Marie has a doctorate in philosophy from Walden University and a master’s degree in the art of education from Marygrove College, and she graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor of arts in social science from Castleton University.
To learn more about Marie’s work, visit Learning Systems Associates (www.lsalearning.com), or follow @mariealcock on Twitter.
Michael Fisher is an educational consultant and instructional coach working with schools and districts in the United States and internationally to facilitate curriculum upgrades, design curriculum, and modernize instruction with immersive technology. Previously, Michael taught a variety of grade levels and content areas, working primarily in middle schools.
Michael is a member of both the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) faculty and the Curriculum21 faculty. He is an active blogger who writes often for the blogs Curriculum21 and ASCD EDge. Michael is the author of Digital Learning Strategies: How Do I Assign and Assess 21st Century Work? and Ditch the Daily Lesson Plan: How Do I Plan for Meaningful Student Learning? and a coauthor of Upgrade Your Curriculum: Practical Ways to Transform Units and Engage Students. He is also a contributing author to Solution Tree’s Contemporary Perspectives on Literacy series and has written Hacking the Common Core: 10 Strategies for Amazing Learning in a Standardized World.
Michael holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and a master’s degree in English education from Buffalo State College. He also holds post-baccalaureate certificates in teaching science, language arts, and gifted students.
To learn more about Michael’s work, visit his website The Digigogy Collaborative (http://digigogy.com) or follow @fisher1000 on Twitter.
Allison Zmuda is a full-time educational consultant specializing in curriculum, instruction, and assessment. She works with clients in the United States and internationally to imagine learning experiences and design work that is relevant, meaningful, challenging, and appropriate. Previously, Allison taught high school social studies for eight years.
She has coauthored nine books, including Learning Personalized: The Evolution of the Contemporary Classroom; Real Engagement: How Do I Help My Students Become Motivated, Confident, and Self-Directed Learners?; and Students at the Center: Personalizing Learning With Habits of Mind. With Bena Kallick, she developed a series of online personalized learning courses.
Allison holds a master of arts in liberal studies in American studies from Wesleyan University and graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor of arts in American studies from Yale University.
To learn more about Allison’s work, follow @allison_zmuda on Twitter.
The authors invite you to their affinity space to share the things your students are learning by questing. Use the hashtag #Quest4Learning on Twitter to interact with the authors and other educators.
To book Marie Alcock, Michael Fisher, or Allison Zmuda for professional development, contact [email protected].
Foreword
By Heidi Hayes Jacobs
Fusion creates new energy, and the integrative force of Alcock, Fisher, and Zmuda in The Quest for Learning ignites innovative possibilities for learners and their teachers. But their fusion does more than that. It genuinely shifts pedagogy into fresh territory with regard to approach, time, and motivation. As educators at every level of learning ask, “How can we engage our right-now learners in meaningful queries?” this trio of authors takes a deep dive into this question with creative and powerful results.
In response to that question, the authors compel us to reconsider more rigid views of instructional models and curriculum planning and see the potential for hooking our learners on questing threads both spontaneously and over time. Their carefully crafted tenets of engagement serve as a vibrant questing platform that can drive our professional choices and actions.
I am particularly struck by how Alcock, Fisher, and Zmuda build on these tenets by tackling the challenge of naturally merging three critical contemporary arenas into practice: gaming, networking, and question design. These arenas have perplexed teachers and school leaders who grapple with modern learning experiences. Gaming is a source of fascination and considerable discussion, especially among educators who are involved in game play, but it has remained an outlier in everyday school life and practice. In this book, readers not only explore and compare an array of game types but gain direct connections between gaming and content areas and skills.
Networking is part of everyday life for most students and teachers, yet it conspicuously gets neglected in curriculum planning. Here, the authors open up specific strategies for making discerning networking choices in regard to social-networking platforms, community organizations, in-school networks, and peer relationships.
Also, while raising questions for investigation is not new to educators because it is at the heart of teaching and learning, the authors argue for a more nuanced view of questioning. They propose teachers present questions that provoke student ownership of learning pathways. Respecting each student as unique in a specific place and time, educators must be observant and responsive with the formation of four types of questions that encourage meaningful investigations. In short, the authors declare that because we have contemporary learners, we need to bring those learners to relevant, worthy inquiries and experiences; active, intentional cycles of expertise; and social, collaborative opportunities.
The authors creatively explore examples of gaming, networking, and inquiry. They pack the book with clear visuals showing the relationship between the three arenas, strategies for integrating them, and resources for further exploration.
While reading The Quest for Learning, I found it striking how it asks us to think differently about our interactions with students—not only in moment-to-moment interactions but during long-term planning as well. We do not direct learners; we teach them to direct themselves. Questing is a mindset for engagement. Rather than a rigid step-by-step planning model, genuine design thinking is afoot here. Alcock, Fisher, and Zmuda provoke catalytic, genuine rethinking of overly planned, rigid types of inquiry, which contradict the nature of spontaneity. It is not that plans do not matter; they do. But we often miss the myriad of opportunities to actively seek questions, deepen curiosity, and determine which questions merit longer-term investigation.
The Quest for Learning cultivates the joys of an epiphany-making environment. The authors walk us through golden opportunities to pick up on student interests and convert them into threads for inquiry. This book is a wake-up call to mindful listening and observation. Often, the clues we need are there—with both motivated and struggling learners.
Timely in its focus, The Quest for Learning provides direct guidance for administrators and teachers who are developing personalized learning opportunities. Nationally and internationally, school planning meetings lead to lively, often frustrating discussions about what personalized learning looks like. Is it the same as individualized