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  • …  
    • Home
    • Our Why
    • Our What
    • Our How
    • Our Source Code
    • Connect
    • Our Story & Support
    • Home
    • Our Why
    • Our What
    • Our How
    • Our Source Code
    • Connect
    • Our Story & Support
    • …  
      • Home
      • Our Why
      • Our What
      • Our How
      • Our Source Code
      • Connect
      • Our Story & Support
      • Open Way Learning

        We help schools innovate - not by chasing fads, but by catalyzing local skills & talent.

        Video: Why Innovation?
      • Our Why

        We are a 501(c)3 nonprofit with a singular mission

        to help schools develop, sustain, and scale systems 

        of learner-centered innovation that better prepare

        students for the realities of the 4th Industrial 

        Revolution, especially students historically 

        furthest from opportunity.

      • Design Sprints

        Customized workshops that use the design process to help schools and districts identify, adapt, and refine learner-centered strategies such as experiential learning, makerspaces, advisory, community impact, etc. so that they better to address local challenges with local talent. 

        Sustained Support

        Targeted coaching, study visits, and co-design that leverages local assets to build in-house capacity so that learner-centered strategies can be baked into a school or district's culture and thus be sustained and improved over the long-term. ​

        Open Source Resources

        Rather than hoard "intellectual property" in a competitive and inequitable manner, we pride ourselves in offering all of the tools and resources we develop to any of our partners via a Creative Commons license so that they can be remixed to better serve students.

        OWL Fellowship

        Open Way Learning believes in the transformative power of crowdsourced change. As such, we sponsor a growing network of education stakeholders that share a passion for positive disruption through collective efficacy and action. Learn more here. 

      • Our How: An "Open Source" Framework for Innovation

        We fundamentally believe that everyone has the creative capacity to improve the world around them. It is with that belief that we use Open Design processes to boldly approach every challenge without necessarily knowing how it will be solved. Our work with schools is never based on cookie-cutter, one-size-fits all programs. Rather, we employ an empathy driven approach that is grounded in the following core principles - what we call the ingredients of learner-centered innovation:

        Living Mission & Vision

        The school understands its "why" and its "how" and is living them through the actions and outcomes one sees in every classroom, every lesson, every day. 

         

        Collective Leadership

        Everyone is empowered to grow their skill, talent, and leadership capacity by exercising autonomy, mastery, and purpose in the work they do for and with students.

         

        Radical Collaboration

        The default mode of every interaction and decision is collaborative - between students, between peers, and between partners in the larger community.

         

        Open Source Sharing 

        The school is an authentic learning organization, characterized by collective efficacy through the open sharing, critique, and revision of ideas and resources.

         

        Systemic 

        Innovation

        The school uses a continuous improvement mindset to design, implement, and refine learner-centered strategies that better aligns with the Future of Work. 

         

      • The Open Way Learning Theory of Change

         

      • Our Source Code

        Open Up, Education! is the book that began the Open Way Learning movement. Backed by research and filled with case studies and examples from around the world, it provides the basis for how educators can leverage the open source principles of transparency, inclusivity, adaptability, community, and collaboration to bring positive disruption to the education ecosystem by modeling and sharing learner-centered innovations in their own schools - environments that prepare students with the skills & knowledge needed to thrive in a rapidly changing world.

         

        Published by Rowman & Littlefield. Also available from: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Google Books, Trove, & Bokus.

        Learn More About the Book!
      • The OWL Team

        A passionate team of education stakeholders willing to disrupt the status quo...

        Ben Owens  - o-Founder & Chief Innovation Engineer
        Adam Haigler - Co-Founder & Chief Operations Officer
        Ben Pendarvis - Outreach Director & Lead Instructional Coach
        Jim McCue - OWL Instructional & Leadership Coach and a Teacher with Embark Education, Denver, CO
        Dominique Stone-Maddix, MSW, LCSWA - Board Member, Director of Operations Resident at Empower Lower School in Brooklyn, NY
        Syna Sharma, Board Member, John M. Belk Fellow at the NC Department of Public Instruction, Park Scholar at NC State University
        Nathan Strenge - Board Member/Treasurer & Senior Learning Designer at Fielding International & USA Country Lead at HundrED
        Mary Jo Deck - Board Member & Early Childhood Expert (ret)
        Dr. Bryan Behrenshausen - Board Member & Senior Open Source Program Manager at GitLab
        Amy Junge, Director of Teacher-Powered Schools for Education Evolving
        Margaret Borden - OWL Fellow, Graduate Research Assistant - The Friday Institute for Educational Innovation
        Michelle Benigno - OWL Fellow, Director of The Mountain Office of The Science House of NC State
        Mike Dunn, EdD - OWL Ambassador, Dean of College & Career Counseling, Eagle Rock School, CO
        Kimberly Mawhiney - OWL Ambassador & Director of Stem and Grants,  Northeast Academy for Aerospace & Advanced Technologies, NC
      • Connect With Us!

        Let us know how we can help you create an innovation culture for & with your students...

        15 West Extension, Asheville, NC 28801
        +13363243917
        +13363243917
        adam@openwaylearning.org
        Submit
      • Join the Movement!

        Learn more by checking out our FAQs, following our social media channels, signing up for our newsletter, and joining us to disrupt the status quo in education!

        Subscribe to the OWL Newsletter

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