Imaginings to develop innovation through networked learning

I'm excited because I have been able to organise David Jackson to come and spend a day working with colleagues.
In 2006 as part of my Churchill Fellowship I spent a day with David Jackson at the Networked Learning Group of the NCSL. The conversations and learnings from this day were significant.
It was from this day that I was introduced the the Three Fields of Knowledge.

From Networked Learning Communities: Learning about learning networks.
http://networkedlearning.ncsl.org.uk/knowledge-base/programme-leaflets/learning-about-learning-networks-international-issue.pdf

David, in my conversation with him in 2006, described the model of learning as follows:

In a learning activity there are three fields of knowledge and they should be represented in roughly equal proportions.

One of those fields is the knowledge that practitioners bring to the table. And that is where we should start, just as we do in the classroom with children. We build on prior knowledge. So we should honour, respect and build from the knowledge of practitioners.

Practitioners’ knowledge has two dimensions to it. One is their practitioner knowledge. The other is their context knowledge. The second one is really important because no one else has it. The knowledge of how to do it in our school is really a very important thing to bring to the table.

The second field of knowledge is the publicly available knowledge which we define as theory, research and the best practice elsewhere.

The third field of knowledge, which is where the whole construct of networking comes, is the new knowledge that we create together through collaborative, inquiry-based practices by building from the first two fields.

- David Jackson, Director, Network Learning Group, National College of School Leadership (meeting: 09/06/2006)

There is much that interests me about Networked Learning Communities in supporting innovation. The concepts of networking, learning, and communities when brought together can be quite powerful - as well as complex.

New concepts and learnings emerge from Networked Learning, Learning Networks, Networked Communities, Learning Communities, Networked Learning Communities.

I had this notion in my head that even if we had this holy grail of knowledge in our hand, if we had the knowledge that could transform the system, the system wouldn’t change because it isn’t orientated towards learning.

- David Jackson (meeting: 09/06/2006)

There are several things that I would like to follow up with David. These include:

• Orientating systems towards learning
• Working with the Three fields of knowledge to build system capacity
• Designing and learning from networked learning communities
• Identifying some of the pitfalls, danger spots and road blocks in working with large scale networks
• Working with next practice thinking around professional learning, system learning and school improvement
• Imagining a system where amazing practice was made visible and readily transferred to other sites
• Imagining a system where the learning is transferred laterally across the system
• Reskilling/reorientating the profession to networked learning and innovation.

At the heart is a focus on learning!

Probably the most powerful thing in our work is our model of learning. One of the points we make to people is that everyone is talking about learning, but what are the constructs in our heads when we use the word. Unless we all share a construct and understand what the disciplines are of the learning work we’re talking about then we are actually not going to go forward.

- David Jackson (meeting 09/06/2006)

One thing we know is that ‘top down’, outside-in change approaches are not working well in the medium to long term. School reforms have not succeeded in closing the gap in educational achievement between the most and least advantaged. Part of the solution lies within the profession, working within specific contexts. How are the insights and imaginations of practitioners and users to be employed in powerful and generative ways to develop innovation?

Are schools becoming obsolete?

Recently I came across a headline: Schools in developing nations adapting faster to 21st century than rich ones, OECD says.
The claim is made that, in some developing countries, schools may be adapting faster to the changing needs of today.

I have maintained for a number of years that schools and schooling, as we know it (certainly here in Australia) risks becoming a quaint oddity. Schools are places where students go during the day, between set hours, and do particular types of learning at set times.

Somehow the learning is not connected to the reality of how children and young people learn and engage in the world. We know that rich learning happens before kids commence school; that much significant learning happens outside of school structures.

Schools risk becoming fine examples of how learning used to happen in an industrial era.

In many ways schools are becoming obsolete – worn out but still in use (if they aren’t already). This is a term used by Hedley Beare in a publication from iNET entitled, How we envisage schooling in the 21st Century. Much of the political and system energy around schools and schooling goes into public reassurance that obsolete schooling is somehow able to deliver now and into the future.

We are trapped into old imaginaries of school and breaking out of these imaginaries is hard work. The way forward is through networking people, ideas and learning and moving beyond the confines of building, teacher, subject.

New Position

I'm excited! I have been offered a position with Parramatta CEO as one of the newly appointed Team Leaders. Parramatta CEO's Executive Director, Greg Whitby was recently announced as one of The Bulletin magazine's Top 100 Thinkers. It is a great opportunity to be part of a venture that is focused on transformation of learning and teaching - to move from the industrial models and approaches.

For me this is an opportunity to put into practice my own thinking and understandings as reflected in my Churchill Fellowship. The focus on innovation, collaboration, networking and capacity building has great potential in transforming learning and teaching.

Leading for Learning in a world that is flat

Today I presented a session to a group of principals on leading for learning. In providing a key note I hoped to open up thinking, conversations and possibilities. The notion of a flat world (as developed by Friedman) was drawn upon to highlight the lateral connectivity that exists in the world.
The presenation explored a new imaginary for schooling and education, networked learning, the need for disciplined innovation and possibilities for developing next practice. These were concepts that I developed as a result of my Churchill Fellowship.
As a result of the presentation and discussions there are a few thoughts that emerged:

• there is a need for courageous leadership in schools and systems
• focusing on what I have to do (compliance, regulations, etc.) limits the possibilities of what I could do to transform learning and schooling
• networking is important for developing possibilities, ideas and ways forward that transcend the system
• individual schools can move forward towards excellence/greatness more quickly than systems can.