Rewiring Education
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Praise for Rewiring Education “While others debate about if technology helps or hurts education, John Couch takes a more practical perspective. It is not about being for or against tech in the classroom, but rather about balance. Rewiring Education is an essential guide for every parent, teacher, and school administrator to better understand how to navigate (and indeed reinvent) education in the 21st century for the 21st century.” —SIMON SINEK, optimist and The New York Times bestselling author of Start with Why and Leaders Eat Last “Rewiring Education bridges the gap between academic research and practice and proposes a pedagogy that integrates education, learning, and technology. Through personal anecdotes from a key industry insider, this book plants the seeds for a ‘rewiring’ movement that can unlock not just students’ potential, but the potential of parents, teachers, and leaders at every level!” —DR. TODD ROSE, author of The End of Average and head of the Laboratory for the Science of the Individual at Harvard University “John D. Couch has been a pioneer in online learning. He is one of the first people to truly understand the power of technology in classrooms.” —SAL KHAN, founder of Khan Academy “At a time of accelerating technological change, our education system must learn to adapt to the needs of the future. In Rewiring Education, John D. Couch explores important questions about education—not only how we teach but also what we teach—to open the debate about modernizing the school system.” —HADI PARTOVI, cofounder of Code.org “John D. Couch is a true pioneer in using computers for education. His story and experience are important and should be known by all who care about kids and technology. Bravo!” —MARC PRENSKY, author of Education to Better Their World and Unleashing the Power of 21st-Century Kids “John Couch has written a most important book. Though his ‘there at the beginning’ account of Apple’s prioritizing education is alone worth the price of admission, this is no history book. This is a call to arms, a tome to take seriously the brain’s penchant for exploration, its negative reaction to current learning structures, its willingness to think different. Couch lucidly describes how the digital tools of the future can be exploited to take advantage of the brain’s natural processing power. As he aptly declares, it’s time to stop ‘trying to repair and replace education and start rewiring it.’ This tome belongs on your bookshelf or on your iPad.” —DR. JOHN MEDINA, New York Times bestselling author of Brain Rules and molecular biologist “Through Rewiring Education, John D. Couch has certainly earned his spot as the ‘father of modern education.’ His life and experiences portray true reflections on the need for change and how the world can achieve it. A deep and serious thought fantastically woven into a beautiful piece of literature that undoubtedly will be the ‘scripture’ for all educators in the days to come!” —RADHIKA LEE, founder and director of the Nairobi International School and author of Rainbows in My Clouds “Our mission as educational leaders, compelled to advance our nation, must be to prepare our children for a complex world driven by exponential technological acceleration and fierce global competition. The extraordinary impact that results from inspiring every child’s full potential can only be realized by thoughtfully and systematically incorporating instructional technology in every classroom across the United States. This incredible book by Apple Vice President John Couch is a must-read for every educator committed to transforming learning and every leader dedicated to creating a remarkable public education system.” —DON HADDAD, ED.D, superintendent of schools, St. Vrain Valley School District “John Couch is one of the most resilient human beings I know. Personally, professionally, his focus has always been on what is best for learning. His message never wavered. I love how he challenges his teams to think about how to leverage Apple’s amazing ecosystem to improve the quality of life for classrooms everywhere. His clarity and advocacy in the power of connected multimedia personal devices, in conjunction with a challenge-based learning framework, changed how I taught on a daily basis. Steve Jobs talked about making a dent in the universe and John Couch definitely has been one of the best at making those dents. Since the day I met him, I could see why Steve Jobs was so inspired by him. This book, in my opinion, is only the beginning of the conversation John plans to extend to all of us to help reassess and rethink.” —MARCO TORRES, educator Rewiring Education Copyright © 2018 by John Couch and Jason Towne All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. BenBella Books, Inc. 10440 N. Central Expressway, Suite 800 Dallas, TX 75231 www.benbellabooks.com Send feedback to [email protected] First E-Book Edition: May 2018 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Control Number: 2017055209 ISBN 9781944648435 Editing by Leah Wilson Copyediting by James Fraleigh Proofreading by Greg Teague and Cape Cod Compositors, Inc. Indexing by Debra Bowman Text design and composition by Silver Feather Design Illustrations by weleniastudios Author photo by Michael Soo Cover design by Pete Garceau Jacket design by Sarah Avinger Printed by Lake Book Manufacturing Distributed to the trade by Two Rivers Distribution, an Ingram brand www.tworiversdistribution.com Special discounts for bulk sales (minimum of 25 copies) are available. Please contact Aida Herrera at [email protected]. This book is dedicated to Steve Jobs, who challenged me to “think different” and helped me unlock my own latent potential. To Steve and Janet Wozniak, for their continued encouragement throughout the years. To Marco Torres, a teacher and visionary, who is an inspiration to everyone having the privilege of being in his company. To my Apple team, the powerful and dedicated educators, programmers, and educational evangelists who have allowed me to stand on their shoulders. To Dr. William Rankin, a unique college professor who was the first to implement mobile devices in his classroom, and whose ideas and insights are found throughout the pages of this book. To Dr. Mallory Dwinal, a Rhodes Scholar with degrees from both Oxford and Harvard, who chose to forgo all of the luxurious things that her credentials could provide and opened a school to help the kids who needed it most. To teachers everywhere, especially our Apple Distinguished Educators, who understand that all students are uniquely gifted. To parents who know that children are capable of much more than our education system recognizes or allows them to achieve. And last, but certainly not least, to my beloved children Kris, Tiffany, Jon, and Jordan, and my grandchildren, all of whom have provided me with decades of experience by being my own private research team. Without any of you this book would not exist, and for all you’ve done I am grateful. CONTENTS Foreword INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1 REWIRING CHAPTER 2 DESIGN CHAPTER 3 POTENTIAL CHAPTER 4 MOTIVATION CHAPTER 5 LEARNING CHAPTER 6 SPACES CHAPTER 7 CHALLENGES CHAPTER 8 CBL CHAPTER 9 ACCESS CHAPTER 10 BUILD CHAPTER 11 CODE CHAPTER 12 TEACHING CHAPTER 13 TECHNOLOGY CHAPTER 14 TRANSFORMATIVE! CHAPTER 15 FUTURISTIC CHANGE Acknowledgments Endnotes Index About the Authors FOREWORD Having taught technology to fifth-grade students, I have witnessed firsthand the excitement and engagement it can bring to the learning process. But there aren’t many people I know who truly understand this phenomenon more than my longtime friend and colleague, John Couch. I first met John back in 1978 just after he was hired as Apple’s fifty-fourth employee by Steve Jobs. John was brought on as our first director of new products, and was soon promoted to be our vice president of software and lead the software team that created the graphical user interface. Even back then John had a knack for simplifying and communicating complex ideas, and today there aren’t many areas that need simplifying and fixing more than education. I can’t remember a time when John wasn’t passionate about education. I still remember the extraordinary stories he would tell of his time teaching at UC Berkeley and Cal State, or the decade he spent rebuilding a K–12 school in San Diego. It was no surprise to me at all then when, shortly after Steve Jobs rejoined Apple, John was brought back, this time as the company’s first-ever vice president of education. Since that time he has been an integral part of Apple’s ongoing efforts to transform education from passive traditions to active innovations. This book might well be thought of as an inside look at all John’s experiences—and, in a sense, Apple’s—along the way. It takes the reader from Steve Jobs’s passion for education, into the brains and minds of digital natives, and on to a new framework for learning that has the potential to make obsolete the consumption/memorization model used today. Through personal anecdotes and the stories of real teachers, John explores new ways of learning and teaching. Last, he gives the reader a glimpse of future technologies that have the opportunity to usher in a truly personalized learning environment where every student can unlock their hidden potential and change the world. I believe that every parent, teacher, principal, politician, activist, innovator, and leader who is responsible for and/or passionate about teaching, learning, or training in any capacity will benefit greatly from reading this book. —STEVE WOZNIAK Cofounder, Apple Computer INTRODUCTION I thought if there was just one computer in every school, some of the kids would find it.