Is it a relic or really important? I posed this question to a group of educators, encouraging them to take stock of what they think, see, hear and experience around them everyday. We can become desensitised to our environment and it seems part of human nature to hold onto elements of the past, rather thanContinueContinue reading “Relic or really important? Challenging the relevance of current school culture, learning and design to today and tomorrow”
Category Archives: Change
Change is in the wind, it’s time to unfurl the spinnaker and set the course in a new direction… I have some news.
One of my favourite things is to watch the yachts on Sydney Harbour, small and large, dashing and gliding. While I prefer to have my feet firmly planted on terra firma I am captivated by these vessels. I remember one Boxing Day at Nielsen Park on the harbour foreshore, braving the crowds at the startContinueContinue reading “Change is in the wind, it’s time to unfurl the spinnaker and set the course in a new direction… I have some news.”
Education manifesto: 3 part strategy for this time of exponential change
I don’t want to look back on the first two decades of the 21st century and have people say, “remember the open classroom fad of the 70s? We repeated it again and it fell on its face, again”. Things have changed a bit in the 20-teens from the 70s, and it’s different from the 80sContinueContinue reading “Education manifesto: 3 part strategy for this time of exponential change”
Simplicity & Nostalgia: A fractured fairytale of school.
Once, in a land that seems so far away, life was much simpler. Things were predictable. If you were successful in life, you went to school, learnt the stuff they told you to learn, passed your exams, studied your chosen vocation (chosen by whom was probably debatable), started a job, stayed in that job (andContinueContinue reading “Simplicity & Nostalgia: A fractured fairytale of school.”
Growing a professional learning community in your school: ONE thing that you need first.
Effective and lasting change in schools, or any organisation for that matter, is a result of a strategic process, designed to meet the needs of the school, rather than ‘sending a couple of teachers off to a workshop’. When I first started at SCIL we decided to run workshops on a variety of educational topics, such as ‘LearningContinueContinue reading “Growing a professional learning community in your school: ONE thing that you need first.”
A Leadership Strategy: Ask not what your people can do for you (rather, the other way around)
My part in the research project ILETC is looking at the role of the teacher, adapting and changing mind frames and practices to take the opportunities that the innovative learning environment affords. This cannot happen in a vacuum, it is effective and lasting when change is the result of leadership, clear vision and the collective pursuitContinueContinue reading “A Leadership Strategy: Ask not what your people can do for you (rather, the other way around)”
Innovating learning environments: 4 ways to think about sustaining change
We love the photos of cool learning spaces with funky furniture They are captivating, inspiring, but it is impossible to know the full story from a tweeted photo. Recently I’ve had numerous opportunities to talk about the context for change and several resonating themes are emerging around people and change: That chair/table/tech won’t be the silver bullet It’sContinueContinue reading “Innovating learning environments: 4 ways to think about sustaining change”
School life 2030: When the wheels finally fell off the education bandwagon
Which do you choose? Option 1: Learning in the 2030s has what I need, when I need it, nothing like my parents’ generation. They went to this thing called ‘school’, it looked like a prison! Option 2: Yeah, we tried those open, flexible classrooms in the 1970s and then again in the 2010s. It was never going toContinueContinue reading “School life 2030: When the wheels finally fell off the education bandwagon”
The new normal: Helping parents to rethink success at school (and life) #abundancementality
As much as forward thinking educators are working for change we are still often exasperated by parent expectations of education. Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talks in 2006 and 2010 were significant catalysts for change in the hearts and minds of many educators but we are yet to really help many parents embrace the need for change. As Andreas Schleicher,ContinueContinue reading “The new normal: Helping parents to rethink success at school (and life) #abundancementality”
What if school was like Uber? 5 critical disruptions for educating children of the #ubergeneration
Uber, on the one hand, under siege from the taxi industry, on the other hand, every second person I speak to seems to regularly utilise the service, whether it’s in Sydney, London or New York. Of course, the under 40s have definitely embraced it. This generation embraces disruption. They don’t watch scheduled TV, they don’tContinueContinue reading “What if school was like Uber? 5 critical disruptions for educating children of the #ubergeneration”
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