Free Agent Learning: Leveraging Students' Self-Directed Learning to Transform K-12 Education - Hardcover

by Julie A. Evans (Author)

Explore how students are disrupting education by using digital resources to support self-direct learning

Free Agent Learning: Leveraging Students' Self-Directed Learning to Transform K-12 Education explores an emerging cohort of students that are self-directing their learning around interest-driven topics, the tools they're using to scaffold these experiences, and their motivations for these out-of-school learning behaviors. Readers will find new insights and frameworks for effectively leveraging the lived experiences of their students and transforming their schools' cultures, norms and practices.

In this book, readers will learn how education leaders can translate a newly emerged understanding about students' self-directed learning into actionable knowledge to improve teaching and learning Free Agent Learners also offers:

• Info dispelling the myth that real learning only happens in a classroom
• Discussions of how modern students are using digital tools, content, and resources for purposeful learning outside of teacher direction or sponsorship
• Actionable tips and accessible strategies for the use of the Free Agent Learner Ecosystem to support school improvement

Perfect for K-12 school and district administrators and decision-makers, Free Agent Learners is an eye-opening read for anyone involved in the education of primary and secondary school students.

Front Jacket

For the contemporary K-12 student, learning is not limited to the classroom or afterschool program. Instead, it happens across a number of settings and in a steady flow of practices throughout the day. Social media, mobile devices, online communities, and games are the fuel propelling this new learning paradigm.

In Free Agent Learning: Leveraging Students' Self-Directed Learning to Transform K-12 Education, expert education researcher Dr. Julie A. Evans delivers a groundbreaking new exploration of an emerging cohort of students who are self-directing their learning around interest-driven topics. The book discusses the tools they use to scaffold these experiences and their motivations for adopting out-of-school learning behaviors. Using examples from real classrooms, the book provides new insights and frameworks for teachers and administrators who wish to leverage the real-world learning experiences of their students and transform their schools' culture, norms, and practices.

The author examines how education leaders can translate a newly emerged understanding of students' self-directed learning into actionable strategies for the improvement of K-12 teaching and learning. She draws on seventeen years of quantitative and qualitative research on the digital learning experiences of K-12 students and codifies a new vision of what students want: social, untethered, and contextually relevant learning where their voice and ideas matter.

Free Agent Learning conclusively dispels the myth that real learning only happens in a classroom and explores how modern students are using digital tools, content, and resources for purposeful learning outside of teacher direction or sponsorship. It provides practical tips and techniques involving the use of the Free Agent Learner Ecosystem to improve schools.

An eye-opening read for K-12 school and district administrators and decision- makers, Free Agent Learning also belongs in the library of anyone involved or interested in the education of primary and secondary school students.

Back Jacket

Transform your in-class and out-of-class teaching strategies with disruptive digital technologies.

Free Agent Learning: Leveraging Students' Self-Directed Learning to Transform K-12 Education presents a revolutionary new way to engage with students by relying on technologies they already use every day. Drawing on seventeen years of original research, expert education researcher Dr. Julie A. Evans describes the tools that K-12 students use for day-to-day self-directed learning and the motivations that drive them to engage with educational material. She goes on to explain actionable tips and strategies for transforming your school and classrooms to incorporate the new educational opportunities available today.

The book contains new insights and frameworks designed to effectively leverage the lived experiences of your students and create a social, untethered, and relevant experience that is more inclusive, equitable, and meaningful for everyone.

Free Agent Learning is a can't-miss resource for public, private, parochial, and charter school leaders seeking to meet the challenges of improving student learning outcomes, addressing achievement gaps, and changing school cultures to support education transformations. It will also interest teacher educators, university faculty, and postsecondary students of education.

"Free Agent Learning explores how students might become co-designers and stewards of learning experiences that extend beyond school walls and receive credit for anytime, anywhere, passion-driven learning. Evans explains how having a meaningful choice in the path and pace of the learning process is important to students based on Speak Up data from surveying students since 2004. She lifts up a fundamental principle--a majority of students want to be in control of when and how they learn. An important consideration is how education systems will need to evolve to shift power to the learner, in hopes students can build agency over the path and pace of their learning with a focus on purpose and student goals, and underscores how advanced digital learning can support this vision."
--SUSAN PATRICK, President and CEO, Aurora Institute

Author Biography

JULIE A. EVANS, Ed.D., is CEO of Project Tomorrow and founder and chief researcher of the Speak Up Research Project. Her specialty is in the impact of innovative learning models and interventions in K-12 and higher education. Dr. Evans is a highly sought after speaker and writer on the views of students, parents, and educators about key education issues today, notably around digital learning.