Before COVID-19, the American educational paradigm was structured primarily around a 180-day school calendar, a one certified teacher per 25 students ratio, physical classrooms supported by technology, subject matter content and media, courses, and credit hours. In this paradigm, instructional time remained constant and achievement varied.

• Despite the many accomplishments of this paradigm for students, educators, and stakeholders; more than half the students in public and nonpublic schools can't read, write, and calculate proficiently (NAEP, 2019) while annually the public calls for and funds change and accountability.

In early spring 2020, COVID-19 caused national, state, and local authorities to close schools and workplaces to prevent its spread. At that time, the American educational paradigm shifted almost overnight to a chaotic remote paradigm in which students learned at home as their parents worked alongside them -- something never seen before in the history of educational change. Prior to this shift, schools had offered remote or virtual learning primarily as a district initiative, an optional resource, or an enhancement to teaching and learning in physical classrooms -- never as the only learning model.

As COVID-19 spread rapidly across the country, school districts and parents reacted by employing existing digital tools and free resources. These ranged from offering learning activities in district or school learning management systems to a potpourri of free worksheets, apps, learning toolkits, videos, webcasts, web conferences, and webinars to support learning at home. All of these revealed major disparities across the 50 United States systems of schooling in: a) student access to technology, b) the motivation and ability of teachers to offer effective virtual learning experiences, and c) digital support for students with special needs. The disparities were greater in low versus high-income districts. In what became a default remote paradigm, both instructional time and achievement varied throughout homes. Moreover, the use of de facto virtual learning tools influenced a slide in student performance normally achieved in the previous paradigm.

• According to NWEA (2020), "Preliminary COVID slide estimates suggest students will return in fall 2020 with roughly 70% of the learning gains in reading relative to a typical school year. However, in mathematics, students are likely to show much smaller learning gains, returning with less than 50% of the learning gains and in some grades, nearly a full year behind what we would observe in normal conditions."

For the 2021-22 School Year and when COVID-19 is under control, it's likely students will return to in-person classrooms or choose from improved remote, hybrid, virtual, and blended learning models. Interestingly, many parents will follow a similar path by returning to their workplaces, working from home, or doing both because more time at home became a preferred and productive practice for many businesses during COVID-19. Inevitably, severe weather storms or new health crises will emerge that might require extended school building closures. Will we be ready with a new learning paradigm in which time is a variable and learning is dynamic regardless of the venue?

Creating the new learning paradigm. What have educators and the public learned from COVID-19 driven learning models and plans for reopening schools? How can we forge a new learning paradigm that adapts to the ever-changing academic, social-emotional, and special needs of today's students -- one that operates seamlessly and effectively during crises such as COVID-19, hurricanes, or snow storms. This program provides you with professional learning experiences to apply creative thinking, collaboration, and innovation for developing your vision of a new learning paradigm.

The LearningFront Dynamic Learning Community (LDLC) supports professional learning entirely over the Internet. It blends what people do best -- nurture, facilitate, and support -- with what technology does best -- process information at the speed of light. LDLC members become colleagues, join teams, learn, collaborate in cohorts, and share products and performances.

Creative Thinking, Collaboration, and Innovation is offered through the LDLC Program Coach, Team and Self-Paced Strategies. These strategies help you to complete practice, development, collaboration, and assessment activities and to demonstrate real world actions expected in program learning layouts. The program includes seven learning layouts, which are subdivided into components and activities. Text, graphics, animations, video, and social learning tools such as Syzygy, colleague and team messages, and instant messaging support each learning layout. The program also helps you to use the TaskBuilder and WikiTasks tools to develop and share program products.

• Program Coach - Nick Hobar is the program subject matter expert and author of Creative Thinking, Collaboration, and Innovation and will serve as your Program Coach. Please use a Colleague Message to contact him directly throughout the program. Learn More about Nick Hobar.
  
  
• Team Strategy - In the Team Strategy, members complete learning layouts working as a cohort, in teams, and independently as part of a scheduled webinar. Members submit practice activities and products to their coach, colleagues, and teams for formative feedback and to their coach to confirm completion and earn badges. The Team Strategy can include brief coaching sessions for individual members during the scheduled webinar.
  
  
• Self-Paced Strategy - In the Self-Paced Strategy, members complete learning layouts independently, at their own pace, in their preferred location, and submit practice activities and products to their coach, colleagues, and teams for formative feedback and to their coach to confirm completion and earn badges. The Self-Paced Strategy can include brief coaching sessions for individual members in a scheduled web conference.

Creative Thinking, Collaboration, and Innovation supports the LDLC Team and Self-Paced Strategies by leveraging the skill sets of cohort members to offer peer instruction and feedback thereby converting, for example, a 1:12 coach-member ratio to a 12:1 coach-member ratio facilitated by the program coach.

• Using the Team Strategy your program coach will initiate Creative Thinking, Collaboration, and Innovation by conducting a webinar to meet members virtually, clarify program expectations, establish colleagues and a cohort team, and demonstrate the LearningFRONT integrated social and professional learning tools. These tools are used to collaborate, complete practice activities, and construct program products. This webinar will include time for members to complete a self-assessment and practice the first and second learning layouts to gain experience with the LDLC integrated tools and virtual collaboration and learning.
  
  
• Using the Self-Paced Strategy, you will continue to work on the second learning layout for creating new rules for learning after the webinar and practice the LDLC tools.
  

• Using the Self-Paced Strategy, you will acquire and apply content and skills to complete learning layout practice activities and develop products for new rules for learning, teaching and learning at the speed of light, and envisioning the new paradigm teacher.
  
  
• Using the Team Strategy, your program coach will conduct the second webinar for the cohort members to share progress and challenges, initiate the fifth learning layout for exceptional professional learning, and prepare for the final four weeks of the program.
  

• Using the Self-Paced Strategy, you will acquire and apply content and skills to complete learning layout practice activities and products for exceptional professional learning and the dynamic learning lab.
  

• Using the Team Strategy, your program coach will conduct a culminating webinar to reflect on your own portfolio development, conduct the Dynamic Learning Lab, provide program feedback, and build on the collective expertise of your program cohort. The program cohort member relationships and products will serve as powerful professional learning resources for use in your career development opportunities and to share in learning communities beyond the completion of Creative Thinking, Collaboration, and Innovation.
  

Program Schedule

Creative Thinking, Collaboration, and Innovation is delivered through the LDLC according to the schedule of dates and times posted when registering for the program and can be modified for a customized approach with interested individuals and organizations.

• Click here for an infographic of the days and strategies projected for developing and submitting the real world action program products.