{"id":6409,"date":"2014-11-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-17T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/blog\/cw_post\/learn-fast-and-adapt-especially-in-education\/"},"modified":"2020-02-27T14:45:33","modified_gmt":"2020-02-27T19:45:33","slug":"learn-fast-and-adapt-especially-in-education","status":"publish","type":"cw_post","link":"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/cw_post\/learn-fast-and-adapt-especially-in-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Learn Fast and Adapt, Especially in Education"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Brian
Brian Peddle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The mantra, \u201cFail early, fail often,\u201d needs to die a fast death. This phrase has become the calling cry for many startups over the past few years, and I feel as though it has become the safety net in case a company blows through all its money. I understand the underlying meaning\u2014that setbacks can and will happen on the road to success\u2014but the phrasing is all wrong, especially when it comes to education.<\/p>\n

This past week I was at iNCAOL 2014, a K-12 conference full of dedicated and forward-thinking educators, and a big topic was competency-based education (CBE). Michael Horn was a keynote speaker, and this phrase was tweeted and re-tweeted from his presentation: \u201cFail fast so you don’t have a spectacular failure.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is no criticism of Michael, but it struck me as the wrong place to talk about failing as an option. A couple of years ago, I may not have noticed the use of this term; however, after working at College for America at SNHU<\/a> and now spinning off Motivis Learning<\/a>, I\u2019ve seen firsthand what negative connotation the \u201cF\u201d word has. (I call it the \u201cF\u201d word because Kate Kazin, the Chief Academic Officer at CfA, has drilled that into the entire team\u2019s head.) We don\u2019t talk about students failing, ever. CfA is a full competency-based program where there is no failing; there is only \u201cMastery\u201d and \u201cNot Yet.\u201d That simple shift in language can lift the dreary weight of failure off of a student\u2019s shoulders\u2014and trust me, that weight is there.<\/p>\n

During my time at CfA I have seen many students start the program with a bag of excuses already in hand to explain why they are not going to succeed. Like the startup companies, they are preparing the safety net to protect themselves in case they \u201cfail\u201d (using the meaning life has taught them).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to blame them, since failure is a negative thing to most people. Yet, Thomas Edison understood that there is no such thing as failing. When a toddler takes his first steps, his parents don\u2019t say \u201che is failing to walk.\u201d They say \u201che is learning to walk, and it is going to take time.\u201d Edison said the same thing of his own accomplishments: \u201cI have not failed. I\u2019ve just found 10,000 ways that won\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Competency-Based Education Is Like Agile Development<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"AgileWhen I started at College for America, we were building the curriculum, the processes, the software, the team\u2026everything from the ground up. We were basically flying the plane as we were building it.<\/p>\n

To help manage this process, the team adopted agile development methodologies. Agile development, which got its start in the software field and has since been adopted across industries, doesn\u2019t allow for \u201cFail, Build, Measure, Repeat.\u201d Instead, the process is \u201cLearn, Build, Measure, Repeat.\u201d<\/p>\n

That became our mantra. We never talked about any of our pilots or tests as failing; it was all learning<\/em>. We learned<\/em> what worked and what didn\u2019t so we could improve the student experience and improve student outcomes.<\/p>\n

This approach of \u201cLearn, Assess, Repeat\u201d in education (and specifically in CBE) creates students who are interested in continuous and lifelong learning. Self-paced progress mixed with a continuous assessment model removes the fear of failing and creates the opportunity for the student to learn at a more personalized level.<\/p>\n

Failure Isn\u2019t an Option<\/strong><\/p>\n

Failure truly shouldn\u2019t be an option in education. Even the tiniest bit of success feels great, so should it matter if it took the student one try or four tries?<\/p>\n

Our answer is easy: no. The goal is mastery of the material\u2014not just getting by. At CfA, there is no penalty for resubmitting. Rather, we prefer you resubmit and eventually be rewarded with and for mastery. In fact, it is after multiple attempts to get it right that we truly internalize and \u201cknow\u201d something in ways that will stay with us.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting by\u201d isn\u2019t working, and education isn\u2019t one-sized fits all\u2014it is one size fits one. Educators have the knowledge, and while many are scared to try something new (probably because of fear of failure), it\u2019s time to \u201cLearn Fast and Adapt\u201d in the classroom. It\u2019s already happening in hundreds of places; it just needs to happen faster and now.<\/p>\n

I can promise you WON\u2019T FAIL.<\/p>\n

\n

Brian Peddle is founder and CEO of Motivis Learning, the next generation education platform that puts the focus on student outcomes. Prior to that he served as the Chief Technology Office at College for America @ SNHU. During his time with CfA he and his team launched a competency based learning management system and student information system built from the ground up to accommodate the program. The team supported and developed solutions for coaches, evaluators and students as well as helped guide all business processes. The team leverages agile, designs MVPs (minimum viable products), and iterates rapidly from user feedback. Brian’s previous roles include VP of Technology and Development at Jobscience, which builds talent acquisition solutions for social enterprises, and senior software engineering positions at Healthcaresource, Monster.com, and Adobe. Brian has a B.S. from Salem State University.<\/p>\n

Twitter: twitter.com\/brianpeddle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","mapsvg_location":""},"legacy_category":[98,414],"issue":[370,368],"location":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLearn Fast and Adapt, Especially in Education - Aurora Institute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/cw_post\/learn-fast-and-adapt-especially-in-education\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Learn Fast and Adapt, Especially in Education - Aurora Institute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The mantra, \u201cFail early, fail often,\u201d needs to die a fast death. 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