Our hidden learners

Thirteen years ago, Graham Nuthall published his seminal research ‘The Hidden Lives of Learners‘. It’s a wonderful read that takes us into the heart of what actually happens in the classroom. A key idea to be learned from this research was that we cannot tell, just by being in the room with students, what they […]

Why we need a fresh view on ‘future-focused’ education

“Education… is a process of living, not a preparation for future living.” — Dewey, 1875 I want to talk about what we frame our intentions — our purpose — when we talk about ‘future focus’ and ‘innovation’. I want us to consider how central motivations for educational change have been conflated with technological and economic […]

Moving on …

After twelve years as a consultant, facilitator, project leader, director…., I am going back to school. At a time when it is common to hear of educators leaving the profession or moving out of school into other kinds of roles and careers, I’m heading upstream, back the other way. I’m excited to have been appointed to […]

Growing digital smarts? Check our biases…

‘Tis the night before the #edchatnz conference and I am mulling over the session I am hoping to facilitate… It’s been just over a month since I joined NetSafe as their new Director of Education, and I have thoroughly enjoyed getting my head around a ‘same but different’ view window on education. The ‘same’ being broad, effective […]

Got tech? Hear me roar!

It’s been a week or two of interesting stories related to school students harnessing social networks in order to make a point. We’ve had school speeches on the state of education and a plea for puffer jackets to name the most recent two. There has been reciprocal handwringing on the part of the press in response that has […]

Voice and Choice: Growing great citizens for a connected world

The following notes were the basis for my recent keynote to a large cluster of Whanganui schools, with thanks for the opportunity to speak with nearly 300 teachers. Over the past years we have become aware that ‘one size fits all’ no longer fits anyone, that the ‘industrial models’ of education – legacy thinking – are being rapidly debunked […]

The ethics of digital technologies

“We need to ask, ‘who benefits?’ in any of the visions of the future we are offered or that we are working towards” (Facer, p. 9) Sometimes I find myself being A Little Bit Concerned. And the more time I spend in the e-learning / digital tech space, the more these niggling worries draw me […]

Emerging Leaders Summit | Design thinking

I’m getting ready for my session at the Emerging Leaders’ Summit tomorrow [15-16 June 2013]. Using and adapting the fabulous design thinking resources developed at Stanford, I’ll be using an empathy-driven process to think about what learning spaces might look like. If we are really interested in putting students’ – and teachers’ – strengths and […]

From voice to dialogue | Meaningful student voice

Today, thanks to Te Toi Tupu, I was really lucky to hear Dr. Rachel McNae, University of Waikato, speak about how we use (and exploit?) student voice in schools. She managed to weave in poetry with Judy Brown’s ‘Fire’, a story about setting fire to the Brownie Guide toadstool and the ‘Another Brick in the Wall’ Pink […]