Innovate from the outside in

In a local school near me, the staff has spent a couple of years iteratively redesigning the way they prepare students to change classes at the end of the year. It used to be a done deal, classes allocated by SMT and Deans, with families informed by letter in the last week of the school year. For some students, […]

Networks to drive change | Knowledge Seminar with Anthony S. Bryk

Anthony S Bryk was a guest of the Ministry of Education and University of Auckland. This was a Knowledge Seminar held for the education sector in Wellington. HIs most recent publication: Learning to Improve: How America’s Schools Can Get Better at Getting Better Bryk began by highlighting the genius of randomization. When we isolate one factor and […]

#fuse14 | Hanging out, talking design

It was great, this morning, to be invited to join Grant Lichtman (check out his Learning Pond blog and his #fuse14 posts), Claire Amos, Steve Mouldey and Meghan Cureton (Director of Innovation at Mount Vernon Presbyterian School) for a shared discussion about design thinking methodologies in schools, in the US and here in NZ. This was part of […]

Design thinking | An approach for our world

I was lucky to be invited to facilitate a design thinking workshop at the Emerging Leaders Summit with 55 stunning educators – and with another session coming up in a few days focused on inquiry for future-focussed learning, I thought I’d capture some of the ‘why’ here. Both sessions adopt creative/design thinking as a dynamic approach to […]

Learning design with Christian Long

Today, I, and colleagues from CORE Education, were lucky enough to spend a morning with Christian Long (@christianlong) who was over in New Zealand for the Learning@School conference (#lats12). It was an inspirational shot in the arm – it’s good to lift one’s head up over the parapet and get the long view, and horizon-gaze. Day-dream. […]