Aaron Eden

What's your Give? I think that is a critical question in everything we do. What value are we creating? The core of my work is educating for a sustainable future. Value-oriented learning. Community-integrated learning. Social entrepreneurship. Emergent, inquiry-driven, entrepreneurial learning. I've spent the last 20 years designing and facilitating face-to-face and online learning experiences and co-creative processes that help individuals and organizations develop the skills and attributes to transform themselves and the world. I have extensive experience in instructional and learning experience design, innovation, and technology spaces.

Aaron Eden has written 8 posts for Cooperative Catalyst

Assisted Accountability – The True Flipped Classroom

Posted by Aaron Eden ⋅ August 20, 2016 ⋅ Leave a comment

(Originally posted on the Edunautics blog) Eric Mazur introduced the flipped classroom to much interest a couple of decades ago. The idea—and a very good one—is that the time we have together in class is precious, and is being totally underutilized by a one-to-many dissemination of information. In the internet age, Mazur thought, why couldn’t we do … Continue reading →

Value-based Learning: From Bakesale to Brilliant

Posted by Aaron Eden ⋅ January 12, 2016 ⋅ Leave a comment

(Originally posted on Edunautics.com) Schools all over are trying to figure out how to provide real-world learning for their students and many are beginning to realize how much a regular school schedule gets in the way of curating authentic learning experiences. Part of “real-world” is rethinking how we structure our time. I have previously written … Continue reading →

The Mixed Messages of School

Posted by Aaron Eden ⋅ August 27, 2015 ⋅ 1 Comment

Originally posted on the Edunautics blog. School to students— “Here’s the problem. Here’s how you solve it. Don’t fail. Do it, or else.” And now that you are done with school— “Please identify problems, Figure out how to solve them, Learn from your failures. Oh, and BTW, use influence—not power—to get people to do things. … Continue reading →

Why Graduate Profiles Feel Wrong

Posted by Aaron Eden ⋅ April 10, 2015 ⋅ 1 Comment

(Originally posted on the Edunautics blog) Let’s face it. Every school’s graduate profile sounds the same these days. “Lifelong learner” “Global citizen” “Able and willing to make a difference” Etc. You know the drill. All worthy aspirations for our students, and for what we want to help them become. All schools engage in conversations about … Continue reading →

Teaching without Knowing, and Finding Problems to Solve

Posted by Aaron Eden ⋅ December 19, 2014 ⋅ 15 Comments

(Originally posted on the Edunautics blog) I’ve already written about one of the key paradigm shifts that I think needs to happen in education: education needs to be real. See “Online Education is not the Disruption.” Now for two more. We want our students to become expert learners, right? Well, how are we going to get … Continue reading →

Online Education is Not the Disruption

Posted by Aaron Eden ⋅ February 5, 2013 ⋅ 9 Comments

Originally posted on the Edunautics blog I recently returned from the first ever Online Education Symposium for Independent Schools (OESES) conference in Southern California. Overall a pretty good conference, and on a topic that all schools need to be looking at seriously as they plan for the future. While I am interested in the topic … Continue reading →

Socrates Was Wrong

Posted by Aaron Eden ⋅ September 13, 2012 ⋅ 2 Comments

Socrates was wrong? I don’t believe that necessarily, but read on and you’ll see why I wrote it (on top of shooting for a subject line controversial enough to increase the open rate of my post 🙂 I attended a workshop this summer at the Right Question Institute in Boston. We spent two days working … Continue reading →

Teaching: Art or Science?

Posted by Aaron Eden ⋅ July 27, 2012 ⋅ 11 Comments

It was posited to me recently that an internal professional development system for teachers designed to foster discussion about teaching and learning fits within the “teaching-as-intellectual-pursuit” model (“science” for short here), as opposed to the “teaching as art” model. To this person’s credit, this suggestion was more a musing than a statement of fact, but … Continue reading →