the sky's the limit

This may be a bit daggy but, as I was driving to work this morning here in Sydney, I noticed the sky. It looked pretty amazing. So I thought I'd capture the moment on my mobile phone camera, then bluetoothed it to the mac tonight.

What could our kid's be doing if they could use mobile devices such

 as their phones in schools? 

Education systems - too narrow and backward looking

During the last week Sir Ken Robinson was interviewed on ABC's 7:30 Report.

I've always liked Sir Ken Robinson since I first saw his TEDTalk, Do schools kill creativity.

The interviews we're shown in two 15 minutes sessions over two nights.

He raises a number of interesting points (as is usual) which caught my imagination.

How can you educate for productive future?

This is a challenge that many schools are trying to address in exploring 21st Century learning. Recently I was working with a Principal who was preparing a submission for a National Quality Teaching Award. At the heart of the schools innovation was the desire to provide learning experiences that prepare the students with skills and understandings to engage with issues facing us today that will shape the future.

We have the power of imagination and capacity to solve the problems that face us.

Kids that start school in Kindergarten this year will be retiring in 2070.

No one knows what 2070 will look like.

Robinson argues that most education reforms are backwards-looking. They are trying to address existing systems that are the result of the Industrial Revolution.

There are some real challenges for the future. Robinson believes that politicians should stop trying to teacher-proof the education system through the curriculum and testing regimes. Teachers need to be given the room to breath and do their jobs.

It was interesting that the same day Greg Whitby (Executive Director, Catholic Education, Diocese of Parramatta) had tweeted:

anyone else frustrated with latest fed govt partnerships model for supporting learning and teaching. No explicit principles underpinning them

He is right (I think). The National Partnerships that form part of the "National Education Revolution" here in Australia lack any real principles of learning and are another political attempt at teacher proofing. The way forward may lie in the National Partnership: Teacher Quality - but I fear not, unless the profession, through organisations such as the Australian College of Educators, takes some leadership over this agenda

The same is true to some extent with the Building Education Revolution that is largely replicating school buildings from last century; or the Digital Education Revolution which is seeing a roll out of laptops in secondary schools. Why not handheld devices?

There is a need for robust conversations around what education should be and could be; and what schools and schooling will look like within that.

The interviews are below:

Part 1 (13 minutes)

Part 2 (12 minutes)

Wired to Learn

It's a long weekend here in Australia and I spent part of the weekend with my family in Canberra. My nephew, Hamish (aged 1) was there and a delight to watch. 

He was fascinated by a Newton's Cradle.

I, in turn, was fascinated as to how a 1-year old, with limited motor skills, would manipulate the Newton's Cradle to create the kinetic energy effect that caught his eye.

The video captures the ingenuity of a 1-year old.

We are truly wired to learn!

Learning Communities, Transforming Learning

Recently I attended a "learning community" meeting.

I believe in the power of learning communities, but they are difficult to develop. There is a prevalence of them in schools and education systems, with schools often describing themselves as a "learning community."

The meeting I attended caused me to think about learning communities and their potential.

A question came to mind: "What is it that the participants are learning about?"

Reinforcing professional identities isn't learning

During my Churchill Fellowship I met with Tom Bentley (then Director of DEMOS, now Executive Director for Policy and Cabinet in Victoria’s Department of Premier, Director of the Australian and New Zealand School of Government and adviser to Julia Gillard, Australian Federal Education Minister). In discussions with Tom he highlighted that the "learning communities" meetings often get reduced to sharing professional activities and reinforcing how things are done. Such sharing reinforces professional identities and ways of doing things, rather than opening up more radical pedagogical possibilities and different ways of organising ourselves.

Transforming learning

What captured my imagination was the desire of the group to transform learning. Transforming learning raises further questions. Transforming implies change. What is it that is to be changed? What is it that needs to be learnt to bring about the transformation? What radical pedagogical possibilities can be developed? What new ways of exercising leadership need to be developed? What capabilities exist within the learning community to transform learning?

Theory of action

This led me to think further about how the "learning community" was going to bring about the transformation of learning. What is the theory of action of the learning community to transform learning?

It will be interesting to see what learning occurs in the learning community to transform learning. And what theory of action brings about the transformation. There is much to be learnt.