Peter speaks about Gen Y and the fact they are now in the workplace and how leaders need to understand their values and expectations, just like leaders should of any generation and generational change.

However, he made three statements about leaders which resonated with me.

Leaders create clarity in the unknown.

Leaders turn fear into confidence.

Leaders mobilise people in the pursuit of a new future.

Stephen spoke about how he feels we are on a escalator. The only problem is when you come to someone who is not walking, they feel they are moving forward because the world is passing them by!! This is like schools and teaching. The schools might feel they are going forward, but the only things they are holding back is the kids because the world is moving so fast.

He talked about professional development for parents. I agree that we need to better communicate with parents about what schooling is like today. It takes the ‘fear’ out of the use of the internet but helps parents to vision schools as they should be today. He built teachers.tv and says this is a great way for teachers to see how others do it differently. Parents can also see this….so too the kids.

He showed examples of great ways in which teachers use the internet for learning…but differently. Click here for Stavros Bloggy

A question was raised about how the PISA tests align with his view of learning. Stephen said we have ‘built the model on seen before’ for the PISA tests and so he said they were not relevant to a complex, rapidly changing world. He says that nothing could be more catastrophic than hanging your hat on conformity and sameness. So why do governments hang their hat so muchon the PISA tests. Yesterdays sessions talked much about how governments prized being top in this list??

I haven’t heard Stephen for some time and I realise this is a mistake. He is a clever, engaging and inspirational speaker.

Early Intervention - Frank Oberklaid,  RCH

Brain plasticity occurs in the first years of a person’s life. Consequently, much of the shaping of the ‘person’ occurs before kids enter schools. Hence, investment in early intervention well before school is not wasted but a true investment. Why is childcare in Australia undervalued? Comments when ask is government responding to evidence? He quoted a Zen Buddhist who says ‘There is a lot of noise on the stairs but no-one is entering the room’

Social justice inclusion - Tony Keenan - Hannover

Skilled labour is driving this agenda and will grow even in the economic turndown. Inaction results in substantial human and social cost and entrenched generational disadvantage. Move from a passive to interventionist inclusion based approach. Homelessness marginalises many of our students in schools. 17% increase in families since 2001 census. Tony called for the ‘joining up’ of welfare, human services and educational services so that these issues can be co-jointly tackled.

Peter Buckskin - Are the answers in the mainstream?

Peter says that the Minister Gillard needs to acknowledge Indigenous as a key group in her social inclusion agenda. Peter says that there are still very poor outcomes for aboriginal children in mainstream education. He spoke of the targets that this government have set within the next ten years……have been problems not solved over the past 30 years….and he is not confident that we will solve in the next 30 years. He spoke about how identity matters even for aboriginal kids and we need to understand their identity and cultural background and language.

Michael Stevenson, Vice President, Global Education, CISCO spoke about globalisation and change. Change that we should have some control over. He talked about the long tail of dis-advantage, students who simply don’t reach their potential. Its not just about topping the PISA results but enabling education for all possible. Countries that do this will compete in the global economy. He argues that the education system is caught between the demands of a new economy and the learner.

He described Education 3.0 as being 21st Century skills in critical thinkng, problem solving, innovation, collaboration, life and career, information, media and technology. He spoke of the adaptive technologies which might drive, but needed reform by governments, but in a much shorter timeframe than we have experienced to date.

CISCO’s program is based on three areas, thought leadership, innovation and replication - issues whih most systems are floundering and needs more research and directed efforts. He mentioned the Getideas.org…another collaboration network. On quick inspection looks like early in its development?

Critical change in education is the shift to networks and connections. If we know how and why connections occur then we have a better chance of delivering learning regardless of where learning occurs. Learning is the process of engaging within networks. Technology amplifies the possibilities. For example, not one person can design and build a airplane today. It is a team effort.

Conceptual networks are how we piece together, how ideas connect and we develop an understanding of an area of specialised expertise. Social networks is how we connect with other (locally or globally) then assisting people to develop knowledge and understanding as a group/team.

In the past we got our information largely from the book. Today we get information from multiple sources….radio, television and now the internet and social networks.

What happens when the tools of control shift from the educator to the learner? Technology becomes a mediator, enabler and amplifier. Learning itself is altered. This shift will dictate the shape of our institutions.

First, the draft National Educational Goals for Young Australians….in which submissions were closed on October 3…so a bit late, but better late than never. In the preamble, it is pleasing to see that they recognise the significant changes that have occured since the last declaraton (eg global citizenship, Asian Literacy, globalisation and technological change, complex political and environmental, and the shift in power to the ‘consumer’ and learners specifically). It recognises the enormous challenge to effectively embed new/emerging technologies rapidly into learning.

Pleasingly in Section 3, they call to ‘arms’ for a commitment to action for collective responsibility to personalised learning.  I have got to say at this point my heart is ‘pounding’. This is sounding really good and the paper has some good strategic and tactical approaches to achieve their goals.

Then…..comes, another Discussion paper, ‘The Shape of the National Curriculum’ by the new National Curriculum Authority. Now I am calling to arms as many people to read and put a submission into this discussion paper as it takes a very different approach. On reflection, its focus I think would reinforce a very industrialised economy….but we have moved/are moving to a knowledge economy and some of their uderlying assumptions about the new world need challenging.  Even though the paper takes excerpts from the above draft declaration, it doesn’t translate them into a futures document. This paper treats students as objects that ‘we do important things to’ and not people who the system should be recognising as individuals that have individual talents to be nurtured.

Do seriously consider putting in your bid for a 21st Century Curriculum….it might be our last opportunity.

In its recommendations it says that we ‘need an educational response that extends the focus beyond safety, towards broader questions of privacy and intellectual property’. Children today are not only interpreters but producers of film….sounds familiar Web 2.0 talk.

People should have the ability to select age related rating systems. The report says that when material is shared but is inappropriate then the video sharing sites should introduce a voluntary/random jury. The report raises the equity issue about whether those who cannot access broadband or a computer does not have access to this expressive democracy.

Its a good read that I can recommend.

My question that I want to explore in the presentation is given that policy settings are beginning to articulate the concepts of personalised learning, innovation and creativity then why is learning itself still largely based on an industrialised model of compliant, controlled and standards based education. The learner is expected to be moulded by the system, instead of the system responding to the learner.

‘The succesful implementation of technology to support transformation involves understanding and overcoming technical, organisational, pedgagogical, and socio-cultural challenges’ says the Emerging Technologies for Learning Report by Futurelab and I would add political challenges.

There are three key assertions that I will pursue in my presentation.

1. That National Policy settings in Australia are shifting towards a more open, collaborative, and creative learning experience.

2. That the world in which our digital kids have grown is a hyperconnected world and one in which risk taking and risk sharing is an element of learning itself.

3. Our formal education systems have reactive rather than proactive policy settings in using technologies to innovate and transform current learning practice into 21st Century learning.

Until my next post!!