future
While it is impossible to accurately
predict the future, we can seek to
understand the trends that are
impacting our lives at every level.
LIVE
in the present
It is the decisions we make and
the actions we take in the present
that will ultimately determine
what our future looks like.

10. LEARN FROM THE PAST
To know something about someone's
past, and how it has shaped who they
are today, so enriches your
relationship. We share a rich tapestry
of history, as tangata whenua and
tangata Tiriti. A knowledge of that
history is the basis of mutual respect
and understanding, and a rock-solid
foundation for national unity in all our
cultural diversity.
Sir Pita Sharples (2012 History Matters).

11. LOOK TO THE FUTURE
He pai te tirohanga ki ngā mahara
mō ngā rā pahemo engari ka puta te
māramatanga i runga i te titiro
whakamua
‘It’s fine to have recollections of the
past, but wisdom comes from being
able to prepare opportunities for the
future.’
Image: Derek Wenmoth

12. What does the future look like?
And it’s all happening so fast!
● Cultural assimilation
● Human rights
● Poverty
● Religious intolerance
● Economic collapse
● Energy shortages
● Inequity
● Food/water supply
● Climate change
● Cryogenics
● Nano-technology
● Pandemics/global health
● Cyber-terrorism
● Refugees

13. In the future learners will....
● need to know stuff we can hardly guess today
● always need to know if the facts they've
dredged up are accurate and truthful
● need to know how to regularly clean up their
electronic trail
● need to know enough to make more
complicated medical choices
● have the ability to embrace diversity
● face the fact that technology favours some and
eclipses others
● be forced to take on moral questions no
human has ever faced
Photo by Larm Rmah on Unsplash

14. LIVE IN THE PRESENT
“The future depends on
what we do in the present.”
Mahatma Gandhi
Image: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jimforest/2398652242

15. “To help students address
unknown future problems,
curricula need to focus on
areas with the highest transfer
value – in other words, they
need to give priority to
knowledge, skills and attitudes
that can be learned in one
context and applied to others.”
Andreas Schleicher, OECD
https://www.teachermagazine.com/au_en/articles/preparing-learners-for-a-pandemic-and-a-more-uncertain-world

16. Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs)
There is no more powerful transformative
force than education—to promote human
rights and dignity, to eradicate
poverty and deepen sustainability, to build
a better future for all, founded on equal
rights and social justice, respect for cultural
diversity, and international solidarity and
shared responsibility, all of which are
fundamental aspects of our common
humanity.”
Irina Bokova, former Director-General of UNESCO
https://futuremakers.nz/2021/01/11/could-the-sdgs-be-our-curriculum/

17. LEARN
from the past
Understanding our histories, and
the things that have shaped our
lives helps us see how past events
have relevance in our life now.
LOOK
to the future
While it is impossible to accurately
predict the future, we can seek to
understand the trends that are
impacting our lives at every level.
LIVE
in the present
It is the decisions we make and
the actions we take in the present
that will ultimately determine
what our future looks like.

18. Thank You
derek@futuremakers.nz
@dwenmoth
www.futuremakers.nz
http://www.wenmoth.net
https://www.slideshare.net/dwenmoth/deep-and-long-mini-keynote