Kevin+Honeycutt

=**Kevin Honeycutt**= [|I am an educational technologist] who spent 13 years teaching art for grades 1-12 and working with kids to help them unlock their potentials. Five years ago I left the classroom for a chance to work at [|ESSDACK], an educational service center in [|Hutchinson Kansas]. My work at ESSDACK, a non-profit educational service center allows me to work closely with public and charter school teachers to develop new approaches to instruction. I am focused on project-based learning powered by 21st century tools and what I call **leaned in learning** or highly engaging instructional models.

I am convinced that learning must be strongly associated with real world, relevant experiences and that learning and recall of learning are temporal experiences. We remember in stories and the degree to which learners will be able to use new learning in the future is directly associated with the way the learning was experienced. (read [|Brain Rules]) PBL or project based learning is a story, an event that plays out over time with it's own embedded context and consequences. In the scenarios, learners are central to the plot of story much like they are in first person video games. I encourage teachers to assume the role of embedded facilitators. They are partners with kids in the work as well as researchers of their strengths and weaknesses. Being inside the learning provides a unique perspective as well as powerful opportunities to mentor and ask guiding questions. Engagement occurs when learners realize that that are essentially "starring" in the process of solving a real problem. If the learning of others is not weakened by the absence of one of your kids, then the individual doesn't matter enough. I invite you to visit my PBL site [|Innovations Unlimited], on this site we are collecting PBL units and building new ones on an easy to use template. We invite teachers and kids anywhere to use them and to help design new ones. Great books: [|On Intelligence], [|Brain Based Learning], [|The Myth of Laziness], [|A Whole New Mind], [|Reinventing Project-Based Learning]
 * What is the "story" of learning?**

Often in my teaching tenure I struggled to engage my at-risk learners. I tried to motivate them in many ways and often with little success. I noted some things about this populations. >   It was these realizations that made me believe that projects designed for these kids had to have to be passion-based or have a "bigger than just me" feel for learners to buy in.
 * "Save the world" projects**
 * 1) //They often don't seem to care about themselves (self esteem) and can't see the relevance of learning//
 * 2) //They are loyal and will go out of their way to help a friend or someone who has invested in them//
 * 1) //Once inspired and passionate, they would work tirelessly//

In this [|project].from this summer, a group of kids didn't sign up for a class but they joined a team of intrepid scientists, mathematicians and designers to literally save the world from impending doom. Their task was to design a solution to the problem of an asteroid collision that would cause the extinction of everything on our planet. They had to use experts and access their thinking sing Skype, IM or any other collaborative technology they thought was appropriate. They had only eight hours to become experts on the problem, work out a solution with their four to six person team and present it in a video for the President. In this project, kids at three different schools were challenged to build a 1/4 scale model of the F117 Stealth Nighthawk. The plane was chosen for it's teachable geometry and physics as well as the challenges it would pose for the hands on learner. Kids had an hour per day and after school for five weeks to work on the plane and met with design team from the other two schools to discuss challenges and successes. They could spend only $100 and they had to draw local experts into the project in the form of veteran pilots, model plane enthusiasts, mechanics etc. and document their learning partnerships on their websites. ([|See a video]) Some of the projects we're piloting this year at [|Learning By Design] charter school in Haysville Kansas. A [|project] designed to encourage 21st century collaboration. A [|project] where kids create a documentary about the [|H.L. Hunley], the civil war submarine Here is an [|interview] with Ginger Lewman, an amazing instructor/guide using PBL and web 2.0 at [|Turning Point Learning Center]. //The teachers I work with welcome collaboration with other classrooms!//
 * D-1 Mission to save Earth**
 * The F117** [|Project]

For the last year we have built and supported, (in collaboration with members)  a social learning network called [|Art Snacks]. We began with the notion that today's learners "snack" on information but don't always go deep with content. I created 100+ 5-10 minute videos that teach kids to draw things like beetles, horses, cars as well as many targeted lessons that teachers asked for like simple machines, colonial American artifacts etc. As kids draw these pictures, they post them on the network and get support and feedback from the community. Since August we have collected 5999 photos and drawings on the network and this is more than I was able to collect in 13 years in the analogue classroom.
 * Art Snacks and the idea of bite-sized learning combined with a community atmosphere.**..



I believe we must work with our learners to create excitement and engagement and use the tools our kids need to be literate with for success in the future.

My main website is: http://kevinhoneycutt.org Other websites and communities I'm involved in: [|Classroom 2.0], [|iConnect/iLearn], [|My Podcast], [|My Blog], [|Twitter], [|Plurk]