By considering the positive outcomes (benefits) of having the technical solutions in place we can create a far more compelling story about why it is we are pursuing these initiatives in the first place. Continue reading What are the benefits?
Instead of focusing on the “evil” of the messaging or the messenger, we should be addressing the “stupidity” that causes people to subscribe to these ideas in the first place. Continue reading A theory of stupid
Overwhelm is the fact or feeling of not being able to cope or deal with something. Collins Dictionary The headline in a paper this week, quotes a new report from MFAT that says the ‘Future looks grim“. The report details what MFAT believes Kiwis should know about risks to NZ’s security, and that conflict in our region ‘could occur’. According to the report the globe is experiencing “heightened strategic tensions and considerable levels of disruption and risk“, with New Zealand just as affected as others due to its interconnectedness, the changing nature of the Pacific and the evolution of new threats. Grim reading … Continue reading Overwhelm
“I have a lot of concerns about it.” Dr Lisa Durragh, Auckland University A newspaper headline I read this morning reads: Researcher urges caution over use of online platforms: ‘I have a lot of concerns about it’. To add fuel to the headline’s impact, the report quotes Auckland University academic Dr Lisa Darragh as saying she was “quite stunned” by the widespread use of online platforms in New Zealand schools based on the research she had done. This journalistic endeavour aimed at capturing one’s attention certainly worked! I read it all – only to find that the bulk of the … Continue reading The Power of Concern
“He rangi tā matawhāiti, he rangi tā matawhānui”A person with narrow vision has limited ideas and views.Someone with wider vision is more embracing of new things and the world before them. Whakatauki from Connected Ako: Digital and Data for Learning. page 3 Last night I had the privilege of attending the official ‘release’ of the Ministry of Education’s new strategy: Connected Ako: Digital and Data for Learning – a strategy for education agencies for the next ten years. There were just a handful of mid-level MoE people in the room, along with the team who developed it, making it a … Continue reading The Power of Purpose
“When I choose to see the good side of things, I’m not being naive. It is strategic and necessary. It’s how I learned to survive through everything.” Waymond, from Everything, Everywhere, All at Once At last we’ve managed to produce a full analysis of the feedback received in response to the survey distributed via the FutureMakers website and social media channels earlier in the year. Our grateful thanks to everyone who contributed. The survey asked two simple questions about people’s perceptions about the change we’re experiencing in education: These two survey questions were intentionally broad, in order to generously capture … Continue reading Roadblocks and Drivers – Analysis
“ Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom” Aristotle In an earlier post I wrote about the 4Cs of Transformational Leadership. That post received a lot of feedback in the various forums I posted to to – and in the form of emails sent to me personally. Many suggested, very helpfully, a number of other characteristics added to my list – many starting with C. These included: I’m sure with a little more time even more words could be added here (particularly if we open up more of the alphabet 🙂 because all of these things are inarguably, characteristics … Continue reading All at Cs re Leadership
CRISIS – “an unstable or crucial time or state of affairs in which decisive change is impending” Miriam Webster Dictionary A headline in yesterday’s newspaper read: The article quotes NZEI Te Riu Roa president Mark Potter who says; “… it’s clear that New Zealand has an imminent problem with a shortage of school leadership. Even new leaders in the profession are facing burn out and ultimately, it’s the children who will suffer if we can’t attract people to the role and retain them.“ I was particularly captured by the use of the word ‘crisis’, not so much in the headline … Continue reading Educational Leadership Crisis
Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people. J D Rockefeller Transformational leadership goes beyond the conventional transactional leadership approach. It inspires people to achieve unexpected or remarkable results by focusing on creating a shared vision, empowering individuals, fostering innovation, and inspiring others to achieve higher levels of performance and personal growth. Being a transformational leader begins with being transformed personally, shaking oneself free of the patterns of leadership experienced in the past and ‘becoming’ the sort of person you need to be to lead in transformational ways. In my keynote presentation at … Continue reading The Four ‘Cs’ of Transformational Leadership
I’m personally a fan of micro-credentials and see them as a disruptive innovation set to transform our whole approach to measuring success in learning. But we’re currently in the early phase of their adoption, where there’s much to be learned and to understand about how they can be used effectively to achieve the promise of transformation potential in our assessment approaches. Here are a couple of papers that I came across today in one of my feeds which has prompted me to think more on this. The first is A Strategic Institutional Response to Micro-Credentials: Key Questions for Educational Leaders by Mark Brown, … Continue reading Implementing Micro-credentials