I recently came across an interesting article written by By John Galloway at @merlinjohn’s (twitter) superb agent4change website: http://agent4change.net/the-innovators/591 based upon Lord David Puttnam’s speech at the Educational Guardian’s ‘Innovation in education event’
Within it, Lord David Puttnam, a brilliant force for educational change and leading figure at Futurelab, once again did an excellent speech on innovation in education. Within it, he argues for tax breaks in the UK on software companies that produce video games as he describes them as: ‘The video game is probably the most powerful learning tool that’s ever been created’
Across all of his speeches there always seems to be a common theme: the need to nurture a generation of creative learners capable of dealing with the immense challenges of this century.
Across my twitter personal learning network and blogs across the land, conversations are going on amongst educationalists regarding transformational change within education systems across the world. Many, are now pushing beyond the boundaries of mere speculation and sentiments of what learning in the 21st Century should look like, and instead making PRACTICAL changes. The most important aspect of Lord Putnam’s speech are his conditions for change and I believe that these qualities allow for those practical changes to be put in place:
- Optimism – to believe that change is possible.
- Imagination – to conceive what can be done.
- Opportunism – taking the chances that arise, sometimes from other emerging fields.
- Impatience – a desire for a step change, not simply an incremental one.
- Tenacity – being prepared to see an idea through in the long term.
- Clarity of purpose – protect the purity of an idea, making nuanced judgements about the compromises that might be necessary to see it to fruition.
- High expectations – of yourself, and those you need to take an idea forward
The above are exactly what I’ve been looking for to confirm the qualities of what is needed for leaders in schools to transform learning and make it fit for purpose in the context of 2010 and beyond.
We must be optimistic: believing that change is possible and imaginative in our ambitions of what can be achieved within the brilliant skill sets our teachers in the UK and the web2.0 technology to support them.
We should be opportunistic in seizing those chances that are presented whilst accompanied with impatience that a step change is required, and not a long, drawn out affair that allows for deviations.
We definitely need tenacity to challenge those that become too comfortable in their classrooms and offices – those that rely too much on a one size fits all approach to education. Yet we should not bulldoze change through. Instead, we should consult, give others the freedom to lead and enable them to develop themselves professionally. Build on the great ideas in your school – I know there’s loads in mine!!
Clarity of purpose, via a strong sense of moral purpose that underpins a learning vision is essential for people to make coherent connections across a school’s curriculum ( total sum parts of learning), therefore understanding the direction of the establishment.
And finally, our teachers and leaders of education, including myself, must have high expectations of themselves in order to achieve that moral purpose. Uncertainty and anxiety are natural feelings associated to learning and indeed are feelings that our students experience every school day. But we feel them too, and we need to show resilience, via support and guidance, in order to overcome them and adopt the qualities that Lord Puttnam mentions.
Useful links:
http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources
http://bit.ly/cp9pYG = Lord Puttnam (different speech Educating for the Digital Society)
http://agent4change.net/the-innovators/591 = Original article by John Galloway
http://www.guardian.co.uk/innovation-education = Videos from the event
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