Born Creative ...

Born Creative is a new publication from DEMOS (the London-based think tank).

This publication is a collection of essays focusing on creativity and arts in the early years education.

"You are what you share." We-Think

Today I started reading Charles Leadbeater's recent book, WE-THINK: Mass innovation, not mass production.
It's shaping up to be a thought provoking book. Charles Leadbeater, a researcher with the London think-tank Demos, is one of the leading thinkers about innovation and creativity.

Leadbeater was

early to notice the rise of "amateur innovation" -- great ideas from outside the traditional walls, from people who suddenly have the tools to collaborate, innovate and make their expertise known.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/speakers/charles_leadbeater.html

Leadbeater has written about such ideas as personalisation. Publications include:

• Learning about personalisation (2004)
• Personalisation through participation (2004)
• The shape of things to come (2005)

We-Think examines ways in which the world wide web is changing our world. These changes are creating a culture that allows people to share and collaborate ideas and information. Leadbeater argues that "the web is a potent platform for creativity and innovation."

The sharing can be for good, but also brings with it dilemmas.

We-think explores the new phenomenon of mass creativity exemplified by web sites such as YouTube, Wikipedia and MySpace. The book ... argues that participation, rather than consumption or production, will be the key organizing idea of future society.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Leadbeater

The following YouTube clip provides an introduction to We-Think:

The thinking behind We-Think is outlined in a TEDTalk that Charles Leadbeater gave on innovation. (This talk is about 19 minutes)

The implications for schools, schooling and learning are great! Has anyone else read the book or have thoughts on the implications?

Remember: You are what you share!

No Virginia; Lifelong learning isn't jargon!

I have had an interesting day today at DEMOS.

One point of the discussion was about lifelong learning. What emerged from the conversation about lifelong learning was that it is an important concept to understand as it serves to redefine schools and schooling. Unless we understand the place of formal school learning within the context of lifelong learning there can be a risk of formal school learning being decontextualised and irrelevant. Alongside this is the risk that schools don't support student learning in meeting their needs and aspirations.

DEMOS - First Impressions

DEMOS is located in Magdalen House, not far from Tower Bridge. The workspace is a large open-spaced former warehouse. All members of staff, including Tom Bentley (Director) work in the open space area. There are a range of meeting rooms that people can access.

The staff are largely young and energetic. Things appeared to be a laizes-fair approach, but very focused an social. The work place seemed to reflect a social environment and democratic practices.

There wasn't a strong sense of hierarchy.